Financial Aid Appeal

teachandmom
Sun, 04 Mar 2012 14:35:46 +0000

Collegescol, my D was accepted last year to AU, and while they gave her a great FA offer, we still would have had to pay over 3 times our FAFSA EFC, and it’s not a huge number, but also not low enough for Pell. In the end, we just couldn’t swing it without taking huge parent loans. That would have put our retirement in jeopardy, and we already struggle to save for retirement. If you have a 0 EFC, and your parents don’t have much money to begin with, they should not take out parent loans, or at least not big ones. My D was devastated to have to give up her dream of AU. One year later, she is incredibly happy at the school that gave her enough fin. aid that we are only paying one and a half times our EFC. We parents are happy because it is financially much more comfortable for us, and our D actually says she is glad things worked out the way they did. One year ago it looked like a huge catastrophe, and the ruin of her entire life! Choose a school that will not cause your parents to suffer when they are older, please!
Consider this too; for every applicant who appeals to AU because they need more aid, there is some kid who has been waitlisted who can pay full tuition, or needs only very little money from AU. I don’t think AU really cares if someone who needs a lot of aid attends or not…saves them a lot of cash, really.