Will It Be Okay If You Accept/decline Financial Awards After Two Weeks

How do I bargain with colleges regarding financial aid?

Colleges do Not perceive financial aid as something to be negotiated.  Indeed, if you question the amount of your aid offer and lead with "I wish to negotiate", the college will tune-you out and you will have lost them.Instead there are two reasons for more:Your family's financial status has changed:  Parent lost a job. Or a Major medical issue in your family arose which costs a lot of money.   Then you are contacting the college(s) to inform them of this change and to see what evidence/proof they need of this change in order to please re-evaluate your aid package.  Thank you.   (Be very professional and polite in making this request)College C gave you a Merit scholarship of some amount, and the total offered by C is more than is being offered by colleges A and B, but you would Much rather go to college C.    Then you are Only informing College C about the merit scholarship portion of the award.    That will Not work if NYU is giving you more money than Columbia and you want to go to Columbia.   Columbia typically does Not give merit scholarships.  Period.   They will only discuss a Change in your financial Need (see above).    Some people have mentioned that telling Cornell that Brown is giving you more aid, and you would rather go to Cornell "might" work.   What you are really asking is why Cornell perceives you need less aid than Brown perceives.  You are Not negotiating.   Cornell may say: "Oh sorry, we mis-figured something", and then meet the amount that Brown offered.   Only do that If you truly want to attend Cornell and will accept their offer if they adjust their fin aid figures.Be Polite and Professional.Do NOT Beg.Do Not ever use the word negotiate nor any synonym.Enjoy the financial aid process, and remember, you Must repeat the entire process each and every year with your college.   And there is No guarantee that what they offer you in aid as a freshman will be even close to the little they will offer you as a junior or senior.Classic Bait and Switch, and what are you going to do about it, as a rising senior?  Transfer?    ...................................................Colleges may be Non-Profit,but they are still Businesses and they hold all the cards......

How do I go about getting financial aid beyond FAFSA two weeks before I commit as a freshman at Chapman University?

Sorry but it is too late. There aren’t any aid giving institutions that work on that schedule.FAFSA is just a form that describes your financial situation. Chapman is a FAFSA only school (as opposed to schools that use CSS Profile or other means to give institutional aid). FAFSA qualifies you for federal aid and Chapman uses that form for their own aid too. Chapman gives every student with need something but they can’t give all of them enough to meet their full need. A graduate I know received the Presidential Scholarship, some need aid, a CalGrant and the parents still had to take loans. as well as the student.Federal aid - guarantees you a student loan and Pell if you qualify for Pell. Deadline is not over. Parents can take Parent Plus Loans if that is manageable/financially sound.Chapman Need Aid- gives their own aid but doesn’t always meet full need. The average award is $34,000 but that will vary between different students according to need and according to how much Chapman wants you to attend. Recently, Chapman met need of only 17% of students, so everyone else who attended had parents who paid it or parents who took loans. Deadline over, aid is already given out.Chapman Merit Aid - Chapman will give merit aid to the students it want to attract the most. Deadline is over, aid is already given out at this late date.State Aid - if you are a California resident and qualify for CalGrant the State will give you some decent aid even for private schools, instate. Deadline over if you didn’t follow the procedure to get a CalGrant.Outside Scholarships - foundations and institutions and associations give aid but the deadlines are usually in the 12 months before you get an acceptance and have to accept or decline.It is a very bad idea to enroll in a college you can’t afford for the full 4 years. Because you will have debt and no diploma. However, you can still apply for scholarships each year. Some foundations, institutions and associations do make them available. Keep in mind these are often smaller amounts for one year only and can’t pay the bulk of your costs.

How can I get full financial aid to top colleges If I get accepted to it?

Navigating through the maze of the college financial aid system is very difficult.For openers, you haven’t given us anywhere close to enough information to answer this question.But, I’ll do my best with what you have given me. Here are a few thoughts:“Full” financial aid is rare.How to send your kids to college free or almost freeFinancial aid comes in two flavors: need-based and merit-based. (Many of the elite schools don’t provide merit-based aid.)Need-Based vs Merit-Based Financial AidSmart people write books on this subject. I suggest you read several of them (instead of appealing to strangers on the Internet). I also suggest you get an adult, e.g. parent, to help you.If you are eligible for FAFSA, start there. https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/eli...Depending on to which schools you end up applying, you may need to complete the CSS Profile. (About ten percent of colleges and universities—mostly private—have this requirement.)I saved the best tip for last. Don’t apply to a bunch of elite schools, and then start trying to figure out if you can get sufficient aid. Shoot for the best schools you can afford using a net cost calculator. (You’ll need to be in the top 25% of the freshman class, academically.)Here’s a generic net cost calculator:College AbacusDid I mention this is difficult?PSNeed-based aid may come in the form of federal student loans. Be very, very careful financing your college education with debt.Thomas B Walsh's answer to Are student loans really that bad?

Will my chances of getting accepted to a college be lower if on the Common App I say yes to need-based financial aid in the question for each college?

Most colleges are Need Aware.Many colleges explicitly state that if you do Not apply for financial aid as a freshman you may Not apply for it later (e.g. get admitted, use all your savings for freshman year and then hope for aid from the College later as a sophomore or junior).If you are an US citizen or permanent resident, you can always fill out the FAFSA and apply for a Pell Grant or a Federal Direct Loan after you are admitted.However, most colleges will Not allow you to apply for financial aid “from the college” after being admitted. (There may be some exceptions for US citizens or permanent residents, depending upon well documented changes in financial circumstances.)Yes, they will hold it against you (most colleges, but many of the elite private colleges will not hold it against you if you are an US citizen or permanent resident.)

Can I take the whole specialization with financial aids in Coursera?

When you apply for the specialization you are actually only applying for the first course. You must apply for each course in the specialization seperately, and you must make sure to apply for the next one before the one you’re in ends, otherwise you won’t have enough time to get a response before the next course begins. It takes two weeks to get a response when you request financial aid.Good Luck!

What financial aid is available to me?

If you have completed a FAFSA, you have received a notification of EFC - Expected Family Contribution. This figure is the estimate of what, based on information submitted on the FAFSA, your family should be able to contribute to your education. FAFSA considers far more than your parents' combined income. So I can't estimate what the EFC is. You probably noticed on the FAFSA the opportunity to have the results forwarded to the school(s) of your choice. Let's say you want to go to U of South Carolina. You must complete the application for admission, have your high school foward transcripts, and submit any other info that is requested. Once you are accepted at South Carolina,  your FAFSA results will show up active in Office of Financial Aid. The staff will then assemble an award package for you based on the FAFSA results. You will be notified of this award and of the details of the sources. For example, you might get a Pell Grant, an offer for work-study, eligibility for a student loan (which has to be paid pack) and, if your state has a scholarship/grant program, any monies from that source. You will have the option to accept or decline the offer or any part of it. Once you accept, the funds are used to pay your tuition and fees, and room and board, should you opt to live on campus. Once those costs are covered and you owe nothing more, the excess funds will be issued to you, usually two to three weeks after classes start. Keep in mind that any award you receive is for the full academic year -- two semesters, so it will be split between the two."How much" you get is not the issue. FAFSA determines essentially a percentage. Let's say you are eligibility for a 90% award. (I am just using that as an example.) That means that 90% of your tuition will be paid no matter where you go to school. So if tuition is $20,000, 90% of it will be paid. If tuition is $55,000, 90% will be paid. In those two cases, of course, the out-of-pocket will be greater at the more expensive school.Some students are under the impression that once the award is made, they can then take that exact amount and opt for a less expensive school and receive the excess. It doesn't work like that. So, your next step is to be admitted to a school. You can can visit the schools' website and review the requirements for admission. Given your GPA, you may find that a Community College is the best fit for now.Hope this helps. Good luck to you.

Can I accept two Master's admission offers, without funding, before the April 15th deadline and decide which one to go later on?

No. The council of graduate schools (cgs) , which includes practically every respected school, has a resolution explicitly banning you from doing so. So both schools may be notified. It is up to the school to decide what to do in such case, but they are part of this resolution to not allow this. So yeah you may end up losing your spot in both.Everyone has their concerns, I am currently in the same exact situation where I'm deciding between top schools in my field while trying to solve a two-body problem and family/financial considerations. It's absolutely not okay to take a spot that may be given to another deserving applicant, which can of course change their lives. When you accept an offer the school will assume you will go there, and wont accept people from the wait list. Take your time deciding, but don't accept an offer you are not committed to.