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ICYMI: You can watch our Zoom on how to appeal financial aid and merit scholarships HERE.
Here are some important tips I shared today: - Enter your student's offers in our Compare College Offers crowdsourcing app. Immediately see what other students were offered from the same schools your student was accepted to.
- If your student has several offers from schools they are very interested in attending, start appealing now so you get the process started.
- Calculate what percent of the total cost of attendance the merit scholarships is - for example if a school offers a $10,000 merit scholarship where the COA is $60,000, that's a 17% discount. Compare all your student's discounts and use this information in your student's appeal email.
- Don't feel pressure to have your student accept any offer just because colleges are sending emails about housing deposits or other types of deposits. ONLY make a deposit if it is refundable or if you're willing to forfeit the money. Students have until May 1st to accept a college offer.
- Families with patience will see the best results. The closer colleges get to May 1st, the more willing they may be to offer more money to students in the hopes of getting students to commit. In addition, as other students accept offers at different schools, financial aid and merit money frees up to use with students who have yet to decide.
- Two important words to know are "special circumstances" and "professional judgement". These words alert financial aid officers that your financial situation has changed since your 2019 taxes. Professional judgement allows financial aid officers to modify your EFC based on the circumstances you present to them.
- Since there were so many good questions and not enough time to address them all, I've summarized the important questions here with answers.
There's so much more I talked about. Make yourself comfortable, get a pen and paper to take notes and watch our recording.
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Give a Little, Get A Lot
For the past two years we've worked together as a community to crowdsource and share our student's acceptances, need-based aid, and merit scholarship offers.
This year, more than ever, it's important to see how colleges are awarding financial aid and merit scholarships, and how test scores (or no test scores) are impacting these outcomes.
Our updated free tool, COMPARE COLLEGE OFFERS (CCO) is live! If your student has received offers from colleges, please use the tool to compare your offers and see what other students at the same colleges received.
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Are You Doing Everything You Can to Maximize the Chances of Increasing Your Financial Aid?
Receiving news that your student has been accepted to a school and will receive financial/merit aid is priceless.
Receiving news that the amount of aid awarded will keep them from attending is heartbreaking.
What can you do?
Appeal the offer.
If you need a little help check out our Appeal Letter Review and Tune-Up Package.
Find out more... |
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| Like Road2College, College Ave Student Loans is committed to helping families navigate and finance a higher education.
To help get you there, enter our exclusive Road2College Sweepstakes and you could be one of the two lucky winners to win free textbooks for a year. |
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My goal is to provide affordable services, insightful information and a support system so your family can make more informed decisions about college.
Feel free to respond to this email with any questions you have. |
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| Debbie Schwartz Founder, Road2College I'm a parent, like many of you, navigating college admissions and paying for college. With an expertise in personal finance, analysis, and marketing, I'm working to give families the information and tools to make smarter financial college decisions. |
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Road2College may receive affiliate compensation on items purchased through our links.
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