How to Appeal Financial Aid

 By: Suzanne Shaffer

This was my story: A teenage daughter with her heart set on attending an expensive private college. A mother who knew the financial aid award would need to be substantial for it to work. Waiting for an offer of admission only to find out that, though she was accepted, the aid package was insufficient and the college was simply not affordable.

We were headed for a tough conversation.

This same scene may be playing out in your home today. As a parent, you know the financial realities of paying for college. Your student, on the other hand, is thinking with their heart.

If you aren’t happy about your financial aid award package, what can you do? Fortunately, you do have options. Your student may choose to accept an offer from another college with suitable financial aid — as we did. Or you can ask the college for more financial aid.

If you choose the second option, here’s what you need to know and do before you proceed.

Compare Award Offers

You can compare your student’s financial aid offer with other student offers at the same school. To help families do this, Road2College has crowdsourced financial aid and merit scholarship offers using their Compare College Offers tool.

Families submit all their student offers and compare the net cost of each school. Then, you can see offers from other students at the same school and compare your student with other students who share similar characteristics like GPA, test scores, and family EFC range. This can help you determine if the offer your student received is comparable to the offers to other students.

Another option is to look at the percentage of admitted students receiving financial aid at a particular college and the amount of the average award using a college data source like College Data or College Navigator.

What is a Financial Aid Appeal?

Just like any other large consumer purchase, college tuition prices are negotiable. The sticker price you see is very rarely the price you pay. Data collected by the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) revealed that colleges discounted tuition for the 2018–19 school year by over 50 percent. This year, because of the pandemic, you can anticipate that many (but not all) colleges will be even more flexible in order to lure students due to low application numbers based on the fact that families are struggling financially.

When you appeal your financial aid award, you are simply asking for more money. Don’t be afraid to do this; the college will not be offended or react by rescinding their offer of admission. They may say no, but it does not hurt to ask. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by appealing your award.

What Should You Appeal?

There are two types of financial aid awards you can appeal: need-based aid and merit-based aid. You must, however, have a good reason to appeal.

You might appeal need-based aid if your financial situation has changed since completing the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) or if there is something you need to clarify beyond what the school saw on the FAFSA.

To appeal merit-based aid, your student should have a reason to increase the aid such as other higher award offers from other schools or an improved academic performance.

Merit-Based Aid

There are some reasons to appeal merit-based aid. If the college is keen to attract your student, they may sweeten the deal by providing more aid if you ask. Depending on how their freshmen deposits are looking (fewer students than expected accepting admission offers), the college may be inclined to increase merit aid to attract more students. Make this appeal through the admissions office.

If your student decides to appeal merit aid, you should provide the college with information to support the request:

• Other colleges have offered you more money and are more affordable. Use these offers for leverage by asking your first-choice college to at least match the award, thus assuring you will accept their offer of admission.
• Your student's test scores have significantly improved since they applied, making them eligible for more merit aid.
• Your student's GPA has improved since applying and might give the college a reason to increase their aid.

“At many schools, it’s a buyer’s market,” explains Lynn O’Shaughnessy, author of The College Solution, a book aimed at helping students find the right school at the right price. “You’re going to be more likely to succeed [in getting more financial aid] if you’re looking at a private school than at a public school. They’re more eager to fill their spots.”

Need-Based Aid

Based on the information you provided on the FAFSA, the college has evaluated your ability to pay. Appeal your student's need-based award if there has been a change in your family circumstances or your family’s finances. The financial aid office will evaluate your situation and make a determination based on the information you provide.

Some reasons to appeal may include these changes in a family’s ability to pay for college:

• Loss of income due to job loss or another factor
• Divorce
• A one-time infusion of income such as a salary bonus or inheritance inflated your income in a prior year
• Long-term care of a family member
• Natural disaster
• Illness or disability
• Increase in childcare expenses due to parent returning to work
• Family education costs such as private elementary or secondary school tuition or a parent returning to college
• Death or incarceration of a parent causing a loss of income

Examine your student’s academic situation as it relates to merit aid and your family’s financial situation as it relates to need-based aid. Determine whether an appeal might increase your financial aid award amount.

How Should You Appeal?

Write a financial aid appeal letter either to the admissions office or the financial aid office. Since every family’s circumstances are different, every letter will be different and should be personally crafted. You can, however, follow these simple guidelines:

• Gather all documentation necessary to make your case.
• Use proper grammar and mechanics.
• Do not make demands and remain humble.
• State your reason for appeal clearly.
• Be specific including dates, figures and amounts.
• Provide documentation along with the letter to substantiate your appeal.
• Open and close with gratitude.

Some colleges use a Special Circumstances Form for financial aid appeals. The form asks questions to add to the financial picture derived from the FAFSA. You simply list your reason in a few sentences or even just fill in bubbles and submit it to the financial aid office. Based on the information provided on this form, the college may adjust your student's award.

The College Essay Guy provides examples of financial aid appeal letters in "How to Write a Financial Aid Appeal Letter" >

When Should You Appeal?

Once you compare your student's financial aid awards and determine you are eligible to appeal, craft your letter to the college or colleges. Just remember that May 1 is the decision deadline and once you accept admission, positive appeal decision will be less likely.

How Can You Win an Appeal?

If you presented a clear reason for requesting more need-based aid, the odds are in your favor that the college will find some money to supplement your award. If you are requesting more merit aid, don’t expect an avalanche of money. A few thousand dollars, however, can make the difference between having to take out substantial student loans or being able to attend with minimal debt.

The more selective a college is, the less likely they will be to offer more merit aid. If your student is at the top of the applicant pool and a stellar student, the college may be more likely to offer additional aid.

Will the Pandemic Impact Financial Aid Appeals?

Due to the pandemic, many colleges and universities are facing enrollment uncertainty and a risk to their revenue streams. They will be more likely to grant appeals to attract more students. For parents, financial circumstances may have changed due to job loss or national shutdowns and warrant additional aid based on financial need.

The U.S. Department of Education issued guidance to college financial aid administrators, allowing them to use professional judgement “when students and/or their families have been affected by COVID-19.” The coronavirus will not change financial aid appeal procedures, however.

Mark Kantrowitz, Publisher and VP of Research for Savingforcollege.com, in an article for Forbes outlined some examples of special circumstances related to COVID-19 that might justify an adjustment:

• The student or parent’s employer closes for a period of time, laying off or furloughing staff
• Death or illness of a parent or other wage-earner
• Lost wages due to illness, a quarantine period or shelter-in-place order
• Inability to work because of illness (e.g., impaired lung function prevents a parent from engaging in substantial gainful activity)

Current college students are also eligible to appeal their financial aid. Due to the financial impact of the pandemic, they may need additional financial aid to attend college.

If you need more money in your financial aid package and you meet the criteria, initiate an appeal and ask. But ask properly and politely.

What Is a Financial Aid Appeal?

Post from Road2College

Second only to the all-important college decision letter is the financial aid award letter.

For most families, this award letter dictates whether they will be able to afford the cost of college.

It’s critical that families know their options once they receive their award letters, so it is best to be prepared with information about their finances even before the letter arrives in case financial aid appeals will need to be drafted.

What You Need to Know About the Financial Aid Award Letter

A financial aid award letter will arrive either with the offer of admission or shortly after your student receives their offer. Within the award letter you will find the cost of attending the college, what you will be expected to pay or the EFC (Expected Family Contribution) and any financial assistance the college is offering to bridge the gap between what you are expected to pay and the cost of attendance.

But lurking within the award letter can often be some practices colleges use when filling their admission quotas. Colleges use their practices to lure students into accepting their offer of admission or discourage those students who were only offered admission to fill their quota or inflate their numbers from deciding to attend.

Front loading

Front loading happens when a college makes a generous financial aid award upon acceptance. When the student returns the following year, they will find the college has dropped their previously award grants and scholarships. That’s why it’s crucial that you ask these questions before accepting an award:

• Is the grant or scholarships renewable? What your student needs is for the money to follow him through college until graduation. Find out the maximum number of years the award will be renewable.
• Are there terms attached to the grant or scholarship? Your student may have to maintain a certain grade point average or maintain a certain number of credit hours. Inquire about the eligible requirements each year and if your student must complete additional paperwork in order to keep the award.
• If the grant or scholarship is lost, what will replace it? Colleges will most likely offer student loans as a substitution plan. But in order to avoid additional debt, inquire about other grants or scholarships that might be available and ask about the application process. Your student should also plan to search for outside scholarships throughout college to supplement any awards that are lost.
• Will the college bill increase in future years and if so, by how much? If tuition and/or room and board increases, the renewable awards may no longer cover the increased costs. Ask if there is an increase, will the awards increase as well. This is important to know as you are planning for future cost increases.

Gapping

Gapping is a term used in reference to financial aid awards. It refers to the gap between what you can afford to pay (your EFC) and what colleges offer in financial aid. If there is a difference, it creates a financial gap. When a college makes an offer of admission and does not solidify it with enough aid to cover the difference between the cost of college attendance and your expected family contribution, this is known as gapping.

Colleges use this tactic to differentiate between the good applicants and the average applicants. For instance, if your student is not at the top of the applicant pool, he may be offered admission but will not be offered enough aid or gapped in the hopes he will not accept the offer of admission.

This happens because colleges offer admission to more students than they can possibly afford to accommodate. If a family cannot afford to pay the additional money required to attend, the student will most likely decline an offer of admission and move on to another college.

Padding

Colleges will often pad the EFC amount with federal student loans, federal parent loans and a work-study award. These loans should never be considered when determining if a college is gapping your student. All students qualify for federal student loans. 

College aid should only be in the form of merit scholarships or grants. If loans are considered in the financial aid package, the college is gapping your student.

If a college is using any of these tactics with your student, you should carefully compare other awards from other colleges who are offering admission.

How Do You Compare Financial Aid Awards?

Before accepting any college’s offer of admission, you should carefully compare, analyze and question each item on the financial aid award letters from each college. As a parent, you understand the financial realities of paying for a college education.

Your student, on the other hand, may want to attend a college that will mean incurring a substantial amount of debt. For this reason, you should carefully compare all awards side by side and determine which is the best financial fit for your family.

Using the Financial Aid Shopping Sheet will help you evaluate the awards. Many colleges either use the government form or have adapted it to their own information. Using this sheet makes it simple to evaluate the awards and see easily if the award is sufficient to meet your financial needs. If the college does not provide this, you can easily print a copy and transfer the information from the letter to the form.

You should be able to easily find the scholarships, grants, student loans and the overall costs from each college. The college’s full cost of attendance should be clearly stated on the award letter. To determine whether this amount is accurate or if it’s deleted from the award, you can visit the College Board’s site BigFuture. Just type in the name of the college and the search provides the pertinent information.

Once you have compared all the financial aid information, you will be able to determine how much you and your student are going to have to pay out of your own pockets to attend the college. If each college offers comparable awards, the decision will be easy.

But if one college offers more aid than the other, your student might choose this college. In many families, however, the decision is not that simple. If a student’s dream college does not offer enough aid and his heart is set on attending, what are your options, and can you appeal an award?

When Can You Appeal an Award?

Anyone can appeal a financial aid award and ask for more aid. But in certain instances, an appeal is certainly warranted.

You can appeal the amount of your award based on special circumstances or unusual circumstances. This would be a need-based appeal.

According to StudentAid.gov, unusual circumstances might include:

• Tuition expenses at an elementary or secondary school.
• Unusual medical or dental expenses not covered by insurance.
• A family member who recently became unemployed.
• Changes in income or assets that may affect your eligibility for financial aid.

In a recent Facebook Live interview, Jodi Okun from College Financial Aid Advisors,  and author of Secrets of a Financial Aid Pro  said there are other criteria financial aid officers might consider:

• Death in the family
• Caring for an elderly family member
• Extenuating circumstances (a situation that is unique to your own family that you could not articulate on the FAFSA or CSS Profile)

StudentAid.gov also explains special circumstances that might affect a student’s dependency status and also affect their financial aid:

• You are unable to provide parental information.
• You are homeless or at risk of being homeless.
• You are seeking an unsubsidized loan only.

In order to be considered for all types of federal student financial aid, under federal law, your student must provide parental information on the FAFSA unless he meets one of the criteria for being an “independent” student. 

This is true even if he doesn’t live with his parent, his parent is not paying any of his college expenses, or his parent does not claim him as a dependent on their taxes.

The financial aid administrator will determine if the student qualifies based on the information provided.

With any appeal for any of these circumstances, parents and students must submit documented information and proof for the financial aid office to consider an appeal.

What Other Instances Warrant an Appeal?

You can appeal a merit-based award if your student’s grades have significantly improved since submitting the FAFSA which might warrant more aid based on his academic achievement. If your student has evidence of academic achievements or improved grades on his transcript, appealing the award might gain him additional aid. Offer proof when submitting your appeal.

In addition, if your student receives more financial aid from a competing college, he can leverage that award to ask for additional merit aid to match that of the other college. Your student would make the case by promising to attend the college if they match the offer from the competing college. Of course, you must provide proof of the award from the other college.

 

How to Appeal a Financial Aid Award Letter

A need-based award appeal should be made with the Financial Aid Office of the college your student will be attending. If it’s a merit-based award appeal, your student should contact the Admissions Office.

Your student should call to verify contact information and submit a written appeal request. You should never do this over the telephone. The letter should be no more than a page and you or your student (depending on who can provide the best information) should clearly outline the details without turning it into a sob story or a demand.

According to Lynn O’Shaughnessy, author of The College Solution: A Guide for Everyone Looking for the Right School at the Right Price , “Whether a student will have success appealing an award can also depend on whether a school’s admission office is nervous about meeting its freshman enrollment target. Some schools will eagerly give a student an additional award to ensure filling a freshman slot regardless of the merits of the appeal. In fact, in some cases, students don’t even need to ask.”

If colleges are behind in receiving freshmen deposits, they may also create additional scholarships in the spring to entice accepted students and can also use these scholarships to increase merit aid for a student who asks for more aid.

What Are the Components of a Financial Aid Appeal Letter?

The letter should open thanking the college for its offer of admission and its financial award. Then move to the reason for the letter: regret that the award is not substantial enough to attend their college.

Outline the reasons why you will need additional funds but be polite and never make demands or attempt to negotiate. Be courteous in the tone of the letter.

Finally, along with the letter, submit any documentation to support your claims.

If you need some samples of appeal letters, you can view some here: Sample Financial Appeal Letter.

In conclusion, financial aid awards are an important part of the final college decision. Evaluating each award and comparing it side by side with others will help you and your student make a wise financial decision.

If you and your student feel you need more aid in order to accept an offer of admission, follow these guidelines to evaluate whether to ask and how to ask.

Remember to follow up after sending the appeal letter and thank the college for their consideration.