Hi, everybody:
I was accepted to Bard College under the Early Action program. I received a fairly generous Financial Aid offer (actually an estimate letter) but I do plan on appealing, since I absolutely would not be able to attend Bard with the estimated aid offer. Since the letter was just an estimate, I wonder what standard procedure is for appealing? Do I wait until April, when the formal offer is made?
Thanks…
Do it sooner than later. Otherwise, you won’t have a firm offer by May 1 when you must commit to a school.
Have you completed the FAFSA, and any other requirements for Bard? The big thing…is there any difference in your financial situation now than when you applied early action? That will get some attention…things like loss or significant reduction of income, some family financial crisis (house burns down with no insurance, huge unreimbursed medical expenses…things like that).
If not, you are like thousands of other students who would like more aid. Everyone would like to get more aid than they receive. You absolutely can inquire, but be prepared with a plan B if more money is not available for you. bard does not guarantee to meet full need for all accepted students…and they don’t.
This happened to my wife’s nephew last year (at Bard, too). His mom had a nice discussion going over all the details of the aid offer and where their numbers came from. No additional $ came from the discussion but ultimately she felt the offer was fair based on income, etc.
Thanks for the replies. Yeah, I’ve done FAFSA and everything. My admission to Bard was a bit screwed up, actually, as I was admitted via the Entrance Exam (four essays, no Common App, no test scores). According to the Financial Aid office, sending in the SAT scores wouldn’t have made any difference to my aid offer. Except that it would. But it wouldn’t. I mean, it would. But no, just kidding. It wouldn’t. But yeah, it definitely would. (I got both answers, more than once. That was before the offer was sent. I never did have the scores sent.)
My SAT score was 2150 (1420 CR + M), on the higher end for Bard students. I wonder if sending those in would be of any help in an appeal?
I have lots of plan Bs, including a few full-need schools I feel confident about being accepted to. I hear having a more generous offer can be nice leverage-wise.
Was the FAFSA based on 2014 tax returns, which aren’t usually filed until April 2015?
If not, I’m not sure if they would care about an appeal until your finalized FAFSA is received.
I don’t see how it could hurt to send in your SAT scores, especially if they accept electronic scores which would arrive sooner than mailed scores.
And as for “absolutely not” - what kind of additional aid are you looking for? And does their website indicate any precedence for that level of aid?
I really doubt any school would throw more than 10K over all four years to any applicant unless they made a drastic errors, and if you indicate “absolutely not”, methinks you are looking for a lot more than that.
So it you are looking for a lot more than that, maybe Bard should be off the table.
Did you compare your projected full rides to what Bard offered?
good that you have some affordable options in the mix.
Some schools will consider the aid offers from other schools, and some schools simply will not. The reality is that each college has their criteria for making both need based and merit awards, and often, those do not match the criteria of other schools giving you more money.
But you can ask…nothing ventured, nothing gained. You need to wait until you have some other offers to show Bard, and since you are waiting for regular decision awards, this likely won’t be until the beginning of April. Once you get your other awards, talk to Bard.
It sounds like you have some other affordable options…and that is what matters.