So, you’ve gone through the stress-inducing process of selecting and applying for schools and now one of your top choices has accepted you for the upcoming semester. You are fortunate enough to be offered a scholarship, but according to your calculations, it doesn’t quite measure up to getting you financially enrolled.
This is a dilemma countless students face every year. Now many will scramble to get enough loans to cover their fees, several will check under every rock for scholarships, but how many will appeal financial aid for more funds???
What’s an appeal? A financial aid appeal is simply the request for additional scholarships/grants from your college or university. The process of an appeal is called professional judgment. When you receive your offer letter with X amount of funding that is NOT the end all be all before you decide to commit. Just like in a negotiation you have options.
A separate survey of over 1,000 college students conducted by CollegeFinance.com and Quatromoney found that 78% percent of students did not appeal their first financial aid award letter. Of those who did appeal, about 6% were awarded additional aid, with an average of $3,497 more (source).
How do I know if I can qualify? There are several circumstances where you may qualify for an appeal, they include:
- Death of a spouse/parent
- Job loss of a parent
- Medical bills
- Income has been reduced
- Natural disaster
- Multiple students attending college at the same time (including step-children who weren’t included in the original FAFSA)
- New healthcare cost not covered by insurance
- Parents enroll in college, full-time
- No longer receiving child support
- Divorce
We’ve all felt the impact of COVID in some capacity in our lives. For many, the pandemic has drastically impacted their family’s ability to afford an education. However, the Higher Education Act of 1965 gave financial aid administrators the ability to adjust FAFSA data used to determine financial aid allocation (source). Once you’ve submitted the supporting docs for your appeal, consider other options like funding from the CARES Act. The Act was updated in May 2021 with a section updated for schools to allocate emergency financial aid grants. Over $13 billion was allotted to go directly to higher ed schools and they are required to spend half on students until September 23, 2023. In addition, all students are eligible including international and undocumented (source).
You have options and an abundance of ways to fund your education before you commit to a school. Please advise, do not go into your financial aid office and use the term ‘negotiate’ however with the right tools and wording you will be on track to getting one step closer to graduating debt-free. Financial aid offices keep 15% to 20% of their budget in reserve for awarding extra aid — and oftentimes only about half of it gets deployed (source). Don’t leave money on the table!
Key takeaway steps:
- Call or visit your financial aid office
- Have a tangible number in mind before you request anything
- Make sure you have copies of required documents for proof
- Don’t send in your enrollment deposit so soon. (What incentive would they have to give you more money if you already committed to attending?)
- Be tactful and courteous (you get more bees with honey!)
- Follow up
Check out SwiftStudent, a free tool developed by multiple colleges and educational advocacy organizations that has financial aid appeal letter templates available. If this was helpful share this with a student today!
