How to Appeal Financial Aid Awards

Webinar Transcription

2026-3-25-How to Appeal Financial Aid Awards

Anesha: [00:00:00] Hi everyone, and welcome to tonight’s webinar. My name is Anesha Grant. I’m a senior advisor here at CollegeAdvisor, and I will be your moderator for tonight’s webinar. Today’s webinar is a special session featuring Juno on, “How to Appeal Financial Aid Awards.” Before we get started, just to orient everyone with the webinar timing, we’ll start with a presentation, um, and then open it up for a live Q&A. On the sidebar,

Anesha: you can download our slides under the handouts tab and you can start submitting questions under the Q&A tab. But first, let’s meet our presenter. Eddy. Hi Eddy. How are you doing?

Eddy: Hello. I’m doing well. Thank you so much for having me.

Anesha: Great. Um, tell us a little bit about yourself and your background.

Eddy: So I am here, uh, on behalf of Juno, sharing a little bit more about the work that we do, but also as a Juno member myself. Um, so I’ll share a little bit more about that towards the end. But, uh, I actually came across Juno by needing to take out loans for my grad school. Uh, I’m a, an MBA candidate at the Kellogg School [00:01:00] of Management.

Eddy: I also work at Juno, um, while being in school. And so previously to this, uh, role, I worked in a, as a college counselor at Phillips Academy in Andover. It’s a private boarding school in Massachusetts. And then before that I was an admissions officer myself. Uh, so I worked at Yale University in the admissions office and also Williams College, a small liberal arts school, also Massachusetts.

Eddy: So have seen a lot of this process from the admissions officer perspective, the college counselor perspective, and now my junior perspective. Uh, and a lot of what I wanna share tonight is the number is on the number one reason why families are looking at colleges, what they pay attention to, and then ultimately the number one reason of why they end up enrolling.

Eddy: And that’s the cost. How much financial aid do you receive? Is it doable for your families, uh, to pay that cost? We know college costs are rising each year, and so a lot of what I wanna share today is actually how to appeal your financial aid in order to get the most grants and scholarships available from your [00:02:00] institution before you have to think about other ways to pay for it.

Anesha: Cool. Thank you so much. You are quite knowledgeable. Look forward to hearing from you this session. Before we let you get started, we’re just gonna go ahead and do a quick little poll, um, to see who is in the room with us. I’m gonna assume it is mostly 12th graders, um, but we’ll see if other folks are out there.

Anesha: If you’re a parent or a teacher, you can go ahead, select other. Um, and as we’re waiting, um, you know what, I guess how, how was Juno for you as a, as a user in navigating it and, and trying to find the right options for yourself?

Eddy: Yeah. So for me, I, uh, I was very happy and I think that’s why I was motivated to actually join the team.

Eddy: Um, so I was able to, again, if this is relevant for families, that hopefully, hopefully families don’t need to borrow and you have scholarships to make, uh, to help make college affordable. Um, but the realities is that many, many families do in fact need to borrow at least some amount to help pay for college, whether it’s undergraduate, certainly for graduate students.

Eddy: ’cause [00:03:00] at that point, all graduate students are considered independent. Mm-hmm. So for those in the audience who might be not just having a four year plan Right. But an extended plan for any hopes and, and aspirations of graduate schools, uh, for the students, this is worth concerning altogether, simultaneously, so you know what, uh, your options are across the board.

Eddy: But I was very happy ’cause I actually was able to get a much lower interest rate loan, uh, through Juno than I did through the federal government, uh, op options. And so. That’s, uh, I, I’m a happy camper, happy customer, I guess. Uh, and so that’s, I love saving money. Uh, I love saving other people money.

Anesha: Amen.

Eddy: Uh, who doesn’t, right?

Eddy: Yeah. So that’s, that’s sort of why, uh, why I was motivated to, to share, to join the team and, and now kind of, uh, share more about, uh, the importance of thinking really strategically and mindfully about the ways in which families are gonna go through this process.

Anesha: All right, cool. We’ll let you get to it and go ahead and close our poll.

Anesha: I was correct in my assumption. [00:04:00] Uh, 50% of the folks with us today, we have about 50 folks. Um, so half of them are seniors in the 12th grade. The other half are about our parents or teachers or other. And then we have three 11th graders who are just eager and interested in understanding how this financial aid thing works.

Anesha: So I’ll stop talking, hand it over to you and be back a little bit later to help with, uh, Q&A.

Eddy: Awesome. Thank you so much, Anisha. And so, yeah, really grateful for everyone who is here. Uh, I I wanna make sure that by the ti by the end of our conversation today, you have appropriate knowledge of why you might appeal an award letter and then also thinking about, uh, some of the practical ways in which you might do that.

Eddy: So I’ll spend a brief time just at the beginning talking about the timeline of financial aid awards. We’ll spend some time going through the different types of appeals, primarily focusing on merit-based appeals, and then the need-based appeals process, the need-based appeals process, a little bit more complex.

Eddy: Uh, so I wanted to run through that, uh, and [00:05:00] also indicate reasons why you might want to appeal. Uh, that’s gonna be a, a really important part for any of the families here who need to submit additional documentation and information about family circumstances in order to, uh, to. Share information with the financial office that needs to be considered.

Eddy: Again, I’ll share just a little bit about Juno as well, how kind of, how we fit into this, uh, picture. And then I wanna make sure we leave time for Q&A. Um, those session is being recorded. You should have the slide deck available to you. So if you have any questions afterwards during the presentation, please post them.

Eddy: Uh, we’ll get to as many as we can. Anything that remains after, um, I’ll make sure we sort of can, maybe we can download the Q&A section and I’ll, uh, I’ll see if I can answer all the questions on the backend after that. So make sure, again, you have access to all this information. Feel free to take notes along the way, but you’ll have, um, you’ll have access to everything that’s shared with you today.[00:06:00]

Eddy: Now we’re towards the, we’re in the middle of this timeline now. So many of you have already applied for, uh, for your FAFSA in some cases, maybe even the CSS profile. Uh, you received your student aid index number. Your SAI, uh, you are have already applied to college, right? And where we are now is in the thick of March where you are receiving financial aid offers.

Eddy: In some cases, many of you already have already heard back from all your institutions. There may be some, some more that are releasing soon. And so this is the timeline now between when you receive your financial aid award and May 1st, the common reply date of that time period to appeal financial aid.

Eddy: And so with that, what I wanna emphasize again, is that you can appeal. It’s a normal part of the process. I wanna emphasize, emphasize that several times during our conversation today. And then if anything is remaining that is not covered by. A, a financial aid package that you might receive, then you might need to [00:07:00] begin thinking about options to help pay, which may, may be student loans before your tuition is due.

Eddy: Now, where we are today, again, is we’ve hosted past, uh, webinars on the FAFs, already on the Student Aid Index. Uh, you should be able to have access to those through CollegeAdvisor. If you’re curious about those, especially for the juniors who are here, you may wanna, um, get an a head start on the process.

Eddy: It’s great that you’re here right now learning ’cause this is a very relevant topic and important for next year for all of you. And then again, we will highlight more on how to pay for college and other options and opportunities for you. Now, for today, let’s assume you’ve already received your award letter, which is very real for many of the seniors in the audience here and the parents of seniors.

Eddy: You wanna think of this as the first draft in the process rather than the final version. So the appeal process is [00:08:00] very common. As I was referencing. You may be unfamiliar or even uncomfortable with the process ’cause you may have never gone through it before. This is your first time applying to college, maybe applying for financial aid.

Eddy: And so it’s new, it’s novel, and it’s unfamiliar. Now I wanna help demystify some of that for you so that you’re not nervous about this in any way, but also provide the reassurance that you absolutely should be appealing in many of the circumstances that I’m, that I’m gonna highlight and talk about, so that you ensure that financial officers have all the appropriate information to account for the circumstances within your own family.

Eddy: Now if you really wanna go somewhere to a particular institution and the cost is just a little bit too high, it never hurts to ask for more. Uh, a school will not rescind your offer of admission just because you ask for additional financial support. There’s no harm in trying again. It is worthwhile to spend a little bit of time on an appeal, collecting documents that might be expected [00:09:00] of you, and then to submit the offer to the school.

Eddy: Uh, the appeal to the school. We will focus on two types of financial aid appeals today. Um, merit-based and need-based appeals. Merit-based leverages the student’s achievements for more financial aid. And so you can think about things like academic scholarships for high GPA high test scores. You can think of athletic scholarships, for example.

Eddy: Um, music scholarships, any other quality that or accomplishment that the student has that makes them a really amazing applicant and the school wants them to represent that, uh, achievement at their own university. A school will offer additional funding for that student. Now on the need-based side, these are financial circumstances or hardships that you may be facing as a family that you can then communicate with the school in the hopes of requesting [00:10:00] additional financial aid.

Eddy: And schools may increase your financial aid as a result. Now, the important point here is that it is not an either or situation. Both of these may apply both. It’s not always the case. Um, but it’s important to know that it doesn’t have to be one or the other. In, in many cases for families, both of these may very well apply where you can submit a need-based appeal and even a merit based appeal.

Eddy: Let me just share a few tips, uh, and, uh, tips for the appeals process and then also on constructing a merit based appeal letter. So first, try asking for more and be selective again as to who you are asking and making these requests of. If you’ve let, let’s say a student by now has gone admitted to five different schools.

Eddy: And realistically, you’re only considering the top three. The other two you may have applied for just for the sake of applying, but you’re not interested whatsoever in those schools. You [00:11:00] wanna communicate, uh, that you are very invested in that program. And if you’re not, then you don’t wanna share misleading or false information, right?

Eddy: If you really don’t want that school, don’t waste your time and don’t waste financial officer’s time appealing. If, if you, realistically, there’s no chance that you’ll attend that school. Now it does help if you’ve gotten into more than one school and you can share a competing offer that you’ve received from another peer institution, that is a way that you can increase your merit scholarship because these schools will give more aid, but merit-based aid in order to attract you to their universities.

Eddy: So that’s a great thing. That means they love you, they want you to come to their campus. And so if that’s the case, you can leverage one offer that you’ve received, uh, to hopefully increase your aid at another school that maybe you is your number one choice, but a little bit more aid can help make that dream a reality.[00:12:00]

Eddy: Again, know that if you’ve, you’ve already been accepted and a school won’t change their mind just because you ask for some help. So if you’re not asking, chances are other students are, and you’re taking yourself out of the running for any merit. Scholarship considerations. Now as we think about the structure of a good appeal letter, you wanna express enthusiasm for the school.

Eddy: This is especially important because on the merit-based side, oftentimes these are handled by the admissions officer or the admissions office. And these are the folks who read your application, who voted for you in the committee room, and who are excited to have you come to their university. So you wanna communicate that kind of enthusiasm of what you love about this school and that a school is really one of your top options.

Eddy: And so from there. How can you make it work? The appeal should be collaborative. This is not a, this is not the moment, [00:13:00] or it’s never the moment to be, um, sort of aggressive or demanding, especially not now. The tone that you have in this process will go a long way. Now, frame it as a collaborative conversation that you are doing what you can to make it work.

Eddy: You can highlight additional accomplishments that you’ve had. You can talk about specific programs, faculty that the student’s really excited about. Any other reasons, if you recall, back to, uh, why you wanted to apply that institution in the first place? You may have been asked very directly, you know, why x, y, z, university, you stated in the application already.

Eddy: Double down on that. Are there other new things that you’ve learned about the university since then that make you even more excited about attending as a student? Paint the picture of you actually being there and wanting to be there and wanting to leverage all the resources and opportunities that is available to you if you are a student at X, Y, Z University.

Eddy: Right? And this is gonna resonate, [00:14:00] especially on the admission side, because they’re gonna even, they’re gonna further see you as a really strong candidate and trying to do what they can to make it work. You wanna detail any additional achievements that you’ve had since applying and as well as any competing offers, right?

Eddy: And this is where the genuineness and the honesty comes in of wanting to make it work. Wanting to work together with admissions, with financial aid to see what’s possible. Are they able to give any additional aid? Especially if you have a competing offer because you would prefer university A instead of University B, but University B gave just a little bit more aid.

Eddy: So can they match that? Can they come close to it to help make the decision for your family more financially feasible? And this may go without saying, but it’s important to note. Either way, please be polite in these conversations. Um, I was just hosting another, um, [00:15:00] a similar, uh, similar webinar a few days ago, and there was an admissions officer.

Eddy: The audience who made a comment on this exact point, and I can testify to this as a former admissions officer myself, you wanna make sure you go through this process in a way that is working together and not abrasive, not demanding. Don’t threaten to withdraw if a school’s not able to give you more funds.

Eddy: Don’t exaggerate any competing offers because at that point then. You are running the risk. Well, first of all, you will have to submit any of those competing offers. And second of all, you run the risk of dishonesty through this process. And if that’s the case, that is not a good reflection on you as a student.

Eddy: And so it goes a long way, just the tone that you have through this process so that you can make sure that you are working with the university and they also want, as they also want to bring you to campus [00:16:00] and do what they can within their budgets. What’s really important to note is that, uh, oftentimes, uh, students approach might approach this at thinking that financial officers are the enemy or they’re just being stingy.

Eddy: Even admissions officer, they’re just being stingy and they’re withholding their resources, um, because everybody’s asking for additional aid. Now, what’s important to note is that. Everybody is asking for additional aid. So it may not be possible to give you exactly what you hope for or what you want.

Eddy: Financial aid especially as well as with admissions, they’re responsible from the financial aid resources they have available from the scholarship funds they have available to distribute that as equitably as possible across all students. Right? And in the case of merit scholarships, to give it to the, um, to the students who wouldn’t the school feels like would benefit their university the most?

Eddy: And that’s a lot of students, right? Hundreds, thousands of students every single year. And [00:17:00] so. Financial aid and admissions, they are on your team. They are not trying to withhold funds, but schools also have the reality of having limited funds available. Unfortunately, many schools have to face this where they may not be able to meet the full need of a family and they’re doing the best they can and order to make it a reality for the family.

Eddy: And so that’s where the collaboration comes in. Kindness goes a long way. Being abrasive, obnoxious through this process will not help your case. Now you wanna submit the appeals after you’ve received multiple offers and certainly before the enrollment deadline of May 1st. Now, the common question that I get is we have already submitted our enrollment deposit.

Eddy: Can I still appeal? I wanna address that in case, uh, someone has that question in this audience. So. You can, it’s possible, but you lose a lot of leverage, [00:18:00] especially true in the merit appeals process. It’s a different conversation for the need-based process, and we’ll get to that. But for the merit-based process, if a school knows that you are already coming than there’re less incentivized to, to really consider closely any kind of request for additional funds.

Eddy: Now again, it’s not impossible, but you lose a lot of leverage and you ultimately don’t have to enroll in that university. You could choose to deposit elsewhere if another university comes back with a more generous financial aid offer. Uh, and if that’s the case, it’s worth appealing still at the school that you deposited at, but it’s gonna come at a higher cost, so you’ll lose your enrollment deposit if you ultimately go with that second university that offered a more generous aid package and the first university is not able to match it.

Eddy: So I always encourage families to please wait until you have all of your options. There’s no rush, but I understand in the excitement of it all, you may be like, this is my top choice school. We’re gonna make it work [00:19:00] in whatever way we can. And you submit that night that you receive your admissions decision, but then other decisions that come, come rolling in and when you realize kind of the, the reality of the situation is that some schools may be a lot cheaper, so be mindful of that.

Eddy: Please wait before you accept any offers so that you know that you know what, what you’re working with, what the options are, and schools that you can leverage, uh, the aid packages from in order to maximize your own aid offer. Now, it’s perfectly appropriate to follow up if you, if you haven’t heard back in a couple weeks, you don’t wanna hound financial officers, right?

Eddy: This is a very busy time still in admissions as well. But be mindful about if there’s been a prolong. Delay or you haven’t heard back anything back for two weeks, it’s completely appropriate to check in, to call and to email him to follow up. Now usually need-based appeals are handled by financial aid and [00:20:00] merit-based appeals are handled by admissions.

Eddy: Admissions. Um, merit-based appeals could be a combination of admissions and financial aid. So it can vary school by school. Just make sure you check with the university what the best point of contact is. Best case scenario you get what you hope for, which is an increase in scholarships and grants Could also be more work study opportunities.

Eddy: Um, but that is the best case scenario. Other situations you might encounter is a counter offer where maybe a school isn’t able to meet the full amount that you ask for that would be doable for your family, but maybe they can give you about half of it. Is that enough to incentivize you to then come?

Eddy: Right? Does that help enough to make it a financial reality for you and your family? Now. Another outcome is that a request can be denied. And if that’s the case, then it’s worth asking if, if there are opportunities for additional aid in subsequent years. But just know that financial officers, um, [00:21:00] may also deny a, an appeal if either there’s no new information or the information doesn’t, um, doesn’t signify a big change in what they’ve already offered

Eddy: to reiterate, again, um, don’t be shy about appealing because chances are many other students are appealing as well. And so as a result, it’s a very common process for financial officers. You wanna at least have your, uh, name in the running for any merit scholarships, and in good faith effort, do your best to work with the admissions office, maybe the financial office as well to make this a reality for the family.

Eddy: As we think about need-based appeals, if you’ve attended any of any of our past webinars, you’ve heard about this, uh, this, um, problem that you’ll face. Now, the financial aid office needs additional information [00:22:00] in order to reevaluate your application because FAFSA uses old information, uh, that is based on income.

Eddy: So some of the information that you, that you have provided already may not be relevant to where your situation is today. If you remember, the amount of financial need that you need that you have is calculated based on the difference between the cost of attendance of the school and the student aid index.

Eddy: And so the cost of attendance are things like tuition, room and board are also called housing and fees. Um, any other additional fees, health insurance, um, books may be included. Transportation to those university might be included. Any other personal expenses, all of that comprises the cost of attendance.

Eddy: The Student aid index is the number that’s calculated based on the information that you input from your FAFSA. It’s a number from negative 1500 to [00:23:00] 999,000. Very large number. So the lower your student aid index, the more financial need you have. So you subtract those two, and in this example you can see there’s a financial need of about 18,500.

Eddy: So some of the information that is input, if you remember from past presentations, is income data, both student and parent asset information. Again, similarly, both from the student and the parent, and then family size. All of that gets factored into the FAFSA and then it calculates your student aid index.

Eddy: Now, the FAFSA may not accurately capture where you are today with all of the information that you input. So FAFSA uses what’s called prior, prior year data for your income. And so this is for the fall 2026 academic year. You will all the, all the high school seniors here and parents of high school seniors, you will [00:24:00] have submitted your 2024 tax information for fall 2026.

Eddy: And so if there’s been any changes in these. Two years, then it’s really important to let the aid office know about those changes so that they can accommodate and consider how that impacts your ability to pay today rather than where your income was two years ago. So it’s urgent and important to appeal if there’s been changes in the income.

Eddy: On the asset side, there are not considerations or there are differences between situations that might drain your assets since you’ve applied for, uh, since you’ve applied for financial aid. So when you submit the FAFSA, for example, you submit the value of your assets at time of. Submission. Now, if, if there’s been any significant [00:25:00] expenses since that point, or any additional context as to why your savings might be low, then that’s the information that you want to notify for the financial aid office.

Eddy: So, for example, if you’ve had medical expenses that have drained your, your savings account, right? If, if there’s been an unexpected cost that has arisen, maybe your car just broke down and uh, and at this point in order to go to work, you need to buy a new car. Maybe, you know, if your car’s not fixable, then all of these different scenarios that have, that are playing out are significant expenses that a family might incur.

Eddy: Those are important to know about, so financial officers can accommodate for that information. Now family size is also a big part of the calculation of the student aid index. If there are multiple children in the home that are in college, it doesn’t currently adjust the Student aid index. So this is a common reason why many [00:26:00] families will appeal.

Eddy: I just talking to family, um, a few hours ago about this. So if you have twins, for example, and your two children will be in college over the course of four years, or if maybe a student, uh, a family has a current junior in college and an incoming freshman in college. So you have two students in college at the same time.

Eddy: So this is really important to communicate because the information is actually asked on the FAFSA, but there’s nothing that’s done with it anymore. Um, since the FAFSA Simplification Act, that number is no longer considered in the Student Aid Index. Um, ’cause there was a. An old metric before the s major family contribution, uh, that was, that was used, uh, that’s no longer used anymore.

Eddy: So in the student aid index, there’s a higher income protection, uh, for larger family sizes, but the number of, uh, students in college, number of children in college is not factored in. So you have to appeal to the aid office in order to let them know that otherwise they won’t know. [00:27:00] So if you’re paying for two children in college, that’s clearly more difficult than just paying for one.

Eddy: So you, in those cases, you, you have to appeal. Now over the next three slides, I want to go through various different reasons, some of which we’ve talked about already. Uh, some of the reasons that you would really want to appeal if there was a, an, a reduction in your income since, uh, your 2024 tax returns.

Eddy: That is important to know because you have access to less resources today than what was represented in 2024. Uh, you wanna provide documentation for all of these reasons that you wanna appeal because eight officers. Are required to have evidence for any adjustments that they make. They have professional judgment opportunities to make adjustments, but there has to be evidence to support it.

Eddy: They can’t just on a whim say, okay, well, we’re gonna adjust this financial aid package for the student because we feel like it. That will absolutely not happen. Um, and this is a co this is a committee collaboration [00:28:00] where oftentimes financial officers will get together, financial officers will get together and oftentimes meet once or twice a week to meet as a committee to discuss appeals.

Eddy: And so this does go before a committee. That’s why there has to be evidence, um, through the Department of Education, they have to provide documentation as to why there are any adjustments that are made. Now, similarly with a job loss, if a parent has, uh, involuntarily lost their job, they’ve been laid off or terminated, then this is a huge dramatic change in family circumstances.

Eddy: So you wanna document that now? Resigning from a job or voluntarily leaving a job may not necessarily count. And so I wanna emphasize the distinction here because if a parent had been working and chooses not to work, then that that may not be a sufficient justification, uh, to a university. Um, it’s the involuntary job loss that is gonna be most, uh, significant and, [00:29:00] and paid most attention to in terms of adjusting any a package.

Eddy: Your family may have had a large one-time income, so for example, if you received an inheritance, maybe you sold a, an additional, an extra property that you owned. And in 2024, it looks like your income is incredibly high. Right. That is not indicative of where you are today or your standard, uh, earnings for the year.

Eddy: And so if that’s the case, you wanna make sure to let AO offices know that that was an aberration. That is not a, your income is not, let’s just say a million dollars every year, right? So let AOs know that. ’cause otherwise, the assumption is going to be that until next year, right? Until you submit FAFSA again, the assumption is that this is, this is your annual income.

Eddy: Uh, so be mindful of that. And then similarly, if there’s been any reduction in child [00:30:00] support, um, and that income has gone down, you wanna provide appropriate documentation highlighting that as well. If you have particularly high expenses that are not reflected on the FAFSA, then this is another reason to submit an appeal.

Eddy: Right? I talked about some un unexpected medical expenses already. Anything out of pocket that’s not covered by insurance, you wanna save those receipts you wanna highlight and it, what’s easiest is if you compile them all together into a single document, save it all as a PDF, so you make the financial officer’s job easier.

Eddy: Put everything together so that they can scroll through easily and see everything that you’ve had to pay out of pocket. Now similarly, there may be ongoing not just a one-time, uh, uh, medical expense, but there may be ongoing medical expenses for anyone in the family that has a chronic condition. So again, document that.

Eddy: Anything that you have to pay out of pocket, make sure you, um, save those receipts, save any bills [00:31:00] that you had. This could be the case as well if, um, families are on a payment plan from maybe a large one-time hospital bill as well. Save all those receipts. But any, anything that you are paying out of pocket, those are resources that you are no longer have or will not have available to help pay for college, which is why you wanna appeal and let AOs know about that.

Eddy: Now some families may be caring for sick family members at home, or sick family, uh, uh, elderly, uh, grandparents in the home. And in those cases, then again, you wanna make sure to document any kind of, uh, responsibilities that the family has based on the, the condition that a, a sick family member may have, uh, the level of care that’s required.

Eddy: This can also apply for, uh, any kind of in-home care that a, a parent is helping to pay for a grandparent, an el, uh, an elderly grandparent, for example. [00:32:00] So many cases in which your own out-of-pocket expenses, again, are being spent on necessary medical situations, and that is no longer gonna be available to you to help pay for college.

Eddy: And then finally on this slide, any high fixed expenses that you have that go towards non-discretionary expenses. So things like, um, your own, like student loan debt repayment on the, on the parents or any other debt payments, some legal, legal obligations that you might have. Again, copies of, copies of those expenses, you wanna show those, uh, to the financial office.

Eddy: And then finally, we talked about a sibling, or this also applies to a parent. I actually had this conversation last week with a parent who they themselves are going back for their bachelor’s degree. So if two people in the household are going back to school, then this is critical to include for the financial office to know about so [00:33:00] that there’s an understanding that the family resources will be split amongst two students that are currently in school rather than just one.

Eddy: If there has been a change in the family size, now this is huge to include because the student aid index is directly impacted by family size. So if there’s been a, a birth in the family, um, if a family is now responsible for a grandparent who lives in the home and, and, uh, more than 50% of the grandparents’ care is now the responsibility of the family, then these are important changes to household size.

Eddy: And so that you wanna update because more of your income will be protected the higher your family size is than a lower family size. Now, a little bit on a more somber note, unfortunately, uh, in the case of death, uh, of a parent or guardian, uh, somewhat self-explanatory that that. That parent is no longer, [00:34:00] um, you know, uh, does, is no longer able to contribute to the cost of college.

Eddy: Uh, so make sure that, that a offices know about that if that situation happens. I hope it doesn’t happen to anybody here, but it is an important update to provide. And then similarly, if there’s been a divorce or separation after the family has submitted the FAFSA, that update is important to know. Uh, for the purposes of the FAFSA, only one parent is, uh, only one parent’s information is expected, and that will be the parent who contributes more than 50% of the child’s expenses.

Eddy: Uh, it’s not necessarily who the child lives with more, but who provides, uh, more than 50% of the financial support for that child.

Eddy: As you think about initiating the appeal, uh, it’s really important to contact the school first. Need based appeals are handled by the [00:35:00] financial aid office. Uh, again, merit based appeals tend to be handed by admissions, but it can be both admissions and financial aid. These appeals are, are reviewed on a case by case basis, and they financial officers have the authority, it’s called professional judgment, to make the adjustments that they may need based on how the new data impacts your student aid index.

Eddy: And so they’ll review all that information, deliberate as a committee, and then, uh, financial office will notify the student and the family, uh, of any changes. There may be some additional information that’s required, or if you are denied, then institutions might offer, some may offer a chance for additional review.

Eddy: Not always, but it’s always, it’s worth asking. Now, as you think about bringing this all together. What are the things that you need to submit? Uh, in order to successfully appeal, you wanna have a, a formal appeal letter. [00:36:00] So you should state what the reason is for the appeal, any circumstances or changes in your financial situation that were not already communicated in the previous first time application.

Eddy: You’ll wanna collect all the documents that you need and then from there, uh, be able to submit those to the university. So it could be your W twos, it could be pay stubs, bank, any bank statements. Again, whatever the bills that you have, whatever’s necessary for the type of appeal that you are planning to submit.

Eddy: Make sure you have all those documents. Schools are required to review your need-based appeal, and so. Don’t be shy in submitting it. You, uh, you will hear back from the school. Uh, and so for that reason, you can generally find how to go through the appeal process on the financial aid website. Uh, again, there is no harm in doing this.

Eddy: Uh, if worst case scenario a school is denies your [00:37:00] appeal and you’re back where you started in the first place, they are not able to offer you more aid, but there are more positive outcomes that are possible. Not, I won’t, I wanna mention that, that not always, they won’t always happen just based on the resources of a school.

Eddy: But best case scenario, you are able to get an increase in the financial aid package that you receive and that makes it more affordable for the family. I. Now what’s equally important is not just what you, what reasons are valid for an appeal, but also to know what are some of the reasons that don’t warrant, uh, a successful appeal or reasons that will be denied an appeal.

Eddy: So if you’ve had, uh, any kind of reductions in retirement income, that will not be factored in, that’s not considered a valid reason. Similarly, any change, any reduction or changes in, um, in, in your investments, whether that is, you know, real estate, property values have gone down, whether it is [00:38:00] the stock market has gone down, whether it’s cryptocurrency that you might own, right?

Eddy: These, this is the nature of, of investing in these types of volatile assets. Uh, and so any changes there will not be accepted as a valid reason. Now, if a parent refuses to contribute to the student’s education, unfortunately that won’t count either. Now if this was the case, as I’m sure you can imagine, many parents would simply be unwilling to contribute if they then expected colleges to bear the burden of the cost.

Eddy: So colleges do expect both biological parents to contribute to the child’s education. So if a parent refuses to contribute, that puts the student in a really precarious situation. I’ve worked with students directly in which this was the case. We had to think really intentionally about what their college list looked like, the type of on-campus support that they would have, um, [00:39:00] without the support of one parent, uh, the amount of work study that would be reasonable to fill any gap.

Eddy: And also reaching out to the university to see if there are, if there were any additional scholarship opportunities. So it’s very difficult. Um, if this is the case, I hope students are not in this position because colleges will not accommodate a refusal from a parent, uh, to then subsequently offer additional aid.

Eddy: Again, there may be some cases in which a student might be considered independent if both parents are not available. Um, I wanna get too far into that, but a parent simply refusing to contribute is not gonna be an acceptable reason. Now, a parent’s inability or unwillingness to borrow the parent plus similarly, will not be accepted as a reason for why student should get more grant aid from the university and a lack of credit worthy co-signers as well.

Eddy: Um, will, will be denied.

Eddy: Now I wanna [00:40:00] highlight a really important tool that makes this process much easier for all families. Um, this is a tool that Juno just created fairly recently, just a few weeks ago here. And so I wanna make sure that you all know about this. I’m gonna walk through it very quickly. Um, the link will be, uh, here in the slides so you can check it out.

Eddy: It’s a completely free tool, uh, that allows you to put in a little bit of information about your circumstances and your situation. And then from there, it’ll create a financial aid appeal on your behalf based on the information you input. So it works for incoming first year students as well as current college students.

Eddy: You can submit a need based appeal, a merit based appeal. Uh, we didn’t talk about dependency overrides, but you can submit dependency, override appeal, as well as multiple children in college.

Eddy: From the merit based side, uh, you’ll enter the details about where you’ve been admitted, and then the tool will actually [00:41:00] use that information to draft a competitive appeal letter based on the information you include. So for in this example, um, Ohio State and Duke University, they’re not quite peer schools.

Eddy: So you might, you may have applied to more than this. So maybe you also applied to Michigan State and Penn State and University of Illinois as well as Vanderbilt and, um, Yale and Stanford. Right? So looking at the, uh, the merit based appeals process, you do wanna focus on peer institutions or similar type of institutions, right?

Eddy: The way that privates versus public schools, uh, distribute and allocate financial aid is very different. So these are cases in which you, you may wanna submit, uh, you may wanna consider the. Appealed process based on the near peer schools that are relevant to your top choice. And so the tool will do that for [00:42:00] you.

Eddy: Uh, in terms of the, the strongest options that are available now, you’ll be asked just a couple of questions, right? Similar to what we discussed. What are some of the reasons for your appeal? Can you share more about the circumstances behind it? And ultimately it will draft a letter on your behalf. Um, what’s really helpful is that it’ll include some suggested attachments so that there’s, you know, what to collect, what documents to include.

Eddy: You have it all comprehensively in one, in one appeal, and it’s meant to save time, all the back and forth between you and financial aid to say, oh, well, you forgot this document. Okay, well, here’s the, here’s the new one. So it’s meant to help both families and financial offices so that there’s comprehensive data.

Eddy: So aid officers can look at everything at once and then make an informed decision. Now, some of you may have already heard about these changes, but I wanted to reiterate them in case anyone on this call hasn’t starting July 1st, 2026. So this summer, uh, families will have [00:43:00] access to less federal student aid.

Eddy: Uh, this is past last June, and the bill goes into effect, uh, starting July 1st for the limitations on the Parent plus loan program. Now, let me talk to any, I know we have a lot of seniors here, but if any, if there are any current college students or if any parents in the audience have a current college student, let me just talk about that really quickly.

Eddy: First, if that’s you, then there are no changes to the borrowing requirements. So as long as a student has taken out a direct loan in the past. Then, which is that 5,500 loan f uh, freshman year of college, which most students will end up taking out, uh, as a way to help pay for college, then you will be granted a legacy exception.

Eddy: Uh, which is also similar kind of in colloquially called being grandfathered into the, the current limits. And the current policy as of today is you can borrow the parent plus up to the cost of attendance [00:44:00] without any limits, without any lifetime limits. So this is what it was in the past before the bill was passed.

Eddy: Um, this is what students will have access to if they’re currently in college. Now, for any high school seniors and younger, that is not applicable to you. You have to borrow under the new terms of the Parent Plus program, which caps the parent plus at the $20,000 annual limit, and there’s also a $65,000.

Eddy: Lifetime limit. So this lifetime limit is per student. It is not per parent. So it’s not the case where parent one can borrow 65,000 and then parent two can borrow 65,000 and you have an aggregate of 130,000 total. That is not true. It’s a $65,000 cap per student. And so regardless of who borrows which parent, it’s only that maximum amount.

Eddy: Now if you think about this over the course of four years, if you need to borrow the annual limit, you’ll borrow 20 freshman year, 20 sophomore [00:45:00] year, 20,000, junior year, and then your capacity remaining is only $5,000 left. So at that point, you wanna make sure you’re really intent, intentional about how you’re borrowing and what your limits are.

Eddy: Now this may force a lot of families into the private loan market, right? Especially in that senior year where if you do need a bar up to 20,000, you won’t have an option to through the federal government. So a lot of these big changes are, um, are he, they’re coming, they’re al around the corner here. And so where.

Eddy: We fit into the picture as Juno is that we effectively are a group bargaining, collective bargaining for student loans. Um, the easiest way to think about Juno is like a union for student loans. Uh, where we come together, we pull thousands of families every single year together who may need to borrow in order to help pay for college, right?

Eddy: I mentioned this at be at the beginning. I’m a Juno member myself. [00:46:00] ’cause I actually found out about Juno while in grad school and then joined the team afterwards. Um, I am saving a lot on my loans just based on the lower interest rate that I got. And so what we do now is bring all those families together.

Eddy: So let’s say for example, this year we are able to have 25,000 families instead of the 15,000 last year. We have that much more bargaining power when we go to these banks and lenders to negotiate better deals and better rates to say, look at the size of this group. We’re all here. What are you able to offer?

Eddy: Right. And then that’s, that catches the attention of many banks and lenders because they spend so much money on marketing costs to try to attract you to, uh, use their services. So ultimately what we’re doing is these lenders save a lot on marketing that gets passed on and we pass that, those savings onto families.

Eddy: So that’s how we’re able to negotiate these types of deals where we are now. Is in the [00:47:00] group building phase, so be by April 30th. Um, we are trying to build as large of a group as possible. Um, one important note here is that Juno is completely free. We don’t ask for your money, we don’t ask for you to pay anything.

Eddy: Um, there’s no obligation, there’s no commitment. Uh, really what we’re doing is building a coalition of families that need to borrow and getting better rates in terms because of that coalition. So there truly is strength in numbers. And so if anyone here is able to join the group again, even if you’re not planning to take out a loan, that’s totally fine.

Eddy: But the more family members we have in the group, the better, the better rates we’re able to get. So again, there’s no cost at all to Juno. There’s no sign, um, when you sign up. Uh, there’s no credit check. Uh, and so, uh, you can join the group, but it doesn’t obligate you to do anything. Um, we offer a lot of one-on-one support.

Eddy: I speak with a lot of families every day. If you have questions [00:48:00] about the process, um, please let me know. I’d be happy to meet with you. Um, but really what we’re doing here is building the coalition. Where it can be an additional free option to you to get access to lower rates if you find yourself in the position of having to borrow.

Eddy: So if that’s the case, um, I would love to see, you know, more of the families who are here joining. Um, here’s the link to sign up. Again, we will never ask for your money or anything like that. It’s completely free. Alright. Wanted to get through all that and then, uh, before we can now turn our attention to Q&A.

Anesha: Okay. Was there something else, sorry, that you wanted to get through before or? No, you were just there? Nope. Okay. Okay. Um, all right. We have some great questions that were coming in. I don’t know if you saw any that you wanted to call out or we can go in order. I think we’ll be able to get through most of them and I’ve answered a couple in the chat.

Eddy: Sure. We can go in order.

Anesha: Okay. Um, so the first question for you, so this is the Q&A portion of our, our webinar tonight. You can send me your [00:49:00] questions. I will read them aloud and give any an opportunity to answer them and also publish them. So that other folks can see them. So the first question for you, someone said, my son is a senior and accepted to colleges with minimal financial aid.

Anesha: Um, are loans, scholarships, et cetera, um, available for assistance and where can we get them?

Eddy: Yeah, so if there’s been the, the type of aid that you get, again, can vary based on need-based and merit-based. If, if you don’t qualify for need-based aid or a lot of need-based aid, you can still appeal on the merit basis.

Eddy: And even if other options were, you know, a little bit cheaper, it can still be worth, um, submitting an appeal for that Now. There are other, the timeline of appeals can also be important. So if you are, um, if you wanna submit a merit based appeal again and you have no other financial aid, you might be [00:50:00] worthwhile to wait a little bit, um, just to see what other, um, what other schools might come in or if schools will come in towards the, uh, towards the enrollment deadline and see and potentially offer some, some, uh, additional aid to incentivize, uh, families.

Eddy: Now, the only reason I share this is because this did happen last year, uh, and I wish it never happened, but there’s kind of been this Pandora’s box that has not been opened, um, where schools, some schools very la very late, um, ended up offering some additional grant funding to help meet their enrollment numbers.

Eddy: Mm-hmm. Now, outside of that, though, again, those are some exceptional scenarios. I don’t envision that happening a lot. Uh, there are other options for out. Outside or external scholarships, I would highly recommend applying to as many as possible, as much school-based aid, federal based aid, institutional aid, right?

Eddy: Um, and then external scholarships, [00:51:00] focus on those. So you can minimize the cost as much as possible. Now, after that, if you still have any remaining need, that’s where many families will turn to loans. The parent plus you’ll have up to $20,000 to borrow. And then the remaining amount, if, if the cost is higher, you’ll have to borrow through the private loan market.

Eddy: Um, so those are some of the different options that you have at your disposal. I will say there are also families that don’t choose the federal. Office at all. They just, uh, go straight to the, uh, the, to the private loan market because you might be able to get much better rates to the parent. The parent plus the parent plus is a fixed rate at 8.94% this year.

Eddy: Uh, it’ll change in May. Uh, we’ll see how much it usually changed by 0.1%. Um, but it also comes with a 4.2 to 8% origination fee, which is a quite high, uh, that’s, that’s just a cost built into taking out the loan. So if you need to actually borrow a hundred dollars, they’ll force you to borrow $104 and take that $4 as, as the [00:52:00] initial basically payment for taking out the loan.

Eddy: Okay,

Anesha: thank you for clarifying that. Inform, mentioning the plus loan. Someone also asked about the plus loan, so I appreciate you stating that private loans might be a better option financially for some folks. Um, okay. The next question someone was asking, essentially saying that they’re getting conflicting information from the admissions office and the financial aid office.

Anesha: The financial aid office will not allow them to submit an appeal, but the admissions office said to submit an appeal. So who’s the right person and how do they ultimately get it submitted?

Eddy: Sure. So it could depend on it. It could depend on the type of appeal. Um, you can always submit a need-based appeal if there’s been any changes to your circumstances.

Eddy: Now, if there haven’t been any changes and, and no new information, then it doesn’t warrant submitting an appeal. ’cause again, financial office will just deny that appeal and say, there’s nothing new since they re renewed it, reviewed it, excuse me, the first time around. Now, it’s absolutely worth appealing, especially if admissions is saying you could, you should appeal, [00:53:00] uh, it’s worth appealing.

Eddy: Again, at the very worst case scenario, you might be denied. Um, but it’s worth at least putting your hat in the ring, especially if admissions is saying that you should appeal.

Anesha: Thank you. Uh, the next question. Oh, do you have to share the documentation of the other offers with your appeal if you’re trying to submit other, um, letters?

Anesha: To appeal.

Eddy: Yeah. Generally it will be asked. Uh, and so you wanna make sure that you can prove, uh, that these offers are genuine. Now, the important thing here is to think about the net cost, not just the overall scholarship amount. ’cause you may have received a scholarship from a private university that costs $95,000 a year and they gave you a $30,000 scholarship.

Eddy: Um, but the school, the net cost to you as a family is still $65,000. Right? You can’t take that $30,000 scholarship and go to university B and say, oh, this school gave me a 30,000 [00:54:00] scholarship. Can you also gimme a $30,000 scholarship? You wanna compare the net cost, right? To say this after scholarship, this school’s net cost to me is $30,000.

Eddy: Maybe they give a very generous financial aid, especially if they, if they cost 95, right? So my, my net cost is $30,000. So. Now this university, can you meet my net cost that this other school has offered? So maybe that is an additional $5,000 or $10,000. That’s where you wanna focus on not just the scholarship amount, but what is the net cost to you and your family?

Eddy: Because cost of attendance is different at every school, right? Every school has different tuition rates, housing and meals rates. You know, some include transportation in that. So focus on the net cost.

Anesha: Uh, the next question some folks were asking about comparing, um, between financial, sorry, comparing financial aid awards between public and private schools.

Anesha: So one person asks, when it comes to choosing, [00:55:00] um, between college A and college B, does it make a difference? One, if one school is public versus private, and is it possible to use a public financial aid offer to appeal to an out-of-state private school?

Eddy: If you had no other options, then I would go for it.

Eddy: But again, it’s not likely just based on the, um, public schools especially, uh, are first of all just have less outside scholarship to give, tend to rely on in-state versus out of state options for, you know, will obviously will be cheaper for in-state students. There are some public, uh, universities that have higher financial, uh, financial, larger financial aid programs and may be able to, to meet need better than others.

Eddy: But that is highly dependent on the university. It’s less likely. So I, I speak kind of more generally across the board. There are certainly exceptions to this where there are public schools that are very well resourced in terms of their financial aid, but even recently there has been a push to, [00:56:00] uh, across even public universities to focus more on their in-state applicants, um, and prioritizing students because they are publicly funded by.

Eddy: Resources from that state. So that’s why I say it’s less likely. It’s not impossible, but just less likely.

Anesha: Thanks. Uh, the next question someone asked, if I don’t appeal in my first year, can I appeal in future years?

Eddy: You certainly could. So you have to apply for financial aid every single year. And so that’s meant to account for any changes in circumstance, right?

Eddy: If there was a decrease in income. Now if you try appearing your first year and you get denied, right? It’s totally possible, um, to, to submit again in the next year. But if circumstances haven’t changed, right? If your job, you know, jobs have been the same, uh, no significant changes in the family, it’s probably less likely to be successful again, if everything is fairly significant, uh, fairly stable, excuse me.

Eddy: Now, scenarios pop up where maybe, you know, maybe [00:57:00] a parent gets sick and is out of work, um, maybe, um, there’s been. Maybe a, you know, a a another sibling has entered in college now. So there’s two children in college. You always wanna approach it on a year by year basis. And from there, what changes have happened that would warrant an appeal?

Anesha: Um, someone asked, can you, and you spoke to what would happen if the parent is applying to, to college. So that was one question, but then someone asked, does paying for another child’s high school tuition, um, count as a reason for appeal?

Eddy: Sure. So the first question is what, uh, what happens if a parent is in college?

Anesha: Yes. You already answered it. I was just hearkening back to it, but if you wanna repeat your answer there, go for it. Um, but then the other question that came around the same time was, does paying for another child’s, um, high school tuition? Oh, sure.

Eddy: Yeah. So again, if you know any two family members in college, make sure to let financial offices know about that, whether it’s a parent and a student, a a parent and a student.

Eddy: A student and their sibling, whoever’s in college. Just make sure to [00:58:00] note that. Uh, and then if, um. Uh, now I’m blanking on the second question. I was so funny. Sorry.

Anesha: High school. High school

Eddy: tuition. Uh, high school tuition. Thank you. Um, so it, it varies by school. Um, this is more common for schools that accept the CSS profile, uh, that will can be more accommodating with private school tuition.

Eddy: Now, there are some, um, there’s a certain level of protection that can be allowed in terms of the income that goes towards private school. Not entirely, but some schools will factor in, other schools will not. Um, ultimately, again, the, the family will make choices that they wanna make, and many colleges don’t feel like it’s their responsibility to subsidize whether what the type of school that a parent chooses to send their child to for help.

Eddy: There are other schools, again, typically the ones that have more generous financial packages that do consider it to a degree. [00:59:00]

Anesha: All right. Sorry, I’m trying to answer one question.

Eddy: I see one here I can just answer really quickly. It’s the top on screen at least. And I don’t know if I think this has, it may have been upvoted many times.

Eddy: Yeah. If that’s the number that, so it’s about Juno’s revenue model. I’ll just answer this one really quickly. Um, how can we do this all for free? So we charge the lenders a small percentage based on the amount of loan volume that’s originated for the lenders. And so we set that rate in advance of the auction.

Eddy: Uh, we’re very like transparent about this. It’s, we have a whole page on our website that, that, um, speaks to this. So that rate is set beforehand so that lenders, in the negotiations that we have don’t try to sway the Juneau team by offering, you know, a higher percentage to, um, to secure the business of the Juno group.

Eddy: Um, so again, we understand that we are operating in financial services. We ourselves are not a lender like I mentioned earlier, but we. We are operating in financial services and many folks, myself included, are [01:00:00] very skeptical or cautious around any kind of financial services. Right. And I, and I say that upfront ’cause you know, my, my family has, uh, my family agreed to the US like my parents were taking advantage of, uh, when I was growing up.

Eddy: So I completely understand all of that. Um, and you should be appropriately skeptical of that. So we set the rates in advance of then go of the negotiations so that lenders are not trying to sway us in one direction. And then from there again, ’cause we have to operate and pay our own expenses and everything like that.

Eddy: But that’s how we’re able to make everything free for families, for counselors that we work with high schools across the country, all of our resources, you know, the, the tool that we just developed as well as the financial appeal generator tool. Everything that we have, we do for, we make, uh, for free. We make it free for families, all of our resources.

Anesha: Okay. One quick question for you. Someone asked if accepted e ed, can we, can we still appeal?

Eddy: Good question. Um, if, if you were [01:01:00] accepted ed, that should have been a conversation back in December. Um, realistically speaking, now it’s kind of late. If it really is not financially feasible, then again, this is a kind of a tricky territory.

Eddy: ’cause if you accepted ED and you know it’s not financially feasible, this should have happened in back, in that back then. And you, you should have withdrawn all your other applications, right? Because you’re committing to a school. Now, if you communicated that this is not affordable, you may have to withdraw from the university entirely and then just apply regular decision.

Eddy: So this is a little bit of a tricky question to answer because if that’s the case today, then you may be ex you again, if it’s not affordable, then you may have had to rescind your ed offer by this point in order to, to consider the RD round. Uh,

Anesha: there might have been some missteps along the way. Okay. The last question that I’ll ask, um, someone asked, um, the school didn’t give us any financial aid.

Anesha: Should the [01:02:00] school tell us why? So is there, if there, if they did not receive a financial aid package, what is their recourse, I guess?

Eddy: Yeah, so the school generally won’t communicate why. Um, certainly you can request a meeting with financial aid and they’ll be able to, to. Give you more information, but from the, from the outset, when they’re sending out aid packages, they’re not gonna share why your aid, why you may have been denied or for what reason.

Eddy: If you, you can request a meeting with him though, um, to get that information one-on-one.

Anesha: Yeah. I, part of me, my gut would say something happened in the application process if you didn’t get anything. Um, um, so double checking the FAFSA, the CSS profile or whatever the school might have requested. There might be some missing documents.

Anesha: There would be my initial assumption. All right. Um, I’m gonna let you go, Eddy. Thank you for hanging out for a few extra minutes to get through some more questions. Thank you everybody for participating in tonight’s session. We hope that you learn a little bit more about strategizing around your financial aid, uh, questions if you, uh, were not able to.

Anesha: Oh, [01:03:00] okay. Nope. We also hope that you’ll join us for our upcoming webinars. But until next time, take care and have a great evening everybody, and thanks again, Eddy.

Eddy: Thank you everyone. Have a great night.https://vimeo.com/1179215515?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci