Don't get me wrong, I wish I could do more for you, but when you wait to apply for financial aid until the last possible minute, don't apply for private scholarships and have not saved any $$ towards your education...why would poor planning on your part be my responsibility to fix??? IT ISN"T!
Here is the scenario, Joe Blow from Idaho wants’ his son to come to my college. My college is expensive, he can possibly get state grants, private scholarships, Vocational rehabilitation funding, and we also provide very generous scholarships...we don't cover the whole bill. We are not a charitable foundation; we are a college that needs to make sure we have enough cash flow to keep us going... You waited until mid-June to apply for aid; -our priority deadline is March 1st! You want a full ride, we can offer you half. You think I am not being generous enough and call the President. Will you ever learn that old saying "early bird gets the worm?" Will you ever teach that important trait to your kid?? Not likely but I have hope.
So here goes, for all of you out there sending your little kittens off to college for the first time, here are the rules.
1. Know the deadlines, stick to them ~ they are not suggestions; if you had a deadline at work would you blow it off?
2. Review the financial aid website for your school, get to know what the steps are for aid and follow them. If you had a task handed to you to complete and given a manual...would you just wing it?
3. Contact the financial aid office to make sure you've completed what you need to do, Don't HOUND your financial aid office by calling every day. If your boss gave you a list of task's to take care of, would you follow up often to get the list again?
4. You've received some paperwork from the financial aid office and it looks like someone made a mistake, you should call and check with the office to find out. The office either confirms that it is correct or confirms that it is an error and corrects it. You do not then call every other office to complain (unless you actually get horrible customer service). If you received a polite apology and immediate corrections are made, thank the person for helping and leave it alone. The financial aid office is staffed with people, not robots. Errors happen on occasion ~ we are all human, if you call and continue to harass the staff after they have fixed the issue ~ that makes you a problem that they do not want to deal with, and when future opportunities open up, you will end up on the bottom of the list! (You catch more flies with Honey, vinegar makes you stink!)
5. Even with all the extra effort, you find that you still have a gap in funding and it looks like you won’t be able to send your child. Call the financial aid office, tell them exactly how much you still need to come up with and ask them if they can point you in the right direction to find the funding. If they still have scholarship funds available and the amount is reasonable, they will add it If funding is not available, they will let you know about private scholarships, loans etc. (look at #4, if you gave them vinegar the last time you called ~ you are out of luck!)
Happy hunting
