My child was accepted to two Ivy League Schools, let’s call them A and B. He applied early to A, was deferred, but was ultimately admitted. He was admitted to B through the normal admissions cycle.
Because of the early application, I completed the financial aid application for A a few months before the application for B. The early application required an estimate of my income for 2016; the later one did as well. I run my own business so there is a good deal of fluctuation in my income.
The upshot of this is that my income estimate on the earlier application was significantly lower than the one on the later application. The year turned out to be better than expected.
I assume this is the main reason why the financial aid offer from A is a lot better than the offer from B. The other reason is that A offers a small discount to students whose families live nearby.
The question is this: Is there any point in asking B to match the financial aid offer from A? Logically, I would think that the financial aid officers at B would want to see not only the offer but the underlying application. But you never know.
Was there an expectation from the schools that the 2016 estimates would be followed up with a report of actual 2016 income?
Your financial aid for the 2017-2018 academic year was based on your 2015 income…not your 2016 income.
Different schools treat business owners in different ways. There are a lot of deductions allowed by the IRS for business owners that some schools do NOT allow for financial aid purposes. Those are added back in as income.
In addition, some Ivy League schools like Harvard, Yale and Princeton, have much deeper pockets and more generous need based aid than the others. That also could be your issue.
If the school with less aid is really your kid’s top choice…contact them. Tell them this is the top choice, but your kiddo received more aid from school whatever. Ask if they can increase your aid to match…but be prepared to commit to attending that school…because that’s what they are going to expect!
you must apply for financial aid every year.
This year’s package was based on 2015 income. You will file the FAFSA on october 1, 2017 using 2016 income. If there has been a change in income there will be a change in aid