<p>Has anyone ever gone back to AU after an acceptance and scholarship offer (merit) and nicely tried to get a little more? My D is deciding between American and another school, and the other school gave her $5,000 more in its scholarship. I’ve had friends successfully get a little more from other schools in such a situation, but the AU admissions process seems more impersonal, so I don’t know if it’s even worth trying.</p>
<p>Any thoughts welcome. She loves American, and they obviously want her, but it’s a financial stretch for us.</p>
<p>My D received a nice aid package, but it will be a stretch for us, since we will be expected to pay over 3 times our FAFSA EFC. She sent an email to FA, and they said that unless there has been a change to things on the FAFSA, they rarely rethink their awards…good luck to you. My D really wants to attend AU, so we are trying to figure out options. This is very confusing!</p>
<p>From what I have gathered, AU will not renegotiate financial aid unless there is a change in circumstances. However, they might consider a change in merit awards if, and this is a big if, you are a very strong - highly desirable candidate. But contact the admissions department, not finanical aid to discuss merit awards.</p>
<p>You have nothing to lose–it’s not as if they’re going to take your current award away if you ask for more. Why not take a stab at it and report your results for everyone else’s benefit?</p>
<p>We tried to get a $15K scholarship increased and they wouldn’t. Our daughter has a $19k offer and a full ride offer from other schools. Doesn’t hurt to ask though.</p>
<p>AU is much more likely to increase aid once you get to school – which I realize just is not an option for some families. But they give increased scholarships to those who perform well, and renegotiate financial aid if you show that personally and academically you’re excelling at AU. I’m a Federal Work Study student as well, and they doubled my FWS award for each of the last two semesters because I blew through my allotted $1000 dollars in a few weeks. </p>
<p>They have to account for so many ‘x’ factors during this very early stage of admission, it makes sense to me that they rarely renegotiate. But it’s worth a try, and the chances definitely increase once you’re a student – if that’s at all helpful.</p>
<p>Well, it became a moot point. D decided to go to Clark. So now there’s a $10K merit award at AU not being taken-- motivation for one of you to ask for more!</p>
<p>My daughter was recruited to dive on the womens swim team. She visited the school on a recruiting trip and loved it. However,she has been given no merit money and only a small grant. We begged for more money and were not successful. We were only looking for another $5000. I was really surprised that they did not give us any additional funds. They seem to go strickly by the SAT scores and FAFSA. Since she would be diving on a division I team there is no way that she would have time to work while at school. Any sugguestions from anyone on how we can get more funds!</p>
<p>Sure have,however, the school does not give athletic scholarships to the swimming and diving team even thou they are division I. She has been offered more money from other schools. but she just loves the school, and really likes the diving coach. We even told admissions that she had higher offers from other schools, but this did not seem to matter. It is too bad because we are not asking for alot more money. However, she is going on a recruiting trip this weekend to UMBC. Does anyone have any input on this school. We are from WNY is we are not familiar with this school. Thanks!</p>
<p>Well, AU gave me a pretty fair financial aid package (and I’m solid middle class, if not leaning towards upper). In the past year, my parents have made a chunk less than usual. While at AU for Freshman Day my mother stopped by the financial aid office to explain our situation and we were told that we have to appeal to them and fill out a bunch of paperwork for them to even consider giving us more money. Basically, if you can give them a reason to give your daughter more money, they’ll see what they can do (or so it seems).</p>