<p>Duke should not have given you 5.5k in loans… are you sure that’s not 5k? Duke caps initial student loan debt at 5k, and then if a student requests it, they will give more. Duke probably added back in a lot of the deducations into the AGI (a bit of CSS profiles do).</p>
<p>You can always ask, but Duke has on their website a policy that they do not match awards from other schools-- a higher award from a peer school is not a reason for them (they say) to reconsider your aid offer.</p>
<p>[Duke</a> Financial Aid: The Financial Aid Guide to Special Circumstances](<a href=“http://www.finaid.duke.edu/forms/online_forms/specialpart1.html]Duke”>http://www.finaid.duke.edu/forms/online_forms/specialpart1.html)</p>
<p>If I had to guess, I would expect that they expect a bit out of savings and that they most definitely gave you a higher ‘need-based’ income than 90k. Look through their policies on special circumstances, and see if any of them apply to your family. Try the NPC on their website again, and if the numbers are way off, review your data again. If you are still puzzled, call your fin aid counselor and ask what they added back in to consider your EFC.</p>