How To Appeal Your College Financial Aid Offer For More Money

With colleges making admissions decisions in March and April, one aspect of many families’ minds these days is how they plan to fund their child’s upcoming college education. .

While great expectations surround the college acceptance letter, with it comes a very important document that can provide budding parents with additional guidance on the cost of four. next year. This document is a financial aid award letter. This letter states how much money you will receive in the form of grants, scholarships, study or student loans.

There’s a good chance the financial aid offer won’t be enough to send your child to that particular college, but experts suggest there’s a way to take advantage of it: Students and parents can maximize their college aid package by calling for more money.

“If [the financial aid package] Higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz, author of the book “How to Complain for More Financial Aid for College,” says there could be something not being taken into account. “[Colleges] do not know about your special circumstances unless you tell them. “

Here’s how to appeal your college financial aid offer, plus what you can expect.

If you’re skeptical that you’re getting a less generous financial aid package than you expected, an easy first step is to look up the average cost of schooling by family income through the Department of Education. College Navigator website. Here, you can see if the financial assistance you receive is comparable to the aid received by families with similar incomes.

Second, because colleges use income and tax information from the previous two years, you should notify the financial aid office of any financial circumstances that have changed in the past two years. It could be job loss, family death, divorce, high medical costs or even natural disasters like hurricanes.

Additionally, if you received a financial aid package from a financial aid school, you may want to include updates on improvements in test scores or GPA. Since many college rankings are based on test scores and student GPA, some schools attract top-performing students by supporting their performance. However, Kantrowitz points out, the aid that is deserved is often insignificant, often a few hundred or thousand dollars.

Kantrowitz added that parents and students should appeal as soon as possible. Some colleges will have a form that prospective students need to fill out to appeal, while other colleges may require students to submit an appeal letter.

Your complaint letter

To write a letter of appeal, you will need documentation or proof of any changes in your family’s financial circumstances. For example, if a parent loses their job, you can provide an unemployment benefit receipt or a copy of proof that they have applied for unemployment benefits, explains Kantrowitz. He also recommends that people be concise in their letters: Bullet each special case and then provide copies of documents proving that exceptional circumstances occurred.

Two other tips for writing an appeal include reiterating your excitement about attending that school and mentioning any other outstanding financial aid offers you’ve received from a competitive college. picture, if that’s the case. You may find that one college is willing to match or even exceed another offer.

Kantrowitz wants you to note that different types of colleges are more or less acceptable to tailor financial aid packages. For-profit colleges are the least likely to make the adjustment, while in-state public colleges are more likely to make the change and private nonprofit colleges with funding large is more likely to make adjustments.

And not all appeals are equally likely to succeed. According to Kantrowitz, appeals related to income changes are more likely to succeed than other types of appeals.

It’s no secret that higher education comes with a hefty price tag. That’s why millions of American families rely on the financial aid packages that colleges offer them. Before settling on what a school rewards your child with that college admission letter, appeal ASAP to see if you can cash out any other funds. At the end of the day, any little bit helps.

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