How well does bargaining for scholarship money work? Forum

[tinsleyc1]

UIUC has offered me $40k a year without conditions, which is essentially a full-ride. I'm in at WUSTL and Emory as well, and I hope to get accepted at Notre Dame soon as well (as well as Cornell and Michigan, but I doubt they'll be too receptive to bargaining). No scholarship info from any of them yet. What are the chances I could use my $40k at UIUC as a bit of leverage to convince them to throw some more money my way? I'm not saying I don't want to go to UIUC, but the more schools I have money at, the more options I have.

If this is feasible, how would I go about broaching the subject?

[woeisme]

UIUC has offered me $40k a year without conditions, which is essentially a full-ride. I'm in at WUSTL and Emory as well, and I hope to get accepted at Notre Dame soon as well (as well as Cornell and Michigan, but I doubt they'll be too receptive to bargaining). No scholarship info from any of them yet. What are the chances I could use my $40k at UIUC as a bit of leverage to convince them to throw some more money my way? I'm not saying I don't want to go to UIUC, but the more schools I have money at, the more options I have.

If this is feasible, how would I go about broaching the subject?

Just write an email to financial aide telling them your situation. explain that money is always a consideration and inquire into the possibility of getting more money given your other scholarships. They may ask for you to fax a copy of the scholarship letter or something then.

[Hopefullawstudent]

UIUC has offered me $40k a year without conditions, which is essentially a full-ride. I'm in at WUSTL and Emory as well, and I hope to get accepted at Notre Dame soon as well (as well as Cornell and Michigan, but I doubt they'll be too receptive to bargaining). No scholarship info from any of them yet. What are the chances I could use my $40k at UIUC as a bit of leverage to convince them to throw some more money my way? I'm not saying I don't want to go to UIUC, but the more schools I have money at, the more options I have.

If this is feasible, how would I go about broaching the subject?

This is from UCLA's Admitted Students email:

"If you receive scholarship offers from other law schools, please let us know as we want to try to be as competitive as possible. If you have questions about your qualifications or where you stand in the process, feel free to contact us."

-HL

[Dany]

Use the search forum feature. There are TONS of threads devoted to this, including sample letters and how/when to send them.

[thickfreakness]

Depends on the school. I will tell you that Emory won't budge at all, so just take what you get from there.

[superflush]

I'm in at WUSTL and Emory as well, and I hope to get accepted at Notre Dame soon as well (as well as Cornell and Michigan, but I doubt they'll be too receptive to bargaining). No scholarship info from any of them yet. What are the chances I could use my $40k at UIUC as a bit of leverage to convince them to throw some more money my way? I'm not saying I don't want to go to UIUC, but the more schools I have money at, the more options I have.
If this is feasible, how would I go about broaching the subject?

It probably wouldn't work, as the schools you want $ from a higher ranked (or if they are not, they are still regarded better on a national level).

[2009 Prospective]

I'm in at WUSTL and Emory as well, and I hope to get accepted at Notre Dame soon as well (as well as Cornell and Michigan, but I doubt they'll be too receptive to bargaining). No scholarship info from any of them yet. What are the chances I could use my $40k at UIUC as a bit of leverage to convince them to throw some more money my way? I'm not saying I don't want to go to UIUC, but the more schools I have money at, the more options I have.
If this is feasible, how would I go about broaching the subject?

It probably wouldn't work, as the schools you want $ from a higher ranked (or if they are not, they are still regarded better on a national level).

I disagree. Also, there's absolutely nothing to lose in bargaining with them as long as you're not a blatant asshole. It doesn't take more than a few short e-mails so there's really no reason not to try.

[Sauer Grapes]

....

[superflush]

I disagree. Also, there's absolutely nothing to lose in bargaining with them as long as you're not a blatant asshole. It doesn't take more than a few short e-mails so there's really no reason not to try.

There probably is nothing to lose. I still don't think that the UIUC money holds much bargaining power with the other schools.

[LSATfromNC]

The emory staffer in their thread said they don't negotiate, so I wouldn't count on them to do to much, but it couldn't hurt to try still