Here are some tips that could help get your college aid offer increased:
- Understand the process. Before you ask for more money, do your homework about how the aid process works and whether there's an appeals process in place. If you aren't working with a college consultant, read college planning books, visit sites such as Finaid.org or CollegeBoard.com, or simply Google "appeal financial aid" and you'll find plenty of information and advice. Just don't expect a bidding war.
- Cite special circumstances. While colleges abide by a federal formula indetermining your financial need, they can adjust an aid package based on unusual circumstances. Those include a parent's job loss or salary reduction, high medical costs, divorce or any other recent development that would alter your presumed ability to pay based on the previous year's tax data. In such cases, the family should contact the financial aid administrator at the school and ask for an appeal, formally called a professional judgment review or sometimes a special circumstances review.
- Show competing offers. If a comparable school has given you a better financial aid offer, use it as a bargaining chip but with caution. Many schools need to hear other reasons in order to re-evaluate your package. You might want to cite, if not one of the unusual circumstances mentioned above, another legitimate cause of increased financial stress such as a big upcoming required expenditure, costs of caring for an elderly parent or, other issues. Don't just say, "These other schools have offered me more money, what are you going to do for me?". Rather request a reconsideration. It's a matter of semantics.
- Be concise. Be polite, be concise and focus on the facts in a letter or e-mail asking if there's anything the college can do to improve the aid package. Your goal should be to get the financial aid administrator on your side by providing information, such as some of the factors described above, that any reasonable person would consider sufficient for an adjustment. Just don't ramble on.
- Don't telegraph your intentions. Consider stating in the letter that if School A matches School B's offer, your child will attend School A. Don't overplay your hand. Calling the school as soon as you get the aid package, for example, is a bad idea because it telegraphs that the child wants to go there badly. Signaling too strongly that a school is the top choice lessens any incentive its officials may have to sweeten the deal for you.
Sourced from Dave Carpenter, Associated Press, 4-7-10
