The New York Times reported in late April that in the current economy, more families are filing financial aid appeals with schools that have already admitted their child and offered an aid package.

Financial aid appeals are typically handled by the school’s director of financial aid. In one example, the Times profiled a financial aid director who was spending the week going through a stack of 100 appeals from high school seniors who were accepted for the next freshman class but who claimed they cannot afford to attend. “Each packet contains a heartfelt plea for more aid than the college offered initially, to offset the impact of recent job losses, plunges in home values or other financial setbacks,” the Times wrote.

The financial aid director’s desk was cluttered with medical bills, layoff notices as well as tax forms sent as supporting evidence for the appeals. This painstaking and emotional task, the Times explained, is playing out on hundreds of campuses, in advance of the May 1 deadline for tuition deposits from many incoming freshmen.

Financial aid appeals increased anywhere from 15 to 40 percent over two years ago at schools sampled by the newspaper. Some well-endowed schools coped with the rise in appeals by raising their financial aid budgets. But many colleges are under enormous financial constraints, as costs rise and their endowments ebb. Some schools are able to avoid the layoffs and furloughs that other public and private universities have done, but only by substantially raising tuition, board and fees.

The Times notes that schools typically use a combination of federal formulas and policies uniquely their own to arrive at an award offer. Financial aid directors often have the discretion to increase an offer by several thousand dollars a year if they deem a family’s financial circumstances severe enough.

On appeal, when warranted, students can sometimes get another $1,000 to $2,000 in grant or school scholarship, instead of loans. Moreover, a precipitous drop in income may qualify the student for a federal Pell grant, as much as $5,550. However, additional loans, such as an unsubsidized Stafford Loan, could also be part of a post-appeal package.

For those parents who have lost a job, especially after filing 2009 taxes and the student’s 2010-2011 FAFSA, financial aid offices will request thorough documentation, including a letter from the former employer that the parent is no longer an employee and including the termination date, evidence of unemployment insurance income (if a claim was filed), as well as evidence of how the family is supporting itself under present circumstances. The burden of proof is upon the student’s family to document that the level of family income and resources in 2009 are no longer the case in 2010.

In addition to marshalling all available evidence, I recommend parents and students maintain a courteous and respectful manner in all their communications with their school’s financial aid officers who are interacting with numerous equally worried families.