Macalester: How final is a financial aid offer?

Macalester College financial aid chief Brian Lindeman discusses in The New York Times how final a college’s financial aid offer is:

“Most financial aid offices will not respond positively to simple requests for more aid. We generally won’t improve financial aid packages in response to a financial aid offer from another school.  … Over the years, I have had hundreds of conversations with parents that start with, “My daughter loves Macalester, but we are really struggling to figure out a way to make it work financially.” The next step is a conversation about the content of the financial aid application. We sometimes uncover factors that were either misinterpreted initially or weren’t reported. Sometimes we can provide more aid.”

Read his full Q&A session here.