I just wanted to pop back on here and say thank you now that I’ve had time to process everything. It was very good advice to have both parent and child reach out to admissions as this gave us two pathways for understanding. Admissions encouraged us to have our child write all appeals letters and advocate for herself, but also invited us to ask questions as needed. I am not sure how much FAFSA factored in, but the AO really gave my child reason to believe they were going to do anything possible to help her afford the school. We, separately and together, had countless conversations via phone and email over the course of a month. In the end, we did not receive a final merit offer before decision day and a deposit was nonetheless encouraged. I finally called the AO and said that we could not afford the deposit unless we knew our appeal was likely going to be approved, and informed them we were going to lose scholarships at our second choice school. At that point, and only then, did they tell us my daughter was likely to get an increase by appeal but not the full amount due to the competitive major she chose and the deep waiting list. I believe private schools are well within rights to do this, but was really upset that no one told us this when we appealed and my daughter was encouraged to hang in there. It led to some real heartbreak and education for all of us. If both my child and I had not engaged in the process, we would not have seen the big picture. I still think the school was in a difficult position due to FAFSA and things might have gone differently with more time, but as it is, this was our experience. The second choice school was thrilled to have her and provided a large scholarship, so I am hopeful it will work out. Thank you for the help!
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