Word: aids
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...aid officers likely to adjust offers made to families who are merely anticipating a change in circumstances. What if that looming layoff never materializes? Instead, financial-aid officers recommend waiting until the worst comes true - and then getting in touch. Pronto...
...When making an appeal, aid officers say, phone is always better than e-mail for the initial contact. And stressing how much a student wants to attend a particular school can't hurt - as long as it comes off sounding sincere. While awards are largely determined by economic factors, aid officers also recommend giving the appeal a more personal touch by having the student, rather than the parent, make the first call. "You tend to see [financial-aid officers] doing more because you're trying to help the student," says Chris Gruber, Davidson's vice president for admission and financial...
...That kind of jockeying is a bad strategy, officers note. Trying to start a bidding war is generally a losing proposition in part because every school's resources and aid calculations are different. Colleges will rarely match an offer outright. That doesn't mean applicants shouldn't bring up other schools' awards, however, because the comparison may turn up extra data that one school had not taken into consideration. "If the generous award is because the family provided additional information to the [other school's] financial-aid office that allowed a more appropriate need-based award to be made...
...where do schools get the money to help? A few dozen of the wealthiest schools, including Stanford, Princeton and Williams, have pledged to meet every applicant's financial need and don't set caps on how much aid they'll give. But even at colleges with limited resources, the financial-aid budget is somewhat elastic, since some students who were offered aid decide to matriculate elsewhere. "We do tend to unencumber a certain percentage of the financial aid that we've offered to students," says Tom Melecki, director of student financial services at the University of Texas at Austin...
...With May matriculation deadlines fast approaching, does putting down a deposit mean you're out of luck if your finances are still in flux? Not necessarily. Many colleges keep reevaluating students' aid packages throughout the year. For instance, Rod Frantz, who works in marketing and public relations in Washington, applied for extra aid this spring for his son, Charles, who is a sophomore at Grinnell. Frantz had put a full-time marketing job on hold two years ago to self-finance a pet project. By the time he was ready to get back into marketing, the economy had tanked...