Would you complain if a $3,500 institution scholarship was replaced with work-study requirement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC has been at college for two weeks and financial aid award updated right around move in. Very generous aid overall, but now instead of an essentially free $3,500 DC now has to work part-time for $3,500. We were attracted to the school because of the aid and no requirement to work the first year. I want to complain to financial aid office but I feel like we have no leverage (school already began) and whoever I get on the phone will think I'm acting entitled (due to already very generous aid) or that my teen's spoiled and doesn't want to work. I sincerely don't mind DC working other years but DC is first to go away for college and we would prefer focus on clubs and grades. Any advice?

Read the terms and see at what date was that last bit of aid binding or not.

If they truly converted a grant to a work/study, then Yes, that is really bad form. Unacceptable.

I'd want a call with the scholarship founder whose scholarship program just dried up. Otherwise I'd think it was fraudulent.

It sounds like you already have $10,000s of aid for or by this particular school. Perhaps you cannot "stack" these grants just so. Read the terms.

[Anonymous]

How is a fin aid offer a contractual agreement? It’s not like you sign and return their estimated merit and need based aid offer. It’s all in the portal.

[Anonymous]

Always worth calling!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What prompted a change to the financial aid award?

They'll just say all financial aid letters are pending and subject to modification. Financial aid offices are shady like that. Then the person on the phone will pretend to click buttons on their computer and say, "I'm sorry there's nothing I can do. I would just give you the award, but it's above my pay grade. And it looks like we're out of aid for the calendar year, but check out the website for other outside aid your child may be eligible for."

but at some point there's a definite offer and you accept it or not.

[Anonymous]

I hope the OP comes back. Very curious about this snafu.

[Anonymous]

For my college program/no financial aid, we had to work 24 hours a week - so 3 days/8 hours and it was very difficult to maintain 5-6 classes on top of that. I had friends who also worked on top of that to support themselves. Our grades suffered and we rarely went out socially. I would never support my child working that much (we had no choice) on top of a full schedule. 8-10 is fine, anything over 16 is way to much with a full load.

[Anonymous]

OP, when exactly did the student accept the offer?

[Anonymous]

PS: I am wondering if the is possibly a delay between the offer and the acceptance that the OP might have forgotten to mention. That would go a long way to explaining the change in terms -- the straightforward awrds may have already been distributed, but they might have workstudy left. But I could see a parent thinking they were still owed the original terms offered, even if they were sitting on them waiting for a better offer from elsewhere.

Of course, that may have nothing to do with what happened, but I was trying to think of some reason for this that might fit with what had been disclosed but also with what might not have been said.

[Anonymous]

I thought when you accept the offer of admission (which normally happens when you pay the deposit), you are accepting the FA offer. They should not be able to change it after that point.

It's a contract. Please name the school. Really, why post on this site if you are not going to help other families with their decisions?

[Anonymous]

I thought when you accept the offer of admission (which normally happens when you pay the deposit), you are accepting the FA offer. They should not be able to change it after that point.

It's a contract. Please name the school. Really, why post on this site if you are not going to help other families with their decisions? [/quote

[Anonymous]

Sorry, bumble-thumbs.

I thought when you accept the offer of admission (which normally happens when you pay the deposit), you are accepting the FA offer. They should not be able to change it after that point.

It's a contract. Please name the school. Really, why post on this site if you are not going to help other families with their decisions?

That's usually the way it works, but I don't think OP has told us when her child accepted the offer of admission. She said "DC has been at college for two weeks and financial aid award updated right around move in."

I am wondering if her DC accepted the offer of admission to this particular university relatively close to move-in time, and the financial aid award reflects that things changed over a relatively longer gap in time between offer and acceptance than would be typically expected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, bumble-thumbs.

I thought when you accept the offer of admission (which normally happens when you pay the deposit), you are accepting the FA offer. They should not be able to change it after that point.

It's a contract. Please name the school. Really, why post on this site if you are not going to help other families with their decisions?

That's usually the way it works, but I don't think OP has told us when her child accepted the offer of admission. She said "DC has been at college for two weeks and financial aid award updated right around move in."

I am wondering if her DC accepted the offer of admission to this particular university relatively close to move-in time, and the financial aid award reflects that things changed over a relatively longer gap in time between offer and acceptance than would be typically expected.

That sounds like a real possibility. It would be great of Op would come back and clarify what happened.

[Anonymous]

It would also explain why OP seemed oddly hesitant to push back to the university, but still felt grumpy about it.

[Anonymous]

Apparently we may never know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Apparently we may never know.

Which means the error was on their part rather than the school’s.