Calling financial aid office

[Anonymous]

We got no aid other than work study from DS's first choice. Can we call the university to relook our finances? One parent is disabled and unable to work. Does the university take this into account?

[Anonymous]

no, they base it upon your CSS or FAFSA. You did file those, right?

[Anonymous]

Yes we filed FAFSA. It's a public school

[Anonymous]

You should call the FA office and appeal. I think you will likely get more money given your circumstances but you will 100% guarenteed get $0 if you don’t even try.

[Anonymous]

If the one parent who does work earns enough that the kid doesn't qualify for financial aid, then ... they don't qualify. It's just that simple. Maybe the parent who works earns $250k. If that couple has ONE child going to college, they should be able to afford it even on that one salary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the one parent who does work earns enough that the kid doesn't qualify for financial aid, then ... they don't qualify. It's just that simple. Maybe the parent who works earns $250k. If that couple has ONE child going to college, they should be able to afford it even on that one salary.

+1. This. Asfiled in the FAFSA. The schools don't care if one parent is disabled or chose to stay at home. The FAFSA results are based on income as reported to the IRS and put in the FAFSA form. You can try saying "changed circumstances" but the school's office will tell you to refile with FAFSA. That is what makes the system fair. Otherwise everyone would be calling financial aid offices claiming someone is disabled. They don't look kindly upon those calls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should call the FA office and appeal. I think you will likely get more money given your circumstances but you will 100% guarenteed get $0 if you don’t even try.

Yes, this. In addition to the person who can't work, try to quantify healthcare expenses for them.