The Financial Aid Blues - Appeal?

Paying for College
1

<p>I was admitted to George Washington University. Although it wasn't my initial first choice, I have fallen in love with the school over the last few months and I am really eager to attend, but... Well, you can probably guess the rest.</p>

<p>The financial aid is not enough! According to my online award, GW's COA is about 62k and my total financial aid, including merit, federal loans (subsidized, unsubsidized and Perkins), and need-based, is only about 53k. So there is a $9,000 gap per year that my family just can't afford to cover.</p>

<p>My FAFSA EFC is only around $1,000 so I have no clue where this is coming from. There is NO WAY my family can afford that much. Not even close. My mom refuses to co-sign private loans, which is understandable, and I don't want to have $65k in debt when I graduate. I could probably get my grandparents to co-sign if I was desperate but I know that's a lot to ask. So I plan to appeal.</p>

<p>My basis for appealing is this:</p>

<p>-My father died when I was a small child and my mom, who never remarried, is unemployed. We pretty much survive on Social Security Survivor's benefits. We had some investment income which the recession basically destroyed. So my family's total annual income is only around $25,000. I think it's ridiculous to ask someone who is that poor to pay so much.</p>

<p>-When I graduate high school in June, my family's income will be significantly reduced. I'm not sure exactly by how much because I don't know if my mom's portion is tied to me, but AT LEAST a third. However my family's living expenses will barely decrease. There will be one less mouth to feed, but that's it. My mom has been looking for a job to make ends meet with no luck.</p>

<p>-I know the CSS Profile includes the value of your house. My mom does own our house and I GUESS it's worth somewhere between $200-300k, not exactly sure, HOWEVER it's underwater which means my mom owes more than the house is worth. So there's no way to use the house to cover my tuition, no equity to cash in. Even if my mom were to sell and move somewhere cheaper (and she's considered this), she wouldn't get any cash from the house.</p>

<p>-We live in a really expensive area, South Florida. You should see how they milk us on "windstorm" insurance alone. Everything is ridiculously expensive including healthcare, car insurance, gas, you name it and property taxes are very high.</p>

<p>-For a year we have taken in my cousin who is 16 and a foreign student. That may not be the typical "taking care of a relative" story but it does result in expenses that weren't reflected on my FA forms.</p>

<p>-My mom has student loan debt and I think other debt. I'm not exactly sure how much or what kind but I'll let you know as soon as I do.</p>

<p>My questions are:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Are these facts sufficient for an appeal?</p></li>
<li><p>How does the appeal process work? What do I do?</p></li>
<li><p>Are FA appeals usually successful? Does anyone have personal experience appealing a school like GW?</p></li>
</ol>

2

<p>???</p>

<p>If the house is 'underwater" then the house has no value. Did you put that the house has a value of $200k-300k? That would suggest $200k-300k in equity, which isn’t true.</p>

<p>You said that CSS includes the value of the house. In your case, the value is ZERO, since you say that if she sold it she would get nothing if she sold it.</p>

<p>BTW…can she rent out a bedroom to bring in more money? With you gone for most of the year, she might appreciate having someone else in the house.</p>

3

<p>^That’s interesting. I will ask my mom tomorrow what she put down for that question. I remember when she filled out the Profile she put something for the house’s value, and something else for how much she owed, and some kind of error message popped up. Maybe she filled it out wrong.</p>

4

<p>should say…</p>

<p>If the house is 'underwater" then the house has no value as an asset. </p>

<p>Check and see what your mom put down.</p>

5

<p>In addition letting the FinAid office know about the house situation, let them know you expect your mom’s income to change for the worse for the upcoming school year. The FinAid office should adjust your aid accordingly.</p>

6

<p>If she put the house value as one amount, and the amount owed as an amount higher than the value of the house - that may be why the error message popped up. I don’t know, but maybe the CSS profile doesn’t understand that you can owe more than its worth. What did she do to make the error message go away? I am thinking the best way to do this would be to make the house value and the amount owed as the same -then put a note in the ‘other information’ section to state that the house is actually underwater.</p>

7

<p>You can put down the market value of house and what is owed on the house and you get a message asking you if this is correct, but PROFILE will still let you file it if the house is worth less than what is owed on it. This happens to me every year or rather every year since the value of our home has decreased. </p>

<p>It sounds like the OP’s mother did the PROFILE correctly in regard to value of home.</p>

8

<p>SLUMON is correct. PA-130a asks for the value of your parent’s home, and PA-135 asks for the amount your parents owe on their home. The profile does not ask you to calculate the amount of equity your parents have in their home. Presumably that is done somewhere along the lines, but not by the person filling out the profile.</p>

<p>Assuming these questions were answered correctly, then the schools are aware that the parent’s owe more on the home than it is worth.</p>

9

<p>Ok thanks so much! So how do I go about appealing, and which of the points above should I emphasize?</p>

10

<p>If your mother filled in the PROFILE incorrectly, that can be changed and could affect the contribution required. However, as SLUMOM has written, the value is a line item as well as what was owed, so it is an issue that PROFILE makes the person filling it out, do a double take and think about what is asked. However, if the mother looked at it as a flag and gave the house some value, the possibility is there. Can you look at what was completed on PROFILE to double check it for mistakes? </p>

<p>How much can you and your mother afford to pay for college? Are you expecting a full ride, like paying nothing? Zip, zero, zilch out of pocket. What this package is saying is that each of you, Mom and you, parent and child has to come up with $5K apiece for the year, or $2500 per semester. Nearly any and every school is going to require some sort of student contribution from you. Like, you gotta find a job now and put that money towards college. Were you expecting to get a check to buy your toiletries, linens, clothes, supplies, transportation to the school? You know when you leave, your mother will be getting a small windfall out of not having your around, from having to buy less food with one less mouth to feed, the electric bill, driving you around and she will get some tax benefits as well. As you used as an example, your family has been taking care of a student, and you want that to be taken into account, as that is an expense (which, by the way, the college is NOT taking into account–why should they?) . So that’s some money that will not be spent.</p>

<p>You need to work. My kids all worked and put half and more of their summer and weekend money into the college pot and any birthday or whatever funds when they were little went into savings. So, it is not unreasonable to expect you to find something after school, whether it’s at a food service for a nursing home, dish wsher at a restaurant, both jobs my kids have had. And when you get to college, you need to find a job too. GW did not award you work study, from what I can see, so you have those hours available to work towards your EFC. You are not going to school in the boonies where there are no jobs. DC has plenty of them. I know a number of kids who went to GW,and most of them did work part time. My son’s friends who are at NYU all work. They come from families that are paying most of the costs, but their parents are insisting that they work and contribute some too. </p>

<p>So your family is going to have to send back the foreign student relative or get some money for his/her care. It’s not something the college is going to subidize, which is what you are asking GW to do when you want consideration for that. </p>

<p>You will want to let the Fin AId office know of the change of circumstances that is going to be occurring, but be aware that Fin Aid does not give more money for something that is going to happen even if it is imminent. They wait until it happens and some to see if it resolves itself, and if it does, it still isn’t going to take the whole thing into account.</p>

<p>They are not going to care about your mother’s debt. That’s her problem. That does not come into the equation a bit, not one tiny bit. Too bad , is the attitude.</p>

<p>What you can do:</p>

<p>1) Yes, appeal and make sure there is no error, and if there is any possible way for any more to be given to you as you are a low EFC student, about as low as you can get in terms of that, and GW is very expensiver. You might get a little more, but unlikely you are going to get more in grant money. A thousand, maybe, unless some mistake were made. But give it a try. Every bit will help, there might be an error and it does not hurt.</p>

<p>2) See if you can get the cheapest possible room. Call housing and beg for it. Also try to get the cheapest possible meal plan, maybe even the commuter one and get a job with food services so you get some of those meals for free. Tell them that your EFC is practically zilch and you need every corner you can get.</p>

<p>3) Start looking for a job and to work NOW. Yes, now. You got into your college. You now need to make money to go there. Find some jobs for weekends, after school, whatever. </p>

<p>4) Ask your mother to apply for PLUS for half the cost, about $5K and if she is turned down, you get $4500 more in Stafford loans.</p>

<p>5) Start looking for some outside scholarship money. Every dollar you get will be applied to your student loans which you can really still get on your own as your EFC is so low. I don’t know how GW will do this, but at worst your subsidized Staffords will be switched to regular, but you have some wiggle room in EFC, so maybe not even that. So look for those local scholarships.</p>

<p>Be aware that you are going to be going to school where half the kids are not on aid and will be living a lot more carefree than you are, and that your freshman year usually is the best in terms of money. Schools don’t give as much in that they expect YOU to come up with more of the costs with each year. You are going to have to work, be intrepid and find opportunities there. You are seeking to go to a private school that makes money from its tuition and other costs so GW is not going to be that interested in subsidizing you. IT’s not going to be easy. You are going to have to work for this. If you don’t want to do this, your PELL and loans will allow you to go to a local state school pretty much for free. Those are your choices.</p>

11

<p>I have no experience with profile.</p>

<p>While it’s true that a school will not look at things like potential job loss, the loss of your social security benefits once you graduate is a certainty. I would use real numbers in your appeal. Your SS benefit is X. It will stop on [this date] and will create an annual reduction in your family income of Y. </p>

<p>The other stuff about taking in the relative or living in a high COL area probably won’t matter at all as those are choices.</p>

<p>You may be able to get more Stafford if your mother is rejected for Parent Plus, and that seems pretty likely with her only income being Social Security survivor benefits. But, full Stafford + the extra if she’s denied + Perkins is an awful lot of debt.</p>

12

<p>I have been trying to find a job for almost a year, with no luck. One complication is that I live in a very touristy area where the “season” lasts from November to April and is basically ending this week. I WAS trying to find a job in November but I was very busy, first with an internship and then with college applications so I had less time to fill out applications. It is actually harder to find a summer job in my area than during the school year, but since this happened I’m a lot more motivated to look for a job. I will try water parks, summer camps and other places that hire people for the summer. If I have to I can move to Orlando and get a job at a theme park.</p>

<p>The relative is leaving in a couple months anyway and she hasn’t been a huge drain on our finances. I just included that to see if it would help.</p>

<p>I did get $2,200 per year in work study from GW and I plan to use it. If I can find a way to earn more I will. I will definitely apply for as many private scholarships as I can.</p>

<p>I will also take your advice, cptofthehouse, about looking for ways to “cut corners” on college costs. The COA includes $1450 for “personal expenses”, $1275 for books and $1000 for transportation. I can probably keep personal expenses to a minimum. I’ll have to buy a lot of winter clothes my first year but other than that I rarely buy new clothes and I don’t see why I would need to spend much on entertainment when DC has so much free stuff. I’m sure if I buy used books and resell them I can keep those expenses down. Transportation will be trickier, but maybe I can stay in DC for spring break and even summer, to work and do internships. If I was an RA my last couple years, that would completely solve the problem because housing would be free (I think).</p>

<p>One thing is that my mom will not save or make any money from me leaving. She will still have my sister to feed and drive around and her income will decrease. She can’t afford to come up with $5000 a year or more and I doubt she will be willing to take out loans. She hates student loans and has said many times that she will not borrow or co-sign any loans.</p>

<p>One good thing about GW is that the tuition will not go up for 10 semesters. I also have a lot of dual-enrollment credits so I might be able to graduate early. And my sister will start college in 2 years so hopefully I’ll get more need-based then.</p>

13

<p>mmgirl,</p>

<p>if 300K house is underwater, then how is your mom making mortgage payments on over 300K mortgage, insurance payments and tax payments on 25K? Something does not add up here.</p>

14

<p>From the financial aid sourcebook at GW:

</p>

15

<p>

</p>

<p>Yes, that’s what I was wondering, too. I live in south Florida and I know that homeowners and windstorm insurance is sky-high, as are property taxes, too. There’s no way on earth that this unemployed family of three is paying those expenses plus principal and interest on a mortgage, student loan debt and other living expenses on an income of $25K. I think the OP must have her numbers wrong.</p>

16

<p>It’s possible that I have some of the details wrong. Like I said, I’m not sure exactly how much our house is worth. I said it was between 200-300k. Maybe it’s more like 200k. I know nothing about housing prices. I do know for a fact that it’s underwater.</p>

<p>The basic picture, though, is pretty clear: my family has very high expenses and a very low income that’s about to get a lot lower. That’s why my mom has considered moving somewhere cheaper and is looking for a job. Clearly, we are having trouble making ends meet. That’s exactly why I need financial aid.</p>

17

<p>GW is a private school that does not guarantee to meet 100% of need. That is the bottom line here. If you can’t afford it, then stay in Florida. With BF, Pell and the Stafford loans, you will be doing very well commuting. You can help out quite a bit with the home expenses that way too. Going away to college is a huge luxury. </p>

<p>Whether you find a job cleanig houses, doing yard work, restaurants, start looking now. Because you will need every cent at GW. Bear in mind that when you sister goes off to college, you mother’s SS will go down even more. Though your family EFC will be halved, unless your sister finds a school that guarantees to meet full need, that doesn’t mean that your college costs will halve. In your case, you may not see any more money when your sister goes to college, because GW does NOT guarantee to meet full need. There have been members here who got little or nothing when a second student went off to college, a big shop and an unexpected result that caused financial hardship, In your case, as your family is so tight in terms of finances, any even that comes up costing more than expected can really have huge ramifications. You may not be able to afford this school.</p>

18

<p>I know there’s a chance it might not work out. But I am really, really hoping an appeal will be successful. I just think there must have been some kind of mistake. How can they expect me to just come up with 9k a year out of nowhere?</p>

<p>I got the FA award online and I think the packet will come in the mail soon. Once it comes, I will call the office, explain the situation and hope for the best. I know GW wants me because they offerred me a 30k merit scholarship, as large as I’ve ever heard of anyone getting. Maybe they will offer me more.</p>

<p>Thank you everyone for all your help, especially mom2collegekids who I think has literally answered almost every thread I’ve ever posted on CC and always has the most informed, helpful answers.</p>

19

<p>I just told you how the school expects you AND your mother to come up with the money. YOU need to be working and earning some of that money. And your mother is expected to come up with something too. Even Harvard when they give a full ride includes a student contribution of some sort, and GW gives no guarantees.</p>

<p>Doesn’t hurt to ask at all Hopefully they can come up with at least a bit more, and then you 'll have to piece it together or go to an in state school where you have BF and federal subsidies in addition to a lower sticker price. Also , go over the PROFILE so that you can see if there are any glaring errors there, that maybe your mother put the home value down incorrectly or reversed numbers for value and lien. </p>

<p>Good luck on your appeal.</p>