I actually clicked it to check! LOL! But it was safe–and it wasn’t there!
Hi all, silent viewer here (up until now)- with lots of schools sending out the last of their information we’re in a bit of a predicament. Our top 2 schools both sent offers, #2 sent 50k merit and #1 sent 30k merit. The COA of top school is still around 40k more than #2 even with merit, should we try to appeal? We definitely don’t want to seem greedy since these offers are incredible on their own, but the money is a big difference.
It does not hurt to try to appeal. We will be appealing to a few schools to see if there is anything more they can do.
FYI…..once your child decides where they will be going next year you may want to look into when Parents/Family weekend is if you plan on visiting then and securing your hotel NOW.
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My assumption is that many, if not most are going to do so; so there’s no harm in presenting the data. In the case of DD’s preferred school, they do specifically note the situations in which they do not consider adjustments in aid - which in our case would include competitive offers from other schools, and foreign currency exchange rates. (Convert these COA’s to $ CAD and you get some figures that are truly breathtaking!)
Indeed. When we were at Jacobs this winter, there was a sign posted in the hotel advising people to book for commencement week, 4 years from now.
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I am curious where they mentioned the specific information surrounding how to appeal?
As a parent of 4 kids who have all gone to large public universities, 3 for performing arts, my suggestion is to AVOID parents weekends like the plague. Crowded, super expensive hotels, hard to get dinner reservations, crazy traffic etc. Choose another weekend/even week days to go–and in the case of music kids–choose to visit when they will be performing instead. Might be a different story at a smaller campus though.
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Good point. I actually looked the weekend before my parents weekend because it would be his 19th Birthday and I can’t imagine him being alone for that but it was even more expensive than Parents/Family weekend. I like the idea of going when they perform, not sure when he’d have any clue when that would happen.
We will be asking that school and teacher regardless of what they said…..
Whatever they say I know at least some of that is happening.
yes, definitely depends on the school. We’ve never gone to my Blair kid’s family weekend because it’s all based around football, which none of us has any interest in. We try to make it to my sLAC’s kid’s one, though, because the orchestra plays for the families (and his school doesn’t stream concerts, so we rarely get to see him play these days).
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Do you mean, Blair doesn’t live stream the concerts?
No–Blair DOES stream the concerts; my other kid’s LAC (Amherst) usually doesn’t.
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DS just got email from Michigan about merit: $5K. Not enough to tip the scales. Let the appeals begin!
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In the case of NEC, it’s basically outlined in their financial aid manual which is on the site as a PDF. It doesn’t directly link to the appeals form but if you email the address in the manual they are very nice about sending you the link.
I will say that while their policies say that they don’t consider the merit awards of other institutions, the form itself directly asks about them. Take that for whatever it’s worth… The financial aid officer said that they don’t consider undergrad awards until after the April 15 commit date for grad students.
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100% true.
Whew! Blair is one of the schools we are highly considering! How does your kid like Blair??
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He’s had a great experience! Good friends, great opportunities musically; he graduates in a few weeks, and I’m already feeling nostalgic….he loves to talk about Blair, so feel free to DM if your kid has any questions he can answer and I can pass along his contact info 
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I wonder what the average aid given at UMich is?
Does anyone know what a typical amount of merit is from UMich? Are they known to be stingy? UMich is one of my DD top schools!