I was just admitted to Hamilton on Friday, but it was disappointing to see their financial aid offer. Their package was significantly different from the other “meets full need” liberal arts colleges I’ve been admitted to. Most of my other schools came in around 10k. Colby was around 5k, but I know it’s less because of their no loan policy.
Hamilton’s expecting around 20k each year. They’re one of my favorite schools, and I’m just a little confused about why their offer is so different. Since Hamilton’s ostensibly a meets full need school, is it possible they’d up their offer? Would showing them other packages actually help me?
Thanks for any help. I’ve gone through this whole process myself, and neither my guidance counselor or parents really know what to do.
Contact Hamilton admissions & ask why is your financial aid award so different from these other schools if you meet full financial need ? It may be adjusted.
You don’t really lose anything by asking. Explain that you’d like to go to Hamilton but other schools have made better financial offers and would they reconsider your offer.
Did you run the Hamilton NPC before applying? If so, what did it show your institutional EFC to be? How does that EFC compare to the actual EFC on your financial aid offer?
A meets full need college’s no loan policy in and of itself won’t make a financial aid offer higher or lower; what it will do is make a difference in what kind of aid is offered to bridge the gap between the EFC and the COA.
I agree with @BelknapPoint, Colby’s no loan policy has nothing to do with your EFC, but how they pacakage your need based financial aid. Just because schools commit to meting 100% demonstrated need does not mean that you will get identical packages from each school. My D was accepted everywhere she applied during her cycle. All schools met 100% demonstrated need, but there were 7 different packages with about a 20k difference between th “best” and “worse” package.
You should definitely ask because if you don’t you will not receive anything. If the money does not work out, will you be happy at the plan B financially feasible option?
While Hamilton, which only gives subsidized loans in its financial aid packages, may entertain removing the loans from your package, I do not see them closing the 15k difference in your EFC and removing your loans. Now you are asking them for 185 (over 75k over the course of 4 years).
Hamilton may not be as flush as Colby where they have the financial aid budget to give the kind of aid that Colby gives.
@sybbie719, the difference in OP’s financial aid award isn’t a result of a gap in current year financial aid budgets as Colby’s is $35mm and Hamilton’s is $40mm with identical student populations.
There is also a lot to say about each school’s institutional mission where financial aid is concerned
Colby has a low income initiative where families with income under 60k have a 0 parent contribution
Hamilton only includes sub loans in their financial aid packages
Both participate in Posse and Questbridge
Hamilton participates in HEOP for NYS low icome/academically disadvantaged students
Each school decides for themselves how they are going to use the financial information as far as distributing their own institutional aid.
^^^
For what it’s worth, Hamilton is need blind. Colby is need aware, so that may help them, even if only a little bit, as they try to select a class, continue a low income initiative, and stay within budget, all at the same time. It really can be a balancing act with finite resources, for almost every school.
When I looked into my DD’s FA package, I found out some colleges do not care about offers from other colleges.
I suggest you also post to the Hamilton forum.
With respect to need-based aid, neither a lower nor higher offer can be presumed to be accurate. The “correct” figure would be that which you can reasonably afford. If, for example, Colby’s package were to represent an award greater than your need, then it will have served to incentivize attendance beyond the philosophy of need-based financial assistance – so Hamilton could choose not to respond to it on this basis. However, if you believe that Hamilton simply missed the mark in their calculations, then a Colby counter-example could prove helpful to you.
@thumper1 I haven’t had the chance to actually visit Hamilton yet so I can’t really conclusively say I’ll attend it they they up my aid. And yeah, the main reason I was confused about the award being so different is because my parents are married, and are not business owners/self-employed, and we have no real other special circumstances.
Other ‘comparable’ schools would probably be Macalester, Grinnell, and Colby.
Did you run the Hamilton NPC before applying? If so, what did it show your institutional EFC to be? How does that EFC compare to the actual EFC on your financial aid offer?
@BelknapPoint I had run the NPC before and it showed up around 12k a year.
I called them today, and a financial aid officer suggested I should include the Colby package.
I submitted an appeal with that, and should hear back by Friday! Thanks everyone for the help.