My financial situation changed very suddenly. If I have a good enough sob story to explain my situation, would I be able to appeal a financial aid decision?
You’d need to find out the college’s process for financial aid consideration and send in the proper forms. Chances are they’ll need some kind of proof that your financial situation changed. When I tried it three years ago and one parent lost their job, I received a tiny bit of additional aid and was still stuck with thousands in a PLUS loan and other student loans. Needless to say, I didn’t take it.
You don’t need a “sob story”. You need facts.
Contact your colleges and ask them what they require for a special circumstances consideration. They will tell you what is required.
If your college doesn’t guarantee to meet full need for all, you might not see a nickel in additional aid.
Things colleges MIGHT consider…lost income of a parent (not voluntary…but rather a parent who was laid off from a job), unreimbursed and unanticipated required medical expenses, that sort of thing.
Is that your situation?
ETA…you wrote this about merit awards…
Do you have this financial safety and Merit award in your accepted college group? If so, maybe consider this!
In November you said this:
Colleges won’t care that your parents don’t want to pay. The Ivies don’t offer merit. Your only hope there is need based aid and it doesn’t sound like you qualify. Are your parents expecting you to take the full ride? There are schools that would offer merit for your stats, but if your parents won’t pay anything it will be difficult to make most of them work.
Most special circumstances appeals will ask for an explanation, in your own words, of your situation. Here is where you can tell your story. But, as noted above, it doesn’t need to be “sobby.” But your description can fully explain the dire consequences of your situation…if they are truly dire. Don’t forget to include the FACTS.
Your posting history shows you have been seeking merit aid throughout this process. If you don’t qualify for need aid and merit aid at this school is not available or insufficient then you will have to settle for your “obvious choice” as you put it.
Be prepared to show proof of your situation…from an employer etc.
Exactly. Your story needs to be supported by sufficient written documentation of the circumstances.
Also, depending what your special circumstances are, each school with have a completely different policy and require different documentation according to their rules.
We just did this for medical expenses. A couple schools allowed pretty much any medical expense that was tax deductible. One only allowed “exceptional” expenses related to the specific issue — no regular care (check ups, orthodontia), nothing related to other family members.
Doing this correctly for several schools can be time consuming, and it’s still up to them what they do with the info. (In one case, we submitted 57 pages of proof of paid medical expenses since they required that, not just EOB forms or tax forms)
In our case, it did pay off with increased aid at our state flagship.
You need to contact each school financial aid office and find out their policy.
(Several schools said they wanted everything now even though our D is awaiting an admission decision. One was like, just email a letter and we’ll let you know what we want. One had a very specific form that spelled it all out…)
They sometimes do help people out who can prove their need. My husband lost his job when I was in the middle of a nursing degree program. With verification from his employer of his status, the financial aid office at my college offered me a small Pell grant to help us out. You must be able to back up why you are asking for more aid.
The college doesn’t give you Pell money.
OP’s parents don’t want to pay for school. I think there’s a low/no cost option available and I suspect that’s where they want OP to go. Colleges won’t give more money because parents won’t pay. Pell Grants are based on parental income. If the family income is too high to qualify there’s nothing the school can do about that.
The OP seems to have left the room!