@violamama - saw your post in another thread - you are definitely in a better position to negotiate a higher award amount than me. Very impressive!
Sorry, incorrectly tagged @violamama - meant to tag @NYsaxmom
So we have sent in an appeal to school A on Dās list. If that doesnāt come through I will appeal school B for a bit more money to make it affordable to us. The more I am now hearing from various parents that have appealed in the past, the more Iām hearing that if successful, they are usually very very small amounts or are not successful at all. This is frustrating to me. I need to set Dās expectations very low. I think everyone should set their expectations very low in this regard. For some reason, I felt that if school A was shown a much higher offer from school B, they might likely match it. I am hearing less and less that this is in fact the case.
When I asked for an appeal form for NEC, right on the form it says āappeals generally range from 1-5K with anything above 5K being very rareā. I believe them. D has removed NEC from the list and is not bothering to appeal. I am posting this because so many CC people have posted to appeal everything but I want to comment that we shouldnāt set our or our kidās expectations very high for much more money.
I am happy to share details of our experience to anyone looking for information via PM. Best of luck to everyone out there.
I agree that tempering expectations is importantāIāve heard of many āsuccessfulā appeals and then learned that theyāre in the 2-3K range, which certainly helps but isnāt likely to make one offer suddenly much more appealing over another. The best I heard was a 6K reward to an appeal, but that was for someone who hadnāt received an initial scholarship at all at the particular school and had everywhere else. But like acceptances and offers in the first placeāyour mileage of course may vary, and in the end, the only thing that matters is each individual student package!
My S will be an instrumental performance major in the fall. We just learned the primary lesson instructor at one of his top schools ā and the cheapest option ā has suddenly resigned for medical reasons. They are actively searching for a replacement but we wonāt know who that will be until after the May 1 deadline. Would you take that school off the table for consideration?
We have an email in to #1 school (and they did respond asking us to give them more time and to be patient) and are visiting accepted students day at #2 this weekend. She will also have another lesson as the prof has agreed to come into school on the Sunday
Thatās exactly what I am now hearing @YertleTurtle. Unfortunately, I felt like based on posts etc that it was not unheard of to have offers at competing schools matched even if the difference is 10K or more. Iām finding that to be more and more inaccurate and your comment of 1-2K and a high increase of maybe 6K to be far more accurate. Iāll know soon enough but I think itās important for accurate information to be out there for the next group of parents in this process.
@SpartanDrew My S is a HS Junior and will go through the college application process in a few months. Heās planning to apply to schools with a strong jazz department, though his instrument is piano and not voice. Iād love to learn from your experience and if you donāt mind, can you PM me? I havenāt got enough posts to send private messages yet.
@willrogers - this can always happen. Part of our decision criteria included -what if the prof retired, transferred, etc.
what type of appeals are we talking hereā¦ Financial aid office I need a larger grantā¦ or Admissions office I need more merit money?
admissions I need more merit money @JerseyParents
@Compojazzmom PM sent
Following this Peabody situation . . . may I ask who you called and what the process is for appealing scholarship money? This is my sonās top choice, but they offered no money at all (other than work-study and loans.) And $70K a year is awfully steep. Other schools did offer money. This is so agonizing and I thought waiting for months to hear from his top choices was hard. Thanks for any help!
When you all are appealing for more money, you are going straight to the FA office? Not to the head of the music dept? Does the FA office work with the music dept for possible more talent money, or do they offer more academic merit? Iām a little bit confused about the process.
I had my D mail the prof to let him know and I emailed the music admissions person we had been dealing with and cc-ed financial aid
From my experience @apoole , you appeal the music school/conservatory admissions for more merit money. You appeal the financial aid office for more grant need money especially if you have an extenuating financial circumstance. These are two separate appeals.
@coloraturadad We have to do a financial aid appeal due to a FAFSA mistake. It is in our favor which is good however I am concerned that some if not most schools base the merit money on Financial need as well which made all offers all over the place (aside from all the other variables- what the needed in depart, amount of department funds, how good audition was etc We only applied to conservatories and one liberal arts college with conservatory. They may say they look at talent first but from my first experience with this process they also look at financial need. So I guess we will have to appeal to both financial aid and Merit. My S said the auditions he felt were off he got more money than the ones he felt SURE about. But that again could be so many variables. So bottom line if you have a student that has not done FAFSA or are doing it for the first time make sure you read every detail. It really impacted our EFC and it was totally my mistake because I did not double check the EFC on FAFSA going in. This may impact your initial offers which makes the whole thing a mess 
@musicdm you are correct. Several of the schools we went to said they are āmerit based but need awareā
Each school is different
@GenealogyLady - re: Peabody - I called the FA # listed at the bottom of the acceptance letter and discussed my situation, etc. The person suggested that I make a formal appeal by sending in a āpersonal statementā - stating my situation, any other issues they need to be made aware of, and state the amount we are committed to over the 4 year period. I was asked to email the statement to peabodyfinaid@jhu.edu. My D has also been in contact with studio head and she stated similar information - state how much you can pay or are willing to commit to for the 4 years. She also said not to expect a full ride and she would be in contact with the FA department on her behalf. Will update as I hear back from them.
Forgot to add - it should be addressed to the āEnrollment Management Committeeā
@musicdm , yes, the conservatories awards are usually ātalent based, need informed.ā I would advice to appeal ASAP to the institutions about the FAFSA adjusted EFC. They should automatically get notification from FAFSA on the adjustment (all schools which S originally submitted FAFSA). It is up to them to award more money or not based on the appeal. They have no obligation to sweeten the pot. If the liberal arts college and conservatory your son applied to and was accepted, and if the college claims to meet 100% need, they will automatically adjust their grant award based on the adjustment no matter if your S has already paid the deposit or is enrolled in the school.