<p>As an admitted student, I find it shady that a college expects you to regularly check your web portal without ever telling you so that you need to. There are no email updates that tell you you need to update certain information, turn in certain forms, complete certain forms, etc. However, I don't mind too much because I'm sort of obsessed and I check everything and anything. The thing is, I've always encountered some sort of mistake I always need to call up and fixso think of all the people that don't check their portals!</p>
<p>The thing that has been bothering me lately is that I barely found the link to access my financial aid award, and I barely realized that they hiked up tuition and room&board, and have not increased my award at all, let alone porportionately, expecting me to cover the difference. While the increase is about 2-3 thousand dollars max, I find this to be just a little absurd. Do they do this with all students or did they just overlook my FA?</p>
<p>Schools can hike up the price of tution and fees without notice. Legally they are not required to increase your aid package either. Unfortunatly thats a common situtation with many students at a variety of institutions across the nation and its becoming a huge problem for students each semester as they try to finance their education. Its a common misconception with students that they think tutition costs will stay the same price and that if they do rise, so will their financial aid. Due to the lack of notification, its really up to students to check and make sure that as tution costs rise, they can still realistically afford to keep going to that college. Many students are transferring today not for a better academic program, but for cheaper tuition costs.</p>
<p>Thats a very good point, do any of the schools increase financial aid with a tuition increase? Are any financial aid packages based on a percentage rather than a specific number?</p>
<p>It's good to clarify with your school how increases in the cost of education at their school will be handled relative to your FAid, when you're still deciding among schools. For MERIT aid, I've seen scholarships that are a % of tuition (like 1/2 or 1/4 or 100%). These obviously increase as tuition increases. Most of the other MERIT scholarships I've seen are flat dollar amounts that remain the same every year, providing you meet requirements of GPA & advancing toward your degree (& sometimes other requirements like sports for athletes, dancing for a ballet scholarship, etc.)
A friend's son who got a "merit within need" scholarship/grant had it continue increasing every year to keep up with increased tuition, but parents also had to take out loans for their EFC. Much of the federal money awarded by FAid offices has maximum limits & regulations for federal grants, work study, and subsidized loans. Plus and unsubsidized loans are easier to get, from what I've heard. Schools can just increase aid packages by increasing the Plus loan & still be considered meeting the student's "need." This increases the student's & family's total debt burden & will ultimately have to be repaid.</p>