Local college scurry to find additional aid for families

Letters of appeal have poured into financial-aid offices this year at colleges around the region - and the country - as cash-strapped families seek more money to keep their children in school or to get them started.

The mother of an incoming freshman at Immaculata University wrote of being hit by a car, leaving her unable to work in her field and drastically lowering the family income.

Another family's college-savings fund evaporated in the market downturn.

Others noted layoffs, reduced work hours, losses in home-equity lines of credit, and other financial woes that had arisen or worsened since they initially applied for federal, state, and institutional aid.

The increases are evident at a wide spectrum of schools, from state-related institutions to small liberal-arts colleges to larger universities.

Some area schools, including Rutgers, Ursinus, Widener, Arcadia, and Immaculata, saw double-digit percentage increases in aid appeals this spring and summer, which come at a time when the universities themselves are trying to weather the economic downturn.

Others also citing upticks but no specific numbers include Penn State, La Salle, Swarthmore, Drexel, and Philadelphia University.

"It's a little bit of a perfect storm," said Rick DiFeliciantonio, vice president for enrollment at Ursinus. "You have people asking for more while we're affected by the same kind of economic influences. But it's a matter of priorities, and our board and president were quite clear about doing all we could do with financial aid."

The Collegeville school received about 200 appeals for financial aid from freshmen, up from 140 the year before. The school granted more than 100 of those appeals - 20 percent to 25 percent more than in the past - and doled out an additional $250,000, raising its institutional-aid budget to about $30 million, DiFeliciantonio said.

Ursinus, like some other universities, has a committee that reviews appeals. Families must have had a change in circumstances since they filed their initial financial-aid forms to be awarded more money, he said. It costs $47,750 in tuition and room and board to attend Ursinus.

Many schools, including Ursinus, had increased their institutional-aid budgets in anticipation of more requests for help. But even after handing out more money, they got appeals for larger awards.

The national trend of more appeals is being "spurred on and encouraged" by the Obama administration, said Justin Draeger, vice president of public policy at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

"Back in May, they issued a letter to financial-aid administrators to remind them and encourage them to use their authority on a case-by-case basis to make adjustments based on a family's financial circumstances, such as an unexpected layoff."

The U.S. Department of Labor also has been sending letters to those receiving unemployment benefits, letting them know they can apply or reapply for financial aid during their economic hardship, he said.

Families, as always, can continue to appeal for more aid during the summer, and even after the school year starts, if circumstances change, financial-aid officials at several local colleges said.

Widener University in Chester, where appeals are up about 20 percent from freshmen and returning students, is awarding about $29 million in institutional aid, more than in the past.

At Arcadia University in Glenside, appeals also are up 20 percent from new students - 125 to 150 - and have doubled from returning students, 13 to 26.

Immaculata University received 110 appeals, about twice as many as last year, and is awarding additional money to about 90 percent of them, said Becky Bowlby, director of admission.

"Many of the stories were incredibly sad, and as the caring institution that we are, we tried to help as many students as possible," she said. "We don't want to see that cost is the reason you don't come if the school is the right fit for you."

In addition to the mother in the accident, the school also heard from struggling families whose wage-earners were in fields such as real estate, banking, and contracting.

Schools also are steering families to more flexible payment plans or trying to help them secure aid or scholarships elsewhere.

"We're anticipating much greater use of our tuition-payment plan," said Jean McDonald-Rash, director of financial aid at Rutgers University, in New Jersey, where about 1,100 appeals have been filed by both freshmen and returning students, up from 721 last year. That's out of a student population of about 20,000.

"We are seeing more families struggling to find ways to make ends meet, in terms of funding a college education," she said.

Rutgers is awarding at least 80 percent of the families more institutional aid, though "it's rarely as much as the family would like," McDonald-Rash said.

The state-related school has about $17 million to give out, and much of that is awarded in the initial packages.

But appeals also can help families receive higher federal and state aid, she said.

"Almost universally, that will be the first thing schools will look at - can the student qualify for higher [federal and state] aid than was promised," said Anna Griswold, assistant vice president and executive director for student aid at Pennsylvania State University.

Penn State, also a state-related school, has seen a "noticeable" spike in appeals but had no firm numbers last week. The university expects to dole out about $70 million in aid and scholarships from donors, Griswold said.

The appeals, she said, are compelling. She met last week with the mother of a senior from New Jersey who was the sole breadwinner of the household and had lost her nursing job three months ago.

"We're going to take a look at her situation."