This is our situation: my son has heard from a number of less competitive schools that have given him decent merit scholarships. He is still waiting to hear from the more competitive liberal arts schools that have huge endowments = better need based aid. I don’t know if he’ll receive any merit scholarships from the higher tier schools.
We just received an aid package from one of his top choices at a moderately competitive school and though he received their top scholarship (plus another one on top of that), the need based aid brought the whole package to significantly less than our EFC (which is still going to be very tough to meet, especially when we add in the annual cost increase of the school). We can’t afford it as is - we were hoping to at least meet our EFC since he is a higher stats candidate (though they are not a 100% need met school).
My first instinct is to call today and see if they can meet our EFC, but I don’t want to sound greedy (this is our first time going through the college applicant process). I also don’t know if we should wait and see if he gets into the other schools, and what their aid packages are, so we have some actual numbers to tell them. One other thing - he is going to compete for a full tuition scholarship at the school in April, so there is another chance, though slim, of him getting more aid.
Any advice from someone who was successful in negotiating better aid?
Personally, I would wait until you have a better package from a comparable or more highly ranked college in hand. Then I would ask the FA office for a FA review, because the cost of attendance will be hard for you to meet, and he has lower COA offers from higher ranked schools. They may or may not ask you to send those offers. Any info you can provide at that time about your financial situation that they may not already have could help, too.
I would treat the merit scholarship separately. See what you can accomplish with need based aid once you have more info from the other schools. Have him compete for the merit offer if he is invited.
If you are SURE this is his top choice school, and he would attend if it was affordable no matter where else he is accepted and what the other schools do, tell the FA office that when you talk to them. But he better attend if they come through financially.
Wait until you have all of the offers. Only negotiate for a better package if your child will definitely attend. So if there are, say, three colleges that offer inadequate packages, start with his top choice of the three. If they can’t offer a package that makes it affordable to you, then call the FA office of his second choice of the three, and so on.
What you never, ever, ever want to do is say negotiate, bargain, sweeten the pot or anything that alludes to this. What you want to do is ask for a financial review.
Also compare apples to apples. Most schools only want to see an offer from a peer school with a comparable cost (enrollment management already knows cross admits and who will most likely come to them). If a school only gives need based aid, they do not care what another school gave you in merit money or (Merit + need).
A public school does not care what a private school is giving you. A private school does not care what a public school is giving you (perhaps with the exception of Michigan and UVA)
Look at comparable schools regarding merit If school A’s top scholarship is 20k with a 3.75/1400 and school B’s gave you 15k for the same stats and their next top scholarship is 25k for a 4.0/1450 and your kid does not meet the criteria for the next level scholarship, don’t expect a bump up.
This is a tough call. Based on the advice I picked up from several meetings with FA officials at a wide variety of schools when we toured, most indicated that they are willing to review, to be sure they have properly considered everything. The fact is, some of these schools do have some level of discretion. All of them want to make sure they have properly considered everything according to their own formulae. If they have made a mistake, they are more than happy to correct it - but this is usually more of an issue where the aid offer does not come close to the NPC.
But you have to act promptly when you need to, as their ability to act on their discretion can be limited. For this reason, the student who comes off the wait list may not have the same opportunity to get that additional discretion as the child who was accepted early action, or even regular round, because the budgeted money may have been spent on the first kids.
So use the NPC to figure out where you expect you might fall at the schools on your list. Once the offers come in, compare them, and if the school you want best has a lower net cost, by all means contact them. When you explain to them why this is important, they are willing to help to the extent they can. They appreciate whatever you can bring to help justify your request for additional consideration.
There are some college advisors who charge a fee to assist with the application process. We attended a college planning info session at our neighboring town’s HS where they invited the admin officers from Flagship State and another nearby private college, they explained FAFSA and CSS Profile, etc. There were also professional advisors who helped with test prep, application essay review, etc. While some of these folks are very good and do earn their fees, much of this info was available here. But my H and I both cringed when one of these guys told the crowd, as part of his sales pitch, how he encourages the schools to “sharpen their pencils” when it comes to FA appeals.
I have suggested to friends to use the words like “we are trying to get the best information available so my child can make an informed decision. He is currently leaning towards attending , one current roadblock is the financial cost. Another school X has offered him $YYYYYY, making his 4-year package cost roughly $ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. As we figure it, yours will cost $______ more, but we are hopeful that you may be able to review our financial application to determine if everything has been properly considered.” Then they may add, if appropriate - additionally, since our application was submitted, we have had another financial setback of ______, depleting our already modest savings… " Then of course close with a “Thank you for your continued assistance in this important matter.”
Some people like to call for an issue like this, others want to discuss it in person, yet others prefer e-mail correspondence. I am of the opinion that it is better to call about an issue like this, unless the school instructs you otherwise. If you are uncomfortable calling, write it out ahead of time to be sure you hit on all your points. The schools do appreciate you doing the work ahead of time and any information you have in support of your request.
That is all excellent advice - thank you very much for responding. We will wait to see what the other schools come up with before talking to them. I had never heard the term financial review before, but I feel more comfortable using that approach. And you have a good point about not really pressing for aid until we’re sure of his number one pick - at this point it may change.
Our financial situation has not changed since he applied so I’m not sure if the school will consider our request to take another look based on changed circumstances; we just have a lot of debt and up until this year I was unable to work full time because of my youngest’s medical problems. That has really hurt our finances, but since they don’t take debt into account, we’re out of luck.
Unfortunately, he might have to go to a less competitive school if the financial aid package is significantly better. The less debt the better. Right now he is at the top or very close to the top of all the merit scholarships he has received, so any increase in aid will have to be need based. (Though there is room for improvement in his music scholarships). It really stinks that in many cases merit has replaced need, so although some of these schools really seem to want him, they are just not offering much to make up for the gap to make it affordable/meet our expected family contribution.
I’ll try to remember to update in a month or two to let CC know how it worked out. Thanks again!
And to clarify I misspoke earlier - our EFC was not met by the first college - they offered about 10k less, which means that right now he’s not going there.
True, the Fafsa formula does not take consumer debt into consideration. However, individual college FA offices can make a professional judgment—and that’s the phrase you should use, “professional judgment.” You ca send a letter to the college FA office explaining that your son has an illness that cost you a lot of money. I believe that medical situations are taken into consideration. Read this for an explanation of professional judgment and the language that you should use: http://www.finaid.org/educators/pj/
Also, @sybbie719 is right – don’t use the word “negotiate.” I shouldn’t have typed that above.
Since you noted that even your EFC will be tough to meet, so unless HWS ups the aid to very close to your EFC, HWS won’t be in the picture? If no other school comes close to that, will it be out of the picture still?
Actually OP should still ask for a financial review and explain their situation (as on face it may be challenging to get a professional judgement). What is the difference in your income, before and after you got the job?
Op needs to come up with a plan as to how to pay for college over the course of 4 years. Even if OP could get a professional judgement year 1, what happens years 2,3 and 4. While OP now works, they are not going to totally discount their income for the next 4 years.
Op also needs to read the fine print when it comes to merit money.
“fine print” associated with merit money and not be afraid to ask follow up questions concerning your scholarships/merit $
Is it automatically renewable for the next 4 years
Is it renewable for the same amount of money?
Is scholarship adjusted to take into consideration tuition increases (about 5% per year)
Is there a GPA requirement needed to keep getting the money?
When does the GPA requirement start (by the end of fall term or the end of spring term)?
Is there a phase in to the GPA requirement?
What happens if you do not meet GPA requirement, does money leave immediately or is there a grace period?
If you lose scholarship and bring your grades back up is money reinstated?
Ask the financial aid office what percent of students lose their merit money in the first year.
Depending on your GPA and your school’s requirement, you may end up losing your other scholarships. You must check to see if there is some kind of appeal process.
HWS and most schools do not meet 100% demonstrated need. Even if they adjust your money this year, there is no guarantee that they will be able to do so or willing to do in subsequent years.
I agree with @CTTC If it is a struggle to meet your FAFSA EFC and the school’s EFC is higher, what is going to happen when your cost raise by ~3-5% each year. Make sure that your child has a financial safety that he is willing to attend.
Do detail the two situations (debt due to caring for ill child and causing you to be unable to work), as this may well factor into their review. Medical situations are taken into consideration.
We were affected by my child’s illness for over 10 years - I could not have held a full time job because I had to spend so much time at home. I did work part time from home with my own small online business, but I really should have been working full time to boost our income and avoid the slow creeping increase in debt. The medical bills were the same - just a slow constant drain of funds. We were lucky, though – it could have been a lot worse medically and financially, and we’re moving forward now. But now we have a debt monster staring us in the face at the worst time possible.
But there are a lot single parents or single income families struggling to pay for college. Would our situation justify a second look just because our medical bills were higher than normal, and we had to deal with a loss of potential income (which again, a lot of people have as well)? We would have been in a much better position financially if this had not been an issue for the past 10 years, but still, it was not as serious as what other people face (I try to be optimistic about stuff like this - it could always be worse).
Just looking at last year’s expenses doesn’t tell the full story, either - do colleges take into account a long term issue like the one we had? Our expenses were never enough to deduct on taxes, but again, it has been a long slow drain that has added up.
As far as affordability overall, he has a financial safety school and every other school he has heard from thus far has offered better financial aid with a lower net price, so he will go somewhere, even if it is not his first choice. As far as year 2-4, I’m assuming that now that I’m not tied to the home I’ll be able to increase my income to at least meet increases in tuition. However I do worry that an increase in income - which will disappear instantly as we pay off debts - will decrease our aid significantly. And again, there was another very good point made about a possible professional judgement helping the first year but not after that.
He may just be better off attending a school that meets EFC purely with need based aid. However, I will definitely make sure that I ask about the exact details of the HWS scholarship requirements to make sure we aren’t left high and dry.
That link regarding professional judgement was excellent, and it is going to take some time to digest the information. I think it will really help us figure out how we want to present our position - thank you very much for posting.
I think you are smart to look at the whole picture. Could he get enough aid at this school for you to struggle along, year by year, if you pinch all your pennies and everything goes right? Maybe. Is that how you and he want to live? It is no fun to be the poorest student when all your friends have movie money and weekend away money. It’s no fun to always have to borrow a book or laundry detergent. I wanted my kids to enjoy college a little, to be in a sorority if they chose, to buy a new dress or go away on spring break just once because I couldn’t do that. We chose their schools with the cost in mind, not just because of the rank or a program.
If he has financial safety alternatives, consider them closely. Might they be a better fit overall, not just for him but for the family finances? It sounds like money will still be very tight at home since you are still paying debts from the lean years. Don’t take on even more debt when you have other choices.
Lay out the situation. I think medical situations are looked upon with compassion in many cases. It’s the one situation that colleges know can unavoidably put a family over the edge. Just lay it out in a very matter-of-fact, non-demanding way and see what happens. Also, is one of you (you or your spouse) close to retirement age? If so, that should be stated as well.
Many colleges will absolutely consider the impact of long-term medical expenses. I made a point of asking several FA officers at information sessions, or private meetings, because I have had a litany of medical issues that not only have drained us financially - hitting the out-of-pocket max on a high deductible plan every year for the past 20 years - these medical issues have the double effect of preventing me from earning a meaningful income.
Instead of 2 incomes, with the ability to save for college, we have been a 1 income family with significant expenses, barely scraping by at times.
All of the schools I talked to encouraged us to include a discussion of our situation in the “explanation of special circumstances”, which we have done. OP - did you explain any of this in your initial application? Or are you saving it for the appeal? It is in your best interest to include as much of this information in your initial application as possible.
Federal aid is usually not negotiable because its based on your FAFSA. depending on the type of state aid, that is usually not negotiable either. Your EFC is calculated based on the income you put on the FAFSA. University aid is a grey area and may be negotiable…big maybe (depends on how much they want your student).
However, most state and all of federal aid is based on a few things, your Cost of Attendance, your EFC, and your academics.
What you should do, and what others already alluded to, is to have the school reevaluate your fafsa for any special circumstances. Special circumstances include but are not limited to Loss of Income, Unusual Debt, Death, Unusual Medical Bills, caring for a person who was not listed in your household, loss of child support, one time non reoccurring income,…etc you get the idea. Basically, anything that was not listed on the FAFSA per say, but affects your day to day or monthly income and expenses. Having the school relook at your income profile with this new information in mind could potentially lower your EFC (which is what you want for more need based aid) or increase your Cost of Attendance (which helps in being able to fit more aid in your package).
Don’t you want to decrease the cost of attendance? I think of that as “how much do we have to pay” after all grants (Pell or college) and merit aid are applied.