Student Financial Aid - The How To's

The notion put forward in many seminas by financial advisers, of putting your case to schools for more money isn’t any substitute for good financial planning and requires a good valid standpoint to succeed.

College financial aid departments will listen to your case, but requesting increases in a financial package isn’t readily given and you are probably better to assume it is simply not negotiable.

Increasing a financial aid package is called an appeal, rather than a negotiation. Schools have certain procedures for the appeal process. A valid appeal is based on what financial aid officers refer to as special circumstances.

These include rather dire situations such as if a parent loses their job, large medical costs, the need for elderly grandparent care, and the termination of child support. Is this where you're coming from?

This limits a lot of people seeking extra finances due to the stringency of these requirements. It doesn’t include a lack of proper planning in order to meet your Expected Family Contribution (EFC). You'll have difficulties presenting your case in the preliminary forms.

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form simply requests information about a family’s income and assets as well as non-financial data like birthdates, social security numbers, size of family, number in college, etc.

It is during the appeal process that you may be able to put your story, sometimes resulting in an adjustment of what might be an artificially high EFC. This may be different if a student has a special talent or exceptional achievement – academic or otherwise, some schools may be more forthcoming if aware that another competitive school has offered a more generous award.

So, become a particularly outstanding student in terms of high academic results and chances are rewards of all kinds may be forthcoming - both within and outside academic quarters.