Mark Lindenmeyer, director of financial aid at Loyola College in Baltimore, said appeals of financial aid decisions are up about 80 percent over last year, with more expected through the end of the fall term. He estimated that about 75 percent of the appeals are being approved.
"They were all legitimate," he said of the appeals. "We're seeing not only loss of income but loss of employment."
Most students apply for financial aid in the spring and receive their packages over the summer. Students are eligible for up to $5,350 in federal Pell Grants, $2,000 in unsubsidized federal loans and another $5,500 in federal Stafford loans. Most colleges offer work study money and many states also offer scholarships. But beyond that, students have to rely on grant money directly from their schools. Because aid packages are based on the previous year's earnings and assets, families facing abrupt income losses are sometimes shocked by how little assistance they receive.
At Loyola, the cost of annual attendance (tuition, fees, housing and other expenses) is $50,500. The university expects students to take on about $8,800 in loans and work study money, Lindenmeyer said.
About 70 percent of students are on some kind of aid, but of the incoming class of 980 freshmen, 346 received need-based grants directly from Loyola. Those grants averaged $21,000 this year compared with $19,200 in 2008, one sign that student needs have deepened.
Many institutions set aside extra money in anticipation of increased aid requests from returning students.
The Johns Hopkins University has funded 70 requests from students who needed more aid because of special circumstances and another 60 from families that never needed aid before, said financial aid director Vince Amoroso. He said the university increased its financial aid budget from $41.5 million to $44.8 million and that $1.7 million of the increase went to those "special" cases.
Between tuition, fees, housing and personal expenses, Hopkins costs about $54,500 a year. The average student who needs aid receives between $8,000 and $10,000 in federal grants, loans and work study money, Amoroso said. The rest has to come from the university's grant fund.
Amoroso said that for families facing a sudden loss of income, Hopkins has based aid packages on projected earnings for next year instead of on total earnings for 2008, as is typical.
"We did more this year than we've probably ever done," he said.
