Appealing a financial aid offer

Financial aid appeals are routine and schools have formal processes for them. The two grounds that work are changed circumstances — a job loss, medical costs, a death in the family — and competing offers from comparable schools.

Write to the financial aid office, be specific and factual, attach documentation, and state a clear number. Vague requests for 'more aid' are much less effective than a documented gap.

Do it early. Institutional aid budgets get committed as the class fills, and the same appeal is more likely to succeed in April than in July.