College students going back at schools for more aid
Layoffs, pay cuts have sparked a rise in appeals
WASHINGTON - College students are appealing financial aid decisions this summer in unprecedented numbers, an outpouring of need that underscores how layoffs and pay cuts have battered household budgets in the past year.
Appealing for more aid was a little-known and seldom-advertised option in higher education until this year. US Education Department officials wrote to financial aid administrators in the spring, when most aid decisions are made, urging them to “reach out to your students . . . particularly those who seem to have hit a rough patch, to make sure that they know there may be ways that you can help.’’
Because of lost income, many students qualify for more aid this fall than they were awarded this spring. Aid formulas project a student’s 2009 needs based on 2008 earnings.
“The best predictor usually is the previous year. Well, it isn’t this year,’’ said John DeCourcy, financial aid director at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va.
The economic fallout, coupled with record college enrollment and the aid push by President Obama’s administration, sent appeals into overdrive.
“I’m seeing things I haven’t seen in 20 years,’’ said Sarah Bauder, financial aid director at the University of Maryland. One of her clients is the child of a real estate mogul who lost everything; another is a family fleeced in Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.
Nationwide, appeals among students filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid totaled 106,189 so far this cycle and were on pace to exceed the 143,672 appeals filed in 2008-09. Appeals have risen steadily since 2007-08, when they totaled 112,407.
Families increasingly have stretched their finances to pay college tuition, which has been rising faster than inflation for years. But this year has been particularly difficult, as college savings plans have tumbled amid stock market losses. Colleges expected that more students than usual would balk at attending, and they admitted slightly larger classes this year to compensate.
Aid appeals are coming from across the spectrum of salary and class. Students are appealing for aid at $8,000-a-year state schools and $30,000 private institutions alike.
Some types of aid are essentially unlimited, guaranteed by the federal government to any student who demonstrates sufficient need.
Help is not available to everyone who wants it. Students who appeal earlier in the year are more likely to get it, aid officials said. Juniors and seniors might get preference over freshmen. Families with diminished salaries get priority over those who have taken a hit in stock funds or home values.
