i come from a really high income family, and we have ~220k saved up for my college. i’ve gotten into two colleges (as of right now) that i love, but i have received no aid/scholarships from either, putting my cost at upwards of 250k total. is there any way i can appeal, or do i have to choose alternatives? sorry if i sound ungrateful. i really dont mean to.
What are you appealing? Did you run the financial aid calculators for these colleges and what did they tell you your financial aid would look like? If they told you zero, they were accurate- you’ve gotten zero. I’m not sure you’ve got the basis for a successful appeal if they told you your income and assets were too high for aid.
@blossom sorry, i meant a merit appeal – i have a competitive offer from two other schools.
Your parents have $220,000 saved for college…that’s roughly $54000 a year…right? In addition, you can take the $5500 Direct Loan for your freshman year…so now you have $59500. Right?
How much does your college cost?
I mean…isn’t there some college you CAN attend with the $220,000 your parents have saved already for you?
Did you apply to colleges that your college savings could cover? If not…why?
You would not get need based aid if that is what you want to appeal. Your options are merit scholarships, loan, work hard over the summer for the next few years, or apply to a cheaper school.
You can take your federal loans, which is $27K total. Lots of students do it. And get a part time job during the school year and work summers.
Also, is it possible to graduate in less than 4 years? Hopefully it would not take you more than 4 years or you would be in deeper trouble.
@thumper1 @intparent @billcsho thanks, everyone. i was feeling worried for a bit there, but I definitely do have options. guess it’s time for me to look for a second job!! 
I’m not sure what the problem is if you have more than $220k saved for college and come from “a really high income family.” Will your parents use the college fund to pay your college bills? I’ve never heard of an appeal of a merit aid decision. They already have all the information they need to decide on merit. What are your stats? Do the colleges you applied to give merit? Are in above the 75th percentile for those colleges?
It appears that your parents saved enough money for your college education where you can graduate with little to no debt. Did you apply to any colleges that have a COA of $50K or below/year?
@brantly youre right, im just freaking out. they will use the fund to pay the bills, but that leaves a little more than 10k per year that can’t be paid only using savings. by appeal of a merit decision, i mean showing that i have competitive offers from 2 other schools. idk if that’s a thing people do. (and yeah, they give merit, and yes, im above the 75th percentile in my sat scores)
@dygibbs yes, miami ohio. they gave me 18k/year in aid, putting my cost at 27k/year, which is very manageable. kalamazoo gave me aid of 36k/year, putting my cost at 22k/year
You just want merit aid? that has nothing to do with how much you’ve saved. You can appeal merit aid if you feel you are entitled to it.
You are looking at the aid and costs for all 4 years, but the schools don’t. They look at THIS year, and while they don’t expect you to spend all $220k, they are willing to ‘take’ all they need for this year and worry about the final year when that comes. Next year you won’t have $220k in savings, but more like $150k and so on. If you are also low income, you may receive some aid for that final year because by then you will also be low asset
Soooo…what is your issue? Miami would have a net cost for all four years of less than $108,000. Kalamazoo would have a four year net cost of less than $90,000…TOTAL.
You have more than double that amount in college savings.
What’s your issue?
For my daughters, I only have one year of CoA or two year of EFC in education funds. So we. Have to focus on in state public or need met schools. You are very fortunate to have $220k in college saving and you have a much much more choices than most students. Didn’t you check the NPCs before submitting applications?
$220,000 in college savings…+ federal student loans…+ money from a part time job (over 4 years) will give you over $260,000. You also have some good schools noted above that gave you merit and appear to be affordable.
I am not sure what the problem is. You seem to have many opportunities even if your merit appeal is denied.
I’m so confused. You did get merit money or you didn’t? It looks like you did- and you can cover the balance with your college savings. Why do you need to appeal? You’ve got this covered, no?
I think the OP prefers an as-yet unnamed college that did not give merit aid. He/she wants to dangle the Miami/Ohio and the Kalamzoo offers in front of the desired college to get merit aid.
If you come from a “very high income” family, as you say, the current amount of college savings is not your only source of money to pay for college. Your parents are likely to be able to a) continue adding to your college savings over the net three years, and b) pay some of the college bill out of their current income in addition to the savings.
If they are unwilling to use current income, you still have two choices: a) take out a student loan and use your own savings from summer jobs, or b) go to one of the colleges that did provide merit aid.
Lots of choices here!
OP, I think the schools you want to ask for merit are not considered comparable to the schools where you got merit. So you are very unlikely to have any luck with this request.
You can’t negotiate merit unless the two colleges are peers (ie., Kalamazoo and Muhlenberg).
You have 55k per year in your college fund, plus 5.5k from loans, plus whatever you can earn in your part time job, and I’d that’s still not enough at your two preferred colleges your high earning parents can probably complete that total amount. You’re very very lucky. Most kids’ problem is that they got into their flagship but even taking a HELOC they can’t go despite being middle class.