Yes, we have appealed both merit & need-based & have received both.
At some schools merit is awarded by admission counselors & need-based by financial aid officers.
Naturally we wanted more merit than need based as they will be renewed each year provided he meets their minimum GPA, so every time DS received an award, honor roll letter, accepted into a special program, etc he updated all the admissions counselors & explained that he hoped they would take it into consideration when they gave out their aid. And they did! He was told to wait for the 1st offer & then appeal with supporting documents. Just yesterday DS received an email that one school has upped his merit award by $4K per year! Now DS is an OK student, 87% unweighted GPA, took 3 AP's this year, really nice SAT/ACT score, applied & was accepted into an internship & summer job already - a real get-up-&-go type kid, not one to senior slump & the schools have really appreciated him for that. Also, he did the calls & emails, not me, although I helped him.
You need to go visit the school(s) & have your daughter make her appeal in person. Have her sell herself. DS has been to every school he really wants to go to, after he was accepted & has talked with them himself - they LOVE students who own it themselves & show initiative. At this point several of the private schools are the same cost as the public ones.
Good luck!
You are correct. My daughter sounds like your son. She did all the hard work herself for the college of her choice. She was upset about a scholarship she felt she deserved, she went and requested a meeting with admissions counselor. This was 2wks ago, they emailed DD today and invited DH, me, and DD to lunch. I will inform you tomorrow if it is good news. Pretty sure it is!
From what I understand, the offers made by other schools will not carry any weight unless they are "peer" schools to the college you are trying to negotiate with. In other words, a higher-ranked school won't be persuaded if a third tier school gave your dd more money.
Something I wasn't clear on from your post-you said you don't qualify for any need-based aid, but you want to explain your financial situation. So are you looking for increased merit aid, or for need based aid? If you're asking for need based aid, the school's first response may very well be "stafford loan".
Good luck, it can't hurt to try! How much of a difference is there between the schools' offers?
To be honest, I'm not sure what I'm asking for. We met with a FA counselor because I had questions about whether DDs aid would go up when I had 3 in school in 2 years (She said significantly). Then she TOLD me that I should appeal the decision. Since this school is a FAFSA school and not a CSS school,they really don't know our financial situation.
They did give her merit aid to bring the tuition down below our EFC, but it would still cost 38K a year. She has a free ride to 2 of our state schools and some nice offers from a few privates. I am going to wait until we hear from 2 other "big" privates to see what they offer.
DD wants to go to this school because what she wants to major in would be a Biomedical Engineering degree at this school and a Comp Sci degree or bio degree at some of the others. She has really sound reasons for picking the school, but it is a LOT of money.
To be honest, I'm not sure what I'm asking for. We met with a FA counselor because I had questions about whether DDs aid would go up when I had 3 in school in 2 years (She said significantly). Then she TOLD me that I should appeal the decision. Since this school is a FAFSA school and not a CSS school,they really don't know our financial situation.
They did give her merit aid to bring the tuition down below our EFC, but it would still cost 38K a year. She has a free ride to 2 of our state schools and some nice offers from a few privates. I am going to wait until we hear from 2 other "big" privates to see what they offer.
DD wants to go to this school because what she wants to major in would be a Biomedical Engineering degree at this school and a Comp Sci degree or bio degree at some of the others. She has really sound reasons for picking the school, but it is a LOT of money.
She is going to want a Masters and that is where the school will really count. Save the 38k a year for her Master's program.
My fingers are crossed for you & your daughter - extra pixie dust too! Please let us know how it goes.
We had the rug pulled out from under us after DS applied to colleges EA, his father lost his job. So, we went about it this way. I figured they were going to give that money to someone, might as well be DS. That fired him up, it really has worked out for him & he has a choice. He knew he had to make it happen for himself, b/c he knew he had to choose the lowest priced school & he didn't want to be in a classroom with 200 kids.
1. If you do not go after what you want, you will never have it.
2. If you do not ask, the answer will always be no.
3. If you do not step forward, you will always be in the same place.
This really depends on the college. Submitting letters from other institutions showing what you are getting at the university I work at does not help in getting additional financial aid. We only do petitions for people with legitimate reasons such as loss of employment or even death of a parent. If it is something beyond a parent's/student's control then you can petition. If it is just that you want more money, we do not match offers or adjust our packages for this.
Thank You! SHE GOT IT!!!!!!!
FULL RIDE....Full tuition for 4yrs! This includes dorming, food, books, etc. It is all paid for. She will be the ambassador of her university. It is only given out every 4yrs to one person. We feel so blessed.
Thank You! SHE GOT IT!!!!!!!
FULL RIDE....Full tuition for 4yrs! This includes dorming, food, books, etc. It is all paid for. She will be the ambassador of her university. It is only given out every 4yrs to one person. We feel so blessed.
Thank You! SHE GOT IT!!!!!!!
FULL RIDE....Full tuition for 4yrs! This includes dorming, food, books, etc. It is all paid for. She will be the ambassador of her university. It is only given out every 4yrs to one person. We feel so blessed.
OP here
They gave her another 13K! We do not qualify for any need based aid. We (DH and I) wrote a letter saying that we have 5 kids and could not afford to send her to a 60K a year school. If she did it, she would have to take out loans.
My DD wrote a letter stating all the reasons she wanted to go to this school and compared it to the "better" school that was giving her 30K. The 30K school is ranked much higher and has higher SAT requirements. (My daughters SATs were higher than both schools) Dream school was giving her 18K. Dream school said they would have a decision in a week.
Waited 10 days, hadn't heard from dream school. "better school" was having an admitted students day, we went and she LOVED it. Decided that it was the school she wanted to go to. We sent in the deposit.
Yesterday, dream school comes back with 31K in merit aid. Happily, DD decided to stick with "better" school.
So, appeals do work (sometimes).