We’ve been waiting on the financial aid award from the state uni my son is wanting to attend, and just heard from them today when calling - they’re being told to tell all callers this - they may not be getting financial aid awards out prior to the May 1st deadline for SIR !!! Say what!!! They have no adequate explanation on how they expect people to make decisions and proceed. “Will the financial aid award process continue if we have to SIR to another school?” Yes, that they could answer. “If we then get the award we need, would we withdraw SIR from the other school, and then submit it to this school?” Well, you’d have to see if we will be accepting late SIR’s. You can see on the website or in the portal if you will be able to SIR past May 1st. !!! I then spoke to someone in admissions and was told that submitting a late SIR would be an appeal process, and the forms are available from admissions. Finally, when talking to an admissions officer, he said, let’s give it a little more time, and if you haven’t heard anything by next week, we can maybe see what we can do. I explained to him, that if this school is not an option - out of budget - we have some work to do…we need to go see other colleges, etc… He was soooo nice, I understand, yeah, of course, but still nothing. !!! ???
WTH!?!?!?! I’m just venting. As I write this, I realize I should’ve said, “We really can’t wait. I need us to bump this up to a supervisor now.” I usually know how to be a very nice, but squeeky wheel. I may follow up with him in an email. My hesitancy in being too pushy is that I know we are not among the neediest of families, and I loathe acting like an entitled rich family when our need pales in comparison to many of their students. (What in the world do these other students do!?!?! ) That said, we have budgets too, and need to know if a school works in our budget. Ugh.
Can you believe it?
[Because it may be asked…we submitted the FAFSA on time, back in November, but at the end of March they requested a copy of the birth certificate and we submitted two weeks ago. ]
We are not eligible for federal or state aid, and no, I have not done the calculator; I have not found them to be a final word, nor to be relied upon for final decisions. They’re great for knowing if they’re in the ballpark, but my son has been offered unexpected merit aid at some schools, and we surely don’t want to rule out our in-state school based on a calculator. Further, it could be out of ideal budget, but doable with a loan, but my son needs to know all his options in order to make a wise decision.
And really, it is a reasonable expectation to have financial aid awards - in writing, from the school - before committing, wouldn’t you say?
It is not reasonable, no. But “late” seems to be the new “on time” in college application season.
While it is highly unlikely FA will add to merit at this stage, If it is a close call, you will be forced to deposit at another school on May 1 and appeal the late SIR, or deposit at UC and pray for the best. This doesn’t seem right tho. Can the admissions office tell you if late SIR due to FA incomplete will routinely be approved?
I don’t mean to be the rain in the parade, but if you aren’t eligible for state or federal aid, there’s a reasonable thence that you’ll get no aid from a state school. They simply don’t have the financial resources, especially in certain states, like CA for instance.
@blackkitteycat have you looked in the portal / financial aid site for the individual schools? My daughter was accepted into a school March 30. A week later, out of curiosity I logged into to check it out - scholarship, grant and loans all already there even though she hadn’t been notified
@scmom2017 I’ll have to check. Interesting that I never got notified, considering I personally spoke to the financial aid officers and they assured me I would know everything by mid-march with a letter in the mail
Unless you are getting federal aid (Pell) state aid or merit aid from you in state school, I agree with @eyemgh that public universities don’t have aid to give. You should expect to be full pay ( your kid can borrow the federal loan of $5500)
Agreed. I would assume no aid from a state school, other than loans and maybe work study.
Aid office staffs have been cut to the bone, and this is the result. I work until 8:30 or 9 pm on a routine basis, along with working on weekends and on my rare vacations. It’s difficult to keep up with required timelines when offices are so short-staffed.
From your other thread re UCR: if your EFC is too high for FA, your only hope is merit. Very slim chance there. If that’s the case, and it’s still too expensive, he will need to commit to one of his merit schools to avoid losing your merit there!
Just because a school offers merit, even a lot, does not de facto make it the best deal. My son attends Cal Poly from out of state. He received $8000 in merit aid. He was awarded $100,000 from Case Western. The net cost of the two were nearly identical.
In my experience, merit aid always came with or soon after acceptance, not with the financial aid package. SO I agree with others that it’s unlikely any will come at this point, it’s usually coming from admissions, not the FA office in any case.
And yes totally frustrating. What kelsmom said…I’d write my state reps with this story and tell them to fund your schools properly.
Thanks everyone. Yeah, sounds like any merit would’ve come at the time of admission - as it has with ALL other schools that had any to give. And with not being eligible for state or federal aid, there’s probably nothing in the pot for us. I was hoping to appeal to them for “more” if they didn’t give us enough, given the amount of institutional grant money I know they disburse, but with no award letter, I can’t do that. And I guess that money is really for the neediest. Ho hum.
So, I guess it’s gonna come down to a school firmly in budget - which this one looks not to be - or a school one rung up with loans for the boy. Now, making that decision will be really tricky. Off to go work with the boy.
My D17 has two schools still in the running. One has rolling admissions and auto-merit. However, they also have competitive merit. Decisions for that are usually announced in mid-March. They’re still not out, and not anticipated before May 1, due to some inter-departmental delays.
For us, competitive merit would make a difference, so I sympathize completely. Are you thinking of asking for an extension of the May 1 deadline?
We still don’t know what we’re doing. It leaves us about 8k over budget. Can we assume some of our costs at home will go down because the kid’s expenses (with some exceptions) are now in that COA? (Like we won’t be feeding him at home.) If so, then maybe not quite 8K. He can do the $5500 loan, and earn some from work…
We toured another school today. Similar in terms of reputation (I think), but it’s about 6k cheaper. It might be coming down to if we want to let the kid take loans or not.
And with not being eligible for state or federal aid, there’s probably nothing in the pot for us. I was hoping to appeal to them for “more” if they didn’t give us enough, given the amount of institutional grant money I know they disburse, but with no award letter, I can’t do that. And I guess that money is really for the neediest. Ho hum.
Can we assume some of our costs at home will go down because the kid’s expenses (with some exceptions) are now in that COA? (Like we won’t be feeding him at home.) If so, then maybe not quite 8K. He can do the $5500 loan, and earn some from work…