As parents, we often have high hopes and expectations for our children’s education, and financial aid plays a crucial role in making those aspirations a reality. However, what should you do when your student’s financial aid award isn’t what you anticipated?
In this guide, we’ll explore steps you can take to address the situation and ensure your child receives the support they need for their academic journey.
Continue reading When Your Financial Aid Award Isn’t What You Expected
It’s a joyful day for your high school senior when an offer of college admission arrives, and the joy is magnified by a financial aid award.
Award letters arrive along with (or soon after) acceptance letters. I remember the first time I saw one, my daughter’s senior year. Quite honestly, it was Greek to me.
How were we supposed to compare the offers? The letters included the same basic categories — loans, work-study, grants and scholarships — but without understanding what each category meant it was hard to tell whether or not the college was meeting all of our financial need (Total Cost of Attendance minus our Expected Family Contribution, or EFC). Every college was different and every award letter was different!
Continue reading Breaking Down the Award Letters
After my daughter applied to colleges, we waited with anticipation to receive those offers of admission. But just as important, was the financial aid award letter. That letter could mean the difference between attending a college, deciding to incur debt, or attending a less expensive college.
When the letter finally began to trickle in, I realized that choosing the colleges to apply to was only the beginning of some very tough decisions. We learned some lessons along the way.
Continue reading 5 Lessons We Learned From an Award Letter
It’s financial aid award season. Students and parents have either received or will soon receive the award from the colleges that offered admission. How will this aid factor in to your student’s final decision?
But lurking between the lines in these award letters are some practices colleges use when offering admission and financial aid. Colleges will either lure students to accept their offer of admission, or discourage those students who were only offered admission to fill their quotas and inflate their numbers.
Front loading happens when colleges make their most generous financial aid award offers to applicants as a lure to attend. When students return the following year they may find their school has dropped their previously awarded grants and scholarships. Thousands of dollars may have been lost to the common practice of front loading, so ask these 5 questions:
In admissions, college gapping is a term used in reference to colleges and financial aid awards. The gap between what you can afford to pay (your EFC) and what colleges offer in aid creates this gap. Gapping happens when a college makes an offer of admission and doesn’t back it up with financial aid. Quite simply, the college doesn’t offer enough aid to cover the difference between the cost of the college attendance and your expected family contribution.
Gapping is a serious business. Colleges use the tactic to “weed out” the good applicants from the average applicants. Quite simply, if your student is at the top of their applicant pool, they will receive the aid required to attend. If not, your student will be gapped, in the hopes they will reject the offer of admission.
It’s a numbers game. Colleges offer admission to more students than they can possibly accommodate. Gapping helps them lessen the number of students who accept those offers of admission.
Colleges will pad the EFC numbers with federal student loans, federal parent loans and work-study. These should NOT be considered when determining if the college is gapping your student. All students qualify for federal student loans. College aid should only be in the form of merit scholarships and grants. If the difference between what you can afford and what the college offers is padded with loans, the college is gapping your student.
The lesson for parents and their college-bound students is to carefully scrutinize, analyze and question each item in their financial aid awards before bothering to compare one college’s offer to another. It may turn out that freshman year is a best deal at one place but if the total years until graduation are tallied, another choice may be the better bargain.
If the college is gapping your student it’s you and your student’s decision on whether or not to accept the offer of admission. If you want my advice–move on to the 2nd, 3rd or even 4th choice college with the good financial aid package. You will not only save a bundle, but your student will most likely be happier at a college that values his or her contribution.
Picture this. A teenage daughter with her heart set on attending an expensive private college. A mother who knew it was simply not affordable unless the financial aid award package was substantial. Waiting, waiting, and more waiting for the package to arrive after she heard she was accepted.
I’m sure this is the scene in many of your homes today. As a parent, you know the financial realities of paying for college. Your student, on the other hand, is thinking with her heart. If she’s like my daughter, she can’t see the picture from a financial perspective. After waiting for the award to arrive, my heart sunk. When her first choice college offered her “zero” financial aid other than student loans, I knew we were headed for a tough conversation.
If you’re bummed about your financial aid award package, what can you do?
First, compare awards from all the colleges
My daughter applied to ten colleges. Not all of them offered aid beyond student loans, but several of them offered scholarships and school grants. Sit down and compare the awards. Many colleges have implemented the Financial Aid Shopping Sheet. If not, you can download the sheet and complete it yourself for each college. Look at the bottom line. Which college’s package gives you the best value: it’s what you can afford to pay and your student will graduate with minimal debt (if any)?
Second, if there are larger awards from other colleges, use them as leverage
Since one of the colleges that offered my daughter admission also offered her a full-ride scholarship, we had some leverage. If the college that your student is dying to attend doesn’t offer a substantial aid package and one of the other colleges she applied to does, use those figures for leverage. Have your student contact the college and let them know it is her first choice, but she needs more aid to be able to attend. Mention that other colleges are offering more aid and you would like them to at least match these offers. These appeals are common and most colleges will consider upping the ante if you just ask.
Third, if the college won’t offer more money, consider one of the other colleges that offer the best financial aid
After appealing the aid, and not being satisfied with the college’s decision, it was time for some tough love. I knew it was going to break her heart, but I had to be the logical one. If the money picture is bleak and her first choice college won’t budge, it’s time for your student to consider one of the other colleges that did offer financial aid. Take a deeper look at the other colleges, revisit if you have to, and make the final decision.
As it turned out, my daughter fell in love with one of the colleges that offered substantial aid. It was a perfect fit for her, and she was able to graduate with a very small amount of student loan debt. She thanks me every day that I led her in that direction. If she had attended her dream college, even with the outside scholarships she had won, she would have graduated with close to $75,000 worth of debt. It was a tough conversation, but one I’m glad we had.
Could this disappointment have been avoided? Absolutely. I should have had a serious talk with her before she applied about what we were willing to pay and what we expected her to pay. This way, she would have known that this college, although it was her dream to attend, was completely out of our financial reach.
It’s financial aid award season. Students and parents are anxiously awaiting the news from colleges that offered admission. How much financial aid will they offer? What type of aid will you receive? How will this aid factor in to your student’s final decision.
College acceptances for regular admission will be posted and arriving soon. Just a little later, will come the financial aid award packages. Before you and your student have to make the final college choice and before the financial aid awards arrive, consider these four activities in preparation, add these four tasks to your schedule.
Before the Offers of Admission and Financial Aid Awards Arrive
It’s a joyful day for your high school senior when an offer of college admission arrives, and the joy is magnified by a financial aid award. Award letters arrive along with (or soon after) acceptance letters. I remember the first time I saw one, my daughter’s senior year. Quite honestly, it was Greek to me. How were we supposed to compare the offers? Every college was different and every award letter was different.
Breaking Down the Financial Aid Award Letter
Is your child’s financial aid offer enough to meet their financial needs? If not, they may be a victim of “gapping” or “admit/deny”, when a school accepts a student, but does not give a student enough aid to realistically attend.
Prepare yourself beforehand. The decision on which college to attend will be a lot easier, especially when you add the financial component to the mix.
Read Wendy’s article: 5 Questions to ask about financial aid front loading
______________________________
Wednesday’s child may be full of woe but Wednesday’s Parent can substitute action for anxiety. Each Wednesday Wendy and I will provide parent tips to get and keep your student on the college track. It’s never too late or too early to start!
The bonus is on the fourth Wednesday of each month when Wendy and I will host Twitter chat #CampusChat at 9pm ET/6pm PT. We will feature an expert on a topic of interest for parents of the college-bound.
Wednesday’s Parent will give twice the info and double the blog posts on critical parenting issues by clicking on the link at the end of the article from parentingforcollege to pocsmom.com and vice versa.