Damages could be demonstrated/alleged as four or two semesters.
For example: If OP cannot attend due to the “error”, then damages, arguably, are for four semesters less any mitigation.
If OP attends and receives just two $19,000 awards, then damages are, arguably, $19,000 X 2.
How many colleges did you apply to and how many acceptances do you have? It’s only February. Why don’t you contact the schools you turned down to see if you can still attend? Colleges haven’t gone to their waitlists yet, so the seat may still be open.
How did you accept the college’s admission offer? If it was online, there may have been a financial award listed there. What did that say?
I agree with @cptofthehouse. Get the decision makers involved. This should not be swept under the rug. You have nothing to lose. I would get a parent involved especially if this is a smaller lac type school. The provost etc won’t be thrilled. Worst case they apologize and say no.
@“Erin’s Dad”. Some colleges are very generous with transfers. At Beloit College, to our surprise, my daughter transferred as a junior and received the Presidential scholarship and it was $30,000/year.
One of my coworkers went to grad school at an ivy this past fall. She received her bill shortly before heading off to the school. She had quit her job & signed a lease for an apartment in the new city, many hours from home. The grant on the bill was thousands of dollars less than the grant stated in her financial aid package. When she called to inquire, the financial aid director told her someone had made a mistake on her original letter, and the amount on the bill was correct.
She was devastated … she had turned down another prestigious school that had offered her aid similar to the ivy’s original offer. If it hadn’t been so late in the game, she could have contacted the other school to see if they would reinstate her acceptance & aid (they probably would have, in her case). That wasn’t an option at that point.
We talked about it, and she determined that she was not comfortable borrowing the amount she would now have to borrow. I helped her put together an email that was extremely polite. She explained that she made her decision based on comparative cost after financial aid. She explained that she had determined the maximum loan amount she was willing to borrow, which the reduced grant would cause her to exceed by many thousands of dollars over the two year program. She asked if they would reconsider their aid offer based on the situation as it had played out. She ended by stating that if they were unable to assist, she would unfortunately have to withdraw. She did not state this as a threat, but rather as a sad fact that she had determined based on what she felt was best for her. She absolutely was prepared to walk away, by the way.
In the end, her full grant was restored. It’s worth it for OP to try, but success depends on a number of factors, including whether it’s a state school (in which case awarding rules might prohibit an increase), the aid budget of the school, and how strong a student OP is compared to the other students at this school. Oh, and if the school has been struggling to enroll, an increase of some sort is more likely than it would be if the school has an over abundance of enrolling students.