|
 The truth is, you can appeal a college's financial aid offer, and
sometimes you will get more money. But you are unlikely to spark a
bidding war over your kid, and in many situations, schools will not
budge.
"Families can't really lose anything by asking ... but they need to
go into this with their eyes wide open," said Martha Savery,
spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Education Financing Authority and
a former financial aid director for Harvard Graduate School of
Education. "In many, many cases, the colleges have gone out with
their best offer."
It may seem counter-intuitive, but the richer the school, the less
likely it is to cut you a bigger break. Harvard, Yale and other
elite universities with fat endowments offer generous aid to those
with financial need, often meeting 100 percent, and let wealthier
families pay their own way.
Merit scholarships, which are discounts on tuition that are not
need-based, are more typically used by schools that have to recruit
desirable students.
College consultant Lynn O'Shaughnessy published an angry email on
her blog this spring from a disappointed mother who said her
daughter, a National Merit scholar, had not received a single
scholarship from any of the schools that accepted her. The parents
were both doctors, so they did not get any need-based aid, either.
The schools the mother listed - Duke, University of Chicago and
Washington University in St. Louis - were all what O'Shaughnessy
called "collegiate alpha dogs" that enjoy such high rankings and
reputations they do not have to offer many merit scholarships to
attract all the students they need.
Other schools are worried about filling their seats with desirable
students, although who gets merit scholarships can vary widely, said
consultant Deborah Fox of Fox College Funding in San Diego.
Students with GPAs and test scores that fall within the top quartile
of applicants, for example, may get extra help. The same may be true
for those with athletic, musical or other talents the school needs
that year.
Wealth is desirable, too. In one of the many ironies of college
financing, families who can afford to pay the full sticker price of
a school may get significant discounts to entice their kids to
attend.
All these differences can explain why financial aid offers may vary
for the same family.
[to top of second column] |
"Public schools are going to offer different financial aid packages
than private," Savery said, "but if it's a school of the same type
and the offer is remarkably different, it's worth asking why."
Families should also contact financial aid offices when the
student's most desired school falls short.
"The answer will either be, 'We'll take another look' or 'We gave
you our best offer,'" Savery said. "Either way, you’ll know."
Parents should not expect to play multiple schools off each other or
aggressively demand financial concessions since those tactics can
backfire. Colleges will typically want to see any offer they would
consider matching, and financial aid officials are less likely to be
cooperative if they suspect families are gaming the system,
consultants said.
The one circumstance where a vast majority of schools will at least
consider boosting your aid is when your family has suffered a
dramatic deterioration in its financial situation. Death, disability
or layoffs may have altered your ability to pay, but so can other
changes in expenses or income.
"If your family has significant medical expenses ... or if they've
had to take in a family member or seen a reduction in hours, that's
worth mentioning," Savery said.
(Follow us @ReutersMoney or at http://www.reuters.com/finance/personal-finance
Editing by Beth Pinsker and Lisa Von Ahn)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
