<p>At my daughter's college (same as mythmom's), continuing students get their financial aid packages at the beginning of July - fall semester tuition & housing fees need to be paid by August 1 -- I literally found out what my daughter's expected grant was from the bill that came from the bursar - the Financial aid letter didn't arrive for several days. </p>
<p>When my daughter was admitted to colleges, some of the colleges did not send their award letters until mid-April -- there was not necessarily 30 days to negotiate. </p>
<p>However, I emailed my daughter's college financial aid office the day I received the award, with my questions, and asked them to call me - I had a phone call back at 9:00 am the next morning. My daughter was also looking at NYU but their financial aid was woefully inadequate -- but she flew out to an admitted students event in April, the financial aid staff had tables set up and were very efficient and polite about talking to students, and my daughter was able to initiate an appeal and was given an increase of $1000, which was confirmed by email the next day. </p>
<p>I know it is frustrating and there is a lot to deal with all at once -- but the point is that if you are looking for financial aid, you have to expect that and prepare for it. The best thing you can do is learn all you can about the system during the year when your kid is in the process of applying, and then when the awards come in make a point of discussing the aid with someone from every college that remains in serious consideration. I even regret not talking to people in offices of schools that my daughter was ready to drop from her list, just for opportunity it would have afforded me to learn more -- but at the time it seemed silly to waste the time of busy staffers when schools higher on my daughter's preference list had already made better offers. </p>
<p>The point is: the task of a financial aid office is often to figure out what the least amount of money they need to offer in order to entice a student to come. That's called "leveraging" or "enrollment management" and it is what most schools that do not promise to meet full need and which offer small amounts of merit aid to many students are doing. So often they are starting with a lowball offer, fully expecting that students who are serious about coming will call and ask for more. </p>
<p>The $1000 extra NYU threw into the pot? They give that to everybody who asked; some people get $2000. By the time my daughter had talked to the finaid people, I was on to the game. </p>
<p>The colleges aren't just looking for improved yield, they want the yield to come from the top of their applicant pool. So they often give the students at the bottom -- or the ones they are least enamored of -- a deliberately low offer, sometimes in a process they refer to as "admit-deny" -- meaning they've admitted the student but knowingly structured the financial aid offer so weak that they know the student will probably not come. They figure its a win-win situation for them to avoid paying much in aid dollars to a borderline candidate -- either the student will go elsewhere, or else the student will come up with the needed dollars and become a tuition-paying enrollee as opposed to a grant-taking one. </p>
<p>It is very stressful, but 30 days is actually a long window of time for financial negotiations in a competitive environment. You should come into the process on April 1st with a good idea of the maximum you are able and willing to pay or borrow; and if you plan well then you will have also lined up some "financial safety" colleges for your kid, as well has made absolutely sure that your kid understands the financial issues involved. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that if the financial aid office at a college is particularly hard to deal with -- if they don't return phone calls, or they are rude to you, or refuse to provide basic information -- that is the office you would be dealing with for 4 years. I don't think any college is worth that headache -- so that in itself would give me reason to drop a college from the list.</p>