A brilliant academic record, athletic prowess or a unique talent are the traditional requisites for winning a college scholarship. Today, dogged persistence and sharp bargaining skills can’t hurt, either.
The annual expense of sending a child to college can easily match the cost of buying a new car each year. It’s a big purchase, and families are increasingly adopting hard-boiled consumer tactics to win financial aid and to help foot the bills for tuition and room and board.
“People are being more aggressive, and being aggressive is one of the keys to finding good financial aid,” says Susan Bigg, a Chicago-based private college consultant.
The odds of garnering financial aid can be improved if students seek out a college with aid opportunities in mind. And when a school makes a student a financial aid offer, many families don’t passively accept the school’s initial package as if it were written in stone. More parents are calling financial aid officers to discuss the possibility of extracting a few more dollars.
The odds of winning aid also increase if students multiply their chances by applying for some of the hundreds of scholarship opportunities available.
Last year, after Wheaton resident Kelly Castillon decided she wanted to attend Kenyon College in Ohio, she was delighted to learn of a scholarship opportunity earmarked for Latino students who wrote winning essays and scored well in interviews with the scholarship board. She was one of 20 students who earned a $40,000 award.
Such scholarships for minorities, students with good academic records, or those with unique talents are available at many colleges, says Bigg. But sometimes the databases and directories available in high school guidance offices and in libraries miss listing these opportunities, she adds. That’s why Bigg suggests that students or their parents take the time to scan the current promotional literature that many colleges mail to prospective applicants. Special scholarship information is usually included in these brochures.
Indeed, Madeleine Eagon, dean of admission and financial aid at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., says that the school’s merit award formula, whereby students win scholarships based only on their academic record, not on need, is published in DePauw’s financial aid booklet.
“Anyone can easily calculate whether or not they qualify (for academic merit award). We use a formula using grade point averages and test scores to create an index number, and certain dollar amount awards go along with those numbers.”
Whenever a student applies for need-based financial aid, meaning that he asks for help based on his family’s economic inability to pay the full tab, he should submit at least one of three applications, explains William Tracy, college counselor at the University of Chicago Laboratory High School.
The first is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which is required by any school that receives federal funds. Another financial aid form is known as the PROFILE, and is administered by the College Scholarship Service, a division of the College Board. In addition, some schools have devised their own financial aid applications.
The PROFILE and many school-designed applications require more detailed family financial information than the FAFSA, says Tracy. The aim of all these applications is to come up with what’s known as the “expected family contribution,” or what a family can reasonably be expected to pay.
But because different schools utilize different financial aid forms, and because the amount of money available and who qualifies for it varies from school to school, college aid offers may differ sharply.
In addition, notes Bob Arnold, director of financial aid at Earlham College in Richmond, Ind., many financial aid packages leave families with a “gap,” meaning the families are asked to pay more than their expected share.
What if there’s too much of a gap? Or, what if the school a student has his heart set on tenders a paltry aid package in comparison to the offers of other schools?
“They (parents) can certainly get on the phone and discuss it,” says Eagon of DePauw.
Still, keep in mind that this is academia, not a used-car lot. “If I were a parent, I would call a financial aid director and say that my son or daughter very much wants to attend,” suggests Eagon. “But then I would tell them: `I’m looking at the financial aid award, and I don’t think it will work. I would like to walk through the package with you.’ “
With that kind of cooperative, rather than hard-ball, approach from parents, a financial aid officer is much more willing to take a second look, says Eagon.
If another school has presented a student with a bigger award, she adds, parents should definitely mention that fact during the course of the discussion.
A family probably stands the best chance of receiving more money, say the experts, if they can point to a special circumstance or expense that wasn’t mentioned in the financial aid application. Tracy says he has been successful pleading the case of one student at his high school whose parent recently lost a job.
Although it behooves a student to seek out as many aid offers as he can, his family should keep in mind that if it does win one, the school may reduce its financial aid package accordingly. At Earlham College, for instance, says Arnold, if a student wins a $1,000 outside scholarship, his grant will be reduced by half that amount.
Beware, too, says the Federal Trade Commission, that many companies scam families, charging $400 and more for bogus lists of scholarship opportunities.
One legitimate source that experts recommend is “Higher-EdNet.” Sponsored by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission in Deerfield, this is a service whereby students can call 800-899-4722 for a profile form. After completing the personal profile and sending it back with $10, students then receive a list of scholarship opportunities that match up with the student’s personal information.
“Students usually get about 25 to 30 matches,” reports Barb Levin, manager of client information services.
And this week only, the Illinois Student Assistance Commission will sponsor a free help line from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Call 800-720-3226.
