<p>rr43's response can be confirmed.
I also appealed and got about 1.5k more. Surprisingly, for me, their old fin aid topped cornell, duke, hopkins, cmu. But i sent in some hardship documentation which they were able to take a look at. 2 days was all i waited for before i got a response.</p>
<p>cawcaw, there is merit aid for penn. I reviewed my letters from penn and it said that it is based on merit but the actual sum is based on need.</p>
<p>
[quote]
"i live in California also... where everything is 9348098429034 times more costly than the east."</p>
<p>ROFL. Try living in suburban Connecticut before you complain about how expensive California is. Regular unleaded gasoline in my town was $3.81/gallon as of yesterday -- premium was $4.01. The cost of living for everything else is ridiculously high as well. :-(
[/quote]
</p>
<p>funny, i moved from suburban ct (fairfield county) and moved to socal. Different, but cost of living at both is unbelievable. Gas here is $4.29 premium</p>
<p>Hey guys! Just wanted to update!</p>
<p>Apparently, Penn hadn't looked at my tax forms yet or something like that, and I actually got ~20k in financial aid, (and a 15k grant!!) which you can imagine was a HUGE relief. Thanks for all the replies anyways!</p>
<p>@cawcaw - Way to go!! Congrats!</p>
<p>Thanks! :D</p>
<p>that sounds better. close to what i got. i guess it makes sense since our incomes are virtually the same</p>
<p>I read here that UPenn is prepared to match other college offers? Are these offers from other Ivy schools ONLY? In other words will they match offers from a non-Ivy school?</p>
<p>Do they match a finanical package regardless of the award? i.e. if we technically don't qualify for need based aid, will they match any existing scholarship? Just seems to me that they would, since they anyways compute their own formulas for awarding aid?</p>
<p>Your responses gratefully appreciated! Thanks :D</p>
<p>if you dont qualify for financial aid (which is only need based at penn and i think at all of the ivies as well) then you dont get financial aid. they dont give out scholarships so they wouldnt match a scholarship if you dont need any aid</p>
<p>Thanks andy_g for your quick response. Please read a post from "rr43" above that reads:</p>
<p>"UPenn did match (actually better) other offers faxed to them!! Took them ONLY 2 days to re-evaluate and update! Right on time for SIR deadline!"</p>
<p>What matching is "rr43" then referring to? How can a college match financial aid, I thought financial aid was based on a standard formula?</p>
<p>rr43, can you please enlighten us your matching stuff? Which college did they match or beat? Did they match a financial aid package or a scholarship package? Thanks!</p>
<p>they wont match a scholarship. financial need is determined separately by each school, so it varies a little from school to school. penn aid is based solely on need (or at least thats what they say i think). they dont give out merit scholarships so it makes no sense that they'd match you for them if you dont actually need them. there are no scholarships in the ivy league. (im not familiar with policies at the other seven schools but im pretty sure that goes for all eight, as well as a few other top schools)</p>
<p>and in response to your other question, i dont really know but i doubt they'd care if your other school is an ivy or not. if they do match fin aid offers it shouldnt matter if your other offer is from stanford, mit, etc</p>
<p>@cawcaw -- So all this happened after they took into account your taxes? About how long after you applied for fin aid did they re-evaluate it?</p>
<p>Wow.</p>
<p>Get over it. seriously.</p>
<p>does anyone have the link to the online form for re-evaluation of the finanaid package?</p>