Financial Aid Appeal

kelsmom
Fri, 16 May 2008 16:38:02 +0000

There will be some expectation that you contribute to your own education. $0 student contribution is rare. However, the $20,000 seems awfully high. Do you have investments? If this figure is correct, it is because Columbia won’t let you get away with keeping trust funds or investments & receiving need based aid in lieu of spending them. If you don’t have any assets, though, I think a call to the Columbia financial aid office is in order. Just nicely explain that you are surprised by the student contribution & you would like to make sure that it is indeed correct. If they say yes, politely ask how they came up with that figure. Be nice, but you certainly have a right to know how they are coming up with this — keeping in mind that it might just be an honest mistake. Many colleges are really bad about giving transfer students money, but I didn’t think Columbia would gap like that.