Financial aid appeals

After weeks of delays related to the rollout of the new FAFSA, colleges will soon be coming through with need-based financial aid offers to admitted students. The next step for families will be comparing and evaluating these offers, and potentially negotiating or appealing.

First, you’ll want to be clear on whether the financial aid offer you’ve received from a college or university is need-based financial aid, a merit-based scholarship, a hybrid of the two, or a combination of both.

If the financial aid offer you’ve received is need-based, and you think an error was made or if you have special circumstances that warrant reconsideration of your family’s finances, your appeal should be sent to the college’s financial aid office. In your letter, focus on any new information you can provide that may update or illuminate what the college already knows from reviewing your FAFSA. If you’re comfortable doing so, you might also let the college know how much your family is reasonably able to pay.

If the offer is merit-based, you’ll be submitting your appeal letter to the admissions office. If you have superior merit-based offers from schools the college considers peer institutions, attach those to your email. If the school you’re appealing to is your first choice, tell them that, and explain why. If this is true—and only if this is true—you might also consider saying that if the school can match a competing offer you’ve received from a different school, you’ll attend. Colleges love to admit students whom they think will love it there, and be successful.

I’m currently reviewing financial aid appeal letters for several of my clients. I don’t write these letters, since they need to come from you and be written in your voice, but I do proofread them with the same attention and care that I put into reading personal statements and supplemental essays. My process doesn’t end when students gain acceptance to their top school—it ends only once they are committed to their dream school with their family’s financial house in order.

If you’d like to learn more about college readiness, college admissions, and paying for college, schedule your free consultation with me today!