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Financial Aid Award, Not the Final Answer

Think college financial aid offers are final? Think again. From submitting change of circumstance forms to appealing awards or negotiating better offers, there are untapped strategies to increase your aid.

Between March and April high school seniors are sent Financial Award Letters by all the colleges they were admitted to. These letters give a detailed breakdown of the total costs of the university, along with a description of the various scholarships, grants, and loans being offered to the student. 

The official looking nature of these documents leads many to believe that they are set in stone. However, this is not the case, as there are legitimate reasons why a family can and should work with the college to try and increase the amount of aid being offered. 

Because these legitimate reasons are rarely publicized by the colleges–they don’t want to give out more money if they don’t have to–it can be very helpful to work with an Inspired Pathways advisor to find out just how you may be able to increase your award. Below are a few examples of how we’ve helped students in the past. (Note: for privacy reasons, we have removed any distinguishing details.)

Change of Circumstances

FAFSA uses a families “prior, prior tax information” meaning that for students planning to start college in the fall of 2024, they will use financial aid Information from the 2022 tax year. For families whose financial status has changed over those two years, it is important to submit a Change of Circumstances form, which can vary by college, to get your information updated and ensure you maximize your aid. This is one of the most common ways we’ve successfully helped students increase their award and we’ve successfully done so for students attending both 2- and 4-year schools. Students receiving support from Inspired Pathways have increased their Federal award by as much as $14,000 over two years by submitting a change of circumstance form. 

Appeal the Award

Appeals can be submitted for any reason the family wants, but are by far most effective when being used for one of the two following reasons:

  1. All of the information that the school has is correct, however there are other aspects of the students life that have not been taken into account. 
  2. The information they have is incorrect. 

Students receiving support from Inspired Pathways have increased their college scholarship by as much as $82,000 over four years through the appeal process. 

Request Increase Due to Better Offer

When a student has a better offer at a college that is not their top, the student can reach out to their top choice college and see if they’re willing to match the offer from the other institution. While this route does not always work, colleges do very much want to bring in students that view them as their top choice because those students are much more likely to stay throughout the course of the 4-years.  

Students receiving support from Inspired Pathways have increased their college scholarship by as much as $16,000 over four years by requesting their top college match a better offer.