3 Important Questions to Ask About Aid Award Letters

Financial aid award letters are a relief to receive and confusing to understand. Here are three important questions you should ask before accepting your aid.

It’s almost financial aid award season, and students will soon receive awards from the colleges that offered admission. How will this aid factor into your final decision? Lurking between the lines of these award letters are some practices colleges use when offering admission and financial aid. Colleges will either lure students to accept their offer of admission with a financial aid offer or use it to discourage those students who were only offered admission to fill their quotas and inflate their numbers. Let’s discuss how to look at your offers more closely and what you should know before accepting.

1. What is front loading?

Front loading happens when colleges make their most generous financial aid award offers to applicants as a lure to attend. When students return the following year, they may find their school has dropped their previously awarded grants and scholarships. Thousands of dollars may have been lost to the common practice of front loading. So ask these five questions before accepting an award and admission offer:

  • Is the grant/scholarship renewable and, if so, for how many years?What you want is the money to continue until you graduate. Bear in mind it may take longer—up to six years—for some students to graduate. Find out the maximum number of times the award will apply.
  • What are the strings attached to keeping the grant/scholarship?It’s important to understand the terms of receiving free money awards before acceptance to make sure you can and will perform them. You may have to keep your grades up, stick with a certain major, play an instrument, or be a member on a team. Find out the eligibility requirements each year, including any additional paperwork necessary to keep them.
  • If the grant/scholarship is lost, what will replace it?Often student loans are a college’s substitution plan. However, there may be other grants or scholarships available. Ask about them and the application process. Be prepared to continue searching for these and have a college finance Plan B.
  • Will the tuition bill increase in the following years and, if so, by how much?Those renewable grants/scholarships may no longer cover the same portion of your college costs if tuition rises. See what, if any, cost components (such as tuition, fees, room, and board) are capped or held at the freshman level.
  • Will the grant/scholarship be increased to keep pace with any raised college costs?Be aware that most colleges will not match tuition increases or increase free money aid when tuition rates increase. However, the college bill must continue to be paid.

Related: The Most Important Questions to Ask About Merit Aid

2. What is college gapping?

In admission, college gapping is a term used in reference to colleges and financial aid awards. The gap between what you can afford to pay—your Expected Family Contribution (EFC)—and what colleges offer in aid creates this gap. Gapping happens when a college makes an offer of admission and doesn’t back it up with financial aid; quite simply, the college doesn’t offer enough aid to cover the difference between the cost of college attendance and your EFC. Gapping is serious business. Colleges use this tactic to “weed out” the good applicants from the average applicants. If you’re at the top of their applicant pool, you’ll receive the aid required to attend. If not, you’ll be gapped in the hopes you’ll reject the offer of admission. It’s all a numbers game. Colleges offer admission to more students than they can possibly accommodate, and gapping helps them lessen the number of students who accept offers of admission.

3. What is award padding?

Colleges will also pad EFC numbers with federal student loans, federal parent loans, and work-study. These should not be considered when determining if the college is gapping you. All students qualify for federal student loans. College aid should only be in the form of merit scholarships and grants. If the difference between what you and your family can afford and what the college offers is padded with loans, the college is gapping you. The lesson for college-bound students and their parents is to carefully scrutinize, analyze, and question each item in a financial aid award letter before bothering to compare one college’s offer to another. It may turn out that freshman year is a best deal at one place, but if the total years until graduation are tallied, another choice may be the better bargain in the end. 

Related: How to Compare Your College Financial Aid Award Packages

If a college is gapping you, it’s your decision (with the help of your parents) to accept the offer of admission or not. If you want my advice, move on to your second, third, or even fourth choice college with a good financial aid package. You’ll not only save your parents a bundle, but you’ll most likely be happier at a college that values your contribution.

Read the original blog “Hiding Between the Lines in the Award Letter” on ParentingforCollege.com, and check out more scholarship advice in our Financial Aid section.  

Like what you’re reading?

Join the CollegeXpress community! Create a free account and we’ll notify you about new articles, scholarship deadlines, and more.

Join Now

Tags:

About Suzanne Shaffer

Suzanne Shaffer

Suzanne Shaffer counsels students and families about college preparation through her blog, Parenting for College. Her advice has been featured online in the Huffington Post, Yahoo! Finance, U.S. News & World Report Education, Smart College Visit, and more. She is also a freelance writer featured on CollegiateParent, UniversityParent, TeenLife Media, and Road2College. In the past, she has written for Zinch/Chegg, Classes & Careers, Winterline Study Abroad, and GalTime online magazine.

Suzanne's advice has also been featured on podcasts like Prepped and Polished, How to Pay for College HQ, The College Bound Chronicles, and The College Checklist. Her articles have been featured in print publications created by UniversityParent, CollegiateParent, and TeenLife Media as well as in the book College Bound and Gagged: How to Help Your Kid Get into a Great College Without Losing Your Savings, Your Relationship, or Your Mind by Nancy Berk.

 

Join our community of
over 5 million students!

CollegeXpress has everything you need to simplify your college search, get connected to schools, and find your perfect fit.

Join CollegeXpress

College Quick Connect

Swipe right to request information.
Swipe left if you're not interested.

The Ohio State University

Columbus, OH


Laura Wallace

Laura Wallace

High School Class of 2019

My favorite part of CollegeXpress is that it features student writers so I get an inside perspective from students slightly older and farther along than me. I realize that other college websites also utilize student writers; however, I relate the most to the college writers that I read articles from on CollegeXpress.

Hannah Nelsen

Hannah Nelsen

High School Class of 2022

CollegeXpress has helped me look at colleges that fit my interests by taking my profile and matching it to colleges that have the programs I'm looking for. It has the ability to connect me to colleges so I can be contacted by them and look at them more in-depth to find what's right for me. Additionally, the scholarship database is super beneficial for getting scholarships for college. Not only does it help lift the financial burden of college but it shows all the opportunities available. Overall, CollegeXpress has been very helpful to me.

Sadie Hartmann

Sadie Hartmann

High School Class of 2021

I'm a senior in high school, and CollegeXpress has helped me in so many ways this year in trying to navigate the process of deciding and committing to a university. The COVID-19 Student Resource Center has helped me many times with the most up-to-date and accurate information, along with financial aid and student life [advice]. During these uncertain times, CollegeXpress has been a great recourse to relieve the stress as a senior. Along with the COVID-19 Student Resource Center, I'm constantly using the extremely helpful tools off the site to aid me during this stressful process. Tools like the lists and rankings of universities have been the most beneficial. I've also used the site to receive expert advice on topics like financial aid. Finally, CollegeXpress has helped me easily apply for several scholarships. I'm thankful to be given the chance to win a scholarship to lessen the burden of my college debt.

Monica

Monica

High School Class of 2023

Being a sophomore in high school, I never really worried about college. I thought it wasn't important to worry about until senior year. Through this program opportunity I came across, I realized how important it is to start looking at colleges early and start planning ahead. CollegeXpress has opened my eyes to what colleges require, what colleges are near me, and what they offer. The daily emails I get from CollegeXpress really help me look at the different options I have and what colleges I fit into. Without this website, I would not be taking the time out of my day to worry about what my future will be nor what opportunities I have. I could not be more grateful for such an amazing and useful website. It's thanks to CollegeXpress that not only me but my family now know how much potential I have in to getting into these colleges/universities that we thought were out of my reach.

Elizabeth Stafford

Elizabeth Stafford

High School Class of 2021

As a UK student moving to California due to my dad's job in the military, when I first signed up for CollegeXpress a few months ago, the college process ahead seemed daunting and incredibly stressful. That all changed after I started to explore what this website had to offer. Not only was I helped by the vast array of resources available to me, but through being a CollegeXpress member, there have been so many more benefits. There have been emails with college tips—all of which I found incredibly helpful—as well as invitations to events and notifications of scholarships that'll make college possible for me. Overall, I'm very grateful to CollegeXpress for all of these things and more. Not only have they helped me grow my understanding of the college process, but they've also helped me to grow as a person, giving me new skills that I can take with me through life.