Negotiating a Better College Financial Aid Package

Many families believe that a financial aid award letter from a college is their final offer. In reality, this may be their first in a series of offers. Most award letters are used to show how the college will meet the expected cost of attendance for the college in question.

This can include, federal and state aid, grants, scholarships, work-study and loans. In many cases there are more student and parent loans than other better quality financial aid.One of the most overlooked ways of reducing your college cost is to negotiate for a better financial award package. The reason it is often overlooked is that most families do not know how to approach the college with their request. Here are a few ideas that will help make this process go smoother and have significantly better results.First, never call it a "negotiation". University financial aid counselors dislike the negative connotations associated with negotiating deals, it conjures up visions of a used car salesman. They take pride in helping students and families fill a need for college aid. Most have advanced degrees and many years of experience in the field. Respect their efforts and your appeal will be treated with the same.You will need to decide if you want to apply for an "Early Decision" or not. If you ask for an early decision, you are almost always reducing your financial aid award because you are making a promise to attend their college if you are accepted early. They have little incentive to offer anything more than the basic aid package. They will save their additional aid for those highly desirable students that are still deciding whether to attend their college or not.Next you need to get several college financial aid awards and realistically compare them to see who is offering the best quality financial aid package for your family.Obviously, grants, scholarship and other non-repayable aid are better than loans or work-study forms of aid. Once you find the college that is offering the best quality aid, you may be able to use this information to convince the other colleges to increase the quality of their aid package.You will need to provide the relevant supporting documentation if you plan to appeal your award. This should be offered in writing and provide actual statements, bills and forms as necessary. If you just tell them you want or need more money without the documentation about why, you are sure to have your appeal denied.This may sound like common sense, but never argue with the school's financial aid administrators or any of their staff. Even if you are right, never start an argument. You will always lose this argument and your appeal will usually fail in the process.