<p>We are down to the last week (May 1st. Deadline) my daughter has received multiple Merit Scholarship with the largest 16K from Hofstra & 14K from Saint Rose but wants to go to Marist 37K COA. She has received 8K. (Merit.) We where told by a F.Aid person to send a letter and copies of larger grants to there " reconsideration committee" which we have done.
My daughter wants to major in "Special Education" which doesn't pay much so I don't want to see her with major loans I also have a second daughter who will be going to college next year and things will be hard.
Has anyone gone this route and what results have you had? Thanks. John G.</p>
<p>First, whether you have one or two kids in college SIMULTANEOUSLY, your out-of-pocket cost is approximately the same, assuming that your EFC is <$100k and your kids attend schools that meet most of the demonstrated need. So count yourself lucky that your kids are only a year apart, that way you end up paying the same for 5 years.</p>
<p>On your original question, there are several threads here that discuss this situation. The results of asking for re-consideration vary widely from school to school (success is much lower at highly selective schools), as well as how desirable a candidate you are for them (being in the top 10% of the distribution helps tremendously). I attempted to use higher merit offers from comparable schools with the USC FA office, and they told me “no dice”. D was roughly at the Q3-Q4 boundary of their admits, so I was not too surprised. If Marist told you to send the stuff in, then she has a shot at a marginal increase. I would not count on it going from $8k to $16k, but they may throw a couple of k$ your way, nothing to sneeze at.</p>