When Amy Scott’s son was choosing between two colleges during his senior year of high school — both with similar price tags — she wasn’t shy about contacting the institutions to see if they would offer him more financial aid.
She sent them copies of better financial aid offers, let them know his grades had gone up and made sure they knew he had scored two points higher on his ACT entrance exam.
Her persistence paid off. With the new information — plus an updated Free Application for Financial Aid — his top-choice school ultimately gave him about $5,000 more in financial aid. “It was worth a bunch of phone calls,” says Scott, an interior designer who lives in a western Chicago suburb.
[Learn the importance of filling out the FAFSA early.]
With college applications due typically in January or early fall for those applying early action or early decision, rising high schools seniors may be tempted to slack off. But as they prepare for their final year of high school, they may want to consider whether their academic performance could affect financial aid offers.
Depending on the college, students might be able to leverage more scholarship money by sharing accomplishments from their senior year.
“I think a lot of students don’t realize how senior year can affect admissions decisions and can affect their financial aid award as well,” says Sara Harberson, a college counselor and founder of saraharberson.com and admissionsrevolution.com.
They may think “they can take it easy, but it can really benefit them to continue to do well academically and outside the classroom as well. It can make a difference.”
[Know what to expect the first time you borrow college student loans.]
Not All Schools Have Negotiating Room
Schools don’t have much wiggle room when it comes to need-based aid but may be able to negotiate if they offer merit aid, scholarships or grants that are based on a student’s accomplishments.
Not all schools offer this type of aid, Harberson says, and private schools often have more flexibility.
“Ivy League institutions and Ivy-type institutions don’t have merit scholarships, but highly selective colleges right below that use it as a yield tool to try to get more students to enroll,” says Harberson, who was formerly associate dean of admissions at the University of Pennsylvania and dean of admissions at Franklin and Marshall College.
Scott, whose son applied to 10 colleges, says she discovered that some wouldn’t budge on financial aid, while others offered more money when she pointed out competing financial aid offers, leadership experience or higher grades and test scores. When his grade-point average went up senior year, she successfully used that as a bargaining chip to receive more money at one school.
“I called and they increased the money they were giving him for the merit scholarship because his GPA went up so much,” Scott says.
[Map: colleges that award the most students merit aid.]
How to Appeal for More Money
One of the most effective tools for appealing a financial aid award is to share a more robust financial aid offer from another school, says Barry Fox, president of Barry Fox College Finance. He adds that it helps to actually show the competing letter.
“I believe in sending in a letter, saying, ‘we got a better deal here, but we prefer to go to your school. Can you match or increase what we got here?'” he says. “You go in there with evidence in hand.”
It’s important that your negotiating letter offers a reason and narrative for the college to take a serious look, beyond “I need more merit money,” Harberson says.
“Every little thing can make a difference,” she says. “It could be the leadership role. It can be an award they got. It can be their grades going up. It can be something they’ve done where they’ve made an impact.”
Senior Year Counts
Make sure to point out new achievements or changes since the student initially submitted his orher application, Fox says.
“Some of the honors that the kids are getting don’t come until senior year,” he says. “A lot don’t get into honor societies or don’t win scientific prizes until now, which couldn’t have been on the original application.”
Scott says that one school gave her son a scholarship and sent a handwritten note of admiration for a leadership role he took with the Best Buddies program, where he worked with students with special needs . This gave her the idea to reach out to other schools to see if they would similarly award aid based on his leadership work.
Joanne Wilson, an associate at Barry Fox College Finance, says it can also be important for a student to maintain a certain grade point average during senior year if he orshe is getting an academic-based scholarship.
“If in senior year, the child does poorly, the [college] has every right to change the award,” she says. “They can say we offered you a presidential scholarship for $25,000 but your grades dropped dramatically in your senior year. They can say we’re now taking away part or all of that.”
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Why High School Senior Year Matters for College Financial Aid originally appeared on usnews.com
