I'm not sure if a forum has been made about this already (in which case, feel free to link me up), but in case it hasn't, I'm having problems negotiating with UT-Austin.

My bargaining chips:
$75000 from Fordham
$120000 from WUSTL
Admission to Cornell (but at sticker)

My stats:
GPA: 3.68
LSAT: 168

I emailed them with the offers/admission just two days ago, and they responded today with:
"Unfortunately awards through our office have been finalized however I would recommend that you look into alternative funding/loans."

I'm not sure if that means that they're out of money, or if they just don't feel like handing me any additional money. They've only given me $21000, so it's still expensive to go there. I must also note that I want to use an improved offer from UT-Austin to negotiate with Cornell's super expensive sticker, since I've lived in New York for the last 4 years and would prefer to stay here.

Do you have any advice? Is there another person to talk to besides the nice people in the financial aid office? Is this sort of stonewalling from them common? Is it still worth it to keep pushing them further?

Thanks in advance.

here ya go:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=27221

Checked it out, but wanted something a bit more specific to this situation. Is this a flat denial, or can I work around it, in essence.

If it makes you feel any better, I have better stats than you and received nothing from UT. I even tried to contact them and negotiate with offers I had from much, much better schools than theirs and they wouldn't give me the time of day. I have been very unimpressed with their staff members in general as they've been extremely unhelpful and borderline rude.

I'm confused about what your end goal is. Is your end goal to get some money from Cornell? Why aren't you just going to Cornell with your 21k from UT? Is the idea that you don't think Cornell will give you very much? How much are you realistically wanting to get from Cornell?

FWIW, I applied in '07-'08 and leveraged a full-ride at WUSTL to get 32k from UT. I then used that to get 21k from Cornell and 18k from Michigan. Maybe that info is useful to you somehow?

As for your more direct question on how to squeeze more money out of UT, I'm not sure. But again it sounds like doing that is really just a stepping stone for you. You might as well try and leverage the UT money with Cornell now. You can always re-negotiate and re-leverage if Cornell doesn't come back with enough.

Just to update, I negotiated with them and they upped their offer from $21000 to $45000.

How were you able to negotiate with them after their initial response? I am a bit weary as to whether the request I just submitted will be considered or not, especially after reading the financial aid page where it states that they will only reassess a student's scholarship offer once.

Obviously they read TLS & wanted to help OP negotiate with Cornell.