Confessions From Real-Life Financial Aid Officers
They’re trying to make your bill look like $0.
You probably spent a lot of time trying to impress your dream school, but now that you’re accepted, they’re trying to impress you. So, just like you exaggerated your bold leadership of the intramural Fencing Club, schools may, um, try to cast a more flattering light on their mediocre aid package.
“Some colleges do creative things to make your final cost look as close to ‘zero’ as possible,” says Patricia Thompson, assistant vice chancellor for student financial aid at the State University of New York. Prime example: They might subtract your loans to make it look like you won’t owe anything—when in reality, you will (see: the definition of a “loan”). “You need to make sure they’re clearly identifying loans that must be repaid, including loans which could have high interest rates or require a co-signer, as part of their math,” Thompson says.
Solution:
Make your own spreadsheet to compare each school’s package, apples to apples. Which schools will leave you with loans? What type of loans, and what’s the interest? Which are dangling scholarships you won’t need to pay back? What’s the total cost of each option once you add room and board, your meal plan, and travel—and how much of this total do your grants and loans cover?
“Outside scholarships may or may not change your financial aid offer,” says Chanell Thomas, Associate Director of the Office of Student Financial Aid and Scholarships at Vanderbilt University. In some cases, applying for that $1,000 scholarship from your mom’s company might just end up getting you $1,000 fewer dollars from your school. So, congrats, you just saved your school—not yourself—$1,000. How’s that for some BS? (And no, you can’t hide these scholarships, since most get sent directly to your school). Ask your financial aid office if they practice “aid displacement” and if they say yes, see if your outside donor can hold their cash for another semester (in case your aid is reduced) or apply it to summer courses. You could also opt to push back by visiting the financial aid office and saying, "I found this outside scholarship to help defray other costs beyond the aid you've given me," suggests Rachel Fishman, deputy director for education policy at New America and a co-author of “Decoding the Cost of College.” Oftentimes aid displacement can be negotiated. "It’s best to check with each school regarding their policy," says Thomas.
“We had a situation where one student lost her scholarship because she moved off campus and the aid only applied to the dorms,” Thompson says. “We see students lose scholarship money all the time because they didn’t realize there were certain requirements.”
Call and confirm: Do you need to maintain a certain GPA? Study a certain subject? Take a given number of credits each semester? Live on campus? Changing your major or moving out of the dorms could cost you thousands, no exaggeration. Don’t lose money because of a technicality.
“Schools are usually sensitive to how many family members are in college at the same time,” reveals E. Whitney Soule, dean of admissions and student aid Bowdoin College. So if you and your sib are close in age, why not take a gap year and work to save money until they graduate high school, then apply to colleges at the same time? With two kids in school, your family could be on the hook for far less $$$ per student.
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