03.09.2022 - College Aid Appeal
How to Analyze and Appeal College Financial Aid
Presented by Joe Messinger, CFP®, College Aid Pro
Financial aid award letters can be confusing. It is critical that you carefully analyze each award letter and determine the amount of free money received in the form of grants and scholarships. Equally important, one must identify what is the "net" cost of the school. The first offer may not be the best offer.
Listen as college planning guru Joe Messinger, CFP gives advice on how to get more scholarship money for your clients.
Attendees Comments:
Here are ideas that the attendees learned from Joe:
Apply for more colleges to be able to negotiate, and if divorced, then check for schools that only use 1 parent for expected family cost.
Apply to schools even if you don't want to go there to get competing offers
State schools are bad appeal candidates
Just having a process to review and appeal awards AND I really liked the idea of applying to schools that do give a lot of merit aid to use as a comparison.
One thing that stands out is asking for a specific amount in the appeal. I have gone back and forth on this. I have seen students get money unsolicited. I have seen them ask for a specific amount and not receive. And I have, this year, seen them ask for additional consideration, showing the competitive school's offer without a specific "ask." Results on this last one are TBD. I think it's nice to have a rule. In this case, "Ask for a specific amount."
The ability to negotiate aid armed with detailed information has a greater chance of success
"The appeal process in general--we don't really focus on that here.
The details in the software could be very useful for our clients.
Wasn't aware that one might have visibility into actual scholarships a given school awards.
Apply for more colleges to be able to negotiate, and if divorced, then check for schools that only use 1 parent for expected family cost.
Apply to schools even if you don't want to go there to get competing offers
State schools are bad appeal candidates
Just having a process to review and appeal awards AND I really liked the idea of applying to schools that do give a lot of merit aid to use as a comparison.
One thing that stands out is asking for a specific amount in the appeal. I have gone back and forth on this. I have seen students get money unsolicited. I have seen them ask for a specific amount and not receive. And I have, this year, seen them ask for additional consideration, showing the competitive school's offer without a specific "ask." Results on this last one are TBD. I think it's nice to have a rule. In this case, "Ask for a specific amount."
The ability to negotiate aid armed with detailed information has a greater chance of success
"The appeal process in general--we don't really focus on that here.
The details in the software could be very useful for our clients.
Wasn't aware that one might have visibility into actual scholarships a given school awards.
Apply for more colleges to be able to negotiate, and if divorced, then check for schools that only use 1 parent for expected family cost.
Apply to schools even if you don't want to go there to get competing offers
State schools are bad appeal candidates
Just having a process to review and appeal awards AND I really liked the idea of applying to schools that do give a lot of merit aid to use as a comparison.
One thing that stands out is asking for a specific amount in the appeal. I have gone back and forth on this. I have seen students get money unsolicited. I have seen them ask for a specific amount and not receive. And I have, this year, seen them ask for additional consideration, showing the competitive school's offer without a specific "ask." Results on this last one are TBD. I think it's nice to have a rule. In this case, "Ask for a specific amount."
The ability to negotiate aid armed with detailed information has a greater chance of success
"The appeal process in general--we don't really focus on that here.
The details in the software could be very useful for our clients.
Wasn't aware that one might have visibility into actual scholarships a given school awards.