Saturday, February 7, 2009

Twitter Success Story - More Financial Aid!

Two days ago, Christopher Penn of Financial Aid Podcast posted this on Twitter:

"Any parents following me that are appealing for more financial aid midyear? DM or @ please! (need your help w/CNBC opp)"

I thought of my brother, who'd been laid off in December, and his daughter who is a freshman at an expensive private college. He'd gone through all of the school's procedures, filled out the "mid-year change in circumstances" forms, and had received a "Sorry, this year is all set" note back from the financial aid office. I wasn't sure if this was the type of situation that Chris was looking for, but sent him off a tweet in response anyway.

He responded, I sent him my brother's contact information, and that was that.
Or so I thought.

At 7:30 that evening, my brother called, telling me to make sure to watch CNBC's ''On the Money'' at 10 pm, as he was going to be calling in with a question about how to get your financial aid package adjusted if your circumstances change.

You can watch the exchange here:



Hugh asked his question, and Chris gave him some advice.

The morning after the broadcast, Hugh crafted a note to the school, using the tips Chris had given him. An hour after hitting "send", he received an email back, letting him know that his daughter's grant had been increased for the semester.

Twitter FTW.

1 comment:

  1. Wow, Susan, that is awesome. See, this is the type of good news people need to hear. It's not always easy to focus on a positive solution when things seem grim, but a shift in one's outlook can do amazing things. Thanks for sharing this. I don't think many people realize just how useful Twitter is.

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