Scholarship Negotiation Strategy Forum

[rekoobathetuba]

I am hoping some of the sage wisdom of my fellow TLS-ers can help me out with this.

I have been accepted to 3 schools with 3 scholarship offers. In order of both preference and USNEWS ranking we will call them A, B, and C. These are not T14 schools, but decent regional schools in a small-ish geographic area with solid employment (except school C) records in their respective areas.

A: $5k/year scholarship, have been told that if I can boost my LSAT score by a few points (I can), I can be eligible for a full tuition scholarship, so currently prepping to re-take in February, and confident to get full/near-full scholly offer.

B: $20k scholarship

C: Full tuition

The question: What is my best approach to getting full rides to A and B? Do I (1) Let school B know that I have received a full scholly from nearby school C prior to LSAT retake; (2) Re-take, receive full scholly offer from school A and let school B know that I have higher LSAT and full ride from better ranked regional competitor or; (3) combination of both 1 and 2- let B know about C's offer, retake, and then let them know again of A's offer?

Thank you for your help in advance, I hope I made this clear enough!

[lymenheimer]

A: $5k/year scholarship, have been told that if I can boost my LSAT score by a few points (I can), I can be eligible for a full tuition scholarship, so currently prepping to re-take in February, and confident to get full/near-full scholly offer.

B: $20k scholarship

C: Full tuition

The question: What is my best approach to getting full rides to A and B? Do I (1) Let school B know that I have received a full scholly from nearby school C prior to LSAT retake; (2) Re-take, receive full scholly offer from school A and let school B know that I have higher LSAT and full ride from better ranked regional competitor or; (3) combination of both 1 and 2- let B know about C's offer, retake, and then let them know again of A's offer?

You did not make it very clear. Also, it depends what the schools are. How to get a full ride from A? Boost your LSAT score. If you get a full-ride from A, why would you want to go to B? Also, I would suggest not using the bolded language in your negotiation email (if that was your plan). It also will depend on the actual COA for the school comparative to their peer-status. ie, if you have 10k at Duke, you won't get a bump for a $20k offer from GULC, because it's cheaper to live in Durham anyways (a bit exaggerated but that's the idea). So raw scholarship money doesn't necessarily mean anything depending upon how the school's scholarship works. Also, you have to consider if the school will negotiate at all.

eta: gameplan depends on your ultimate goals. If your ultimate goal is school A, then boost your LSAT. If that is not possible, then play to up B with C + A offers and then tell A about any boost you get from B and your C offer.

[rekoobathetuba]

A: $5k/year scholarship, have been told that if I can boost my LSAT score by a few points (I can), I can be eligible for a full tuition scholarship, so currently prepping to re-take in February, and confident to get full/near-full scholly offer.

B: $20k scholarship

C: Full tuition

The question: What is my best approach to getting full rides to A and B? Do I (1) Let school B know that I have received a full scholly from nearby school C prior to LSAT retake; (2) Re-take, receive full scholly offer from school A and let school B know that I have higher LSAT and full ride from better ranked regional competitor or; (3) combination of both 1 and 2- let B know about C's offer, retake, and then let them know again of A's offer?

You did not make it very clear. Also, it depends what the schools are. How to get a full ride from A? Boost your LSAT score. If you get a full-ride from A, why would you want to go to B? Also, I would suggest not using the bolded language in your negotiation email (if that was your plan). It also will depend on the actual COA for the school comparative to their peer-status. ie, if you have 10k at Duke, you won't get a bump for a $20k offer from GULC, because it's cheaper to live in Durham anyways (a bit exaggerated but that's the idea). So raw scholarship money doesn't necessarily mean anything depending upon how the school's scholarship works. Also, you have to consider if the school will negotiate at all.

eta: gameplan depends on your ultimate goals. If your ultimate goal is school A, then boost your LSAT. If that is not possible, then play to up B with C + A offers and then tell A about any boost you get from B and your C offer.

Thank you lymenheimer, this is helpful. I think to boil down my question to the furthest point: Do I try and negotiate school B against full ride offer from C now, or wait until LSAT score comes back and I get scholly boost from A?

[gnomgnomuch]

I am hoping some of the sage wisdom of my fellow TLS-ers can help me out with this.

I have been accepted to 3 schools with 3 scholarship offers. In order of both preference and USNEWS ranking we will call them A, B, and C. These are not T14 schools, but decent regional schools in a small-ish geographic area with solid employment (except school C) records in their respective areas.

A: $5k/year scholarship, have been told that if I can boost my LSAT score by a few points (I can), I can be eligible for a full tuition scholarship, so currently prepping to re-take in February, and confident to get full/near-full scholly offer.

B: $20k scholarship

C: Full tuition

The question: What is my best approach to getting full rides to A and B? Do I (1) Let school B know that I have received a full scholly from nearby school C prior to LSAT retake; (2) Re-take, receive full scholly offer from school A and let school B know that I have higher LSAT and full ride from better ranked regional competitor or; (3) combination of both 1 and 2- let B know about C's offer, retake, and then let them know again of A's offer?

Thank you for your help in advance, I hope I made this clear enough!

I'm pretty sure it would depend on what range of schools you're in at.

If A is a t-14, B is a t-15-20 and C is a ttt then you're prob out of luck.

Best bet is to try to play up B by showing them your C offer. And then use the B offer (if they bring it up) to hopefully bring up your A offer.

Otherwise, retake the LSAT and get a full ride straight away at A.

[lymenheimer]

Thank you lymenheimer, this is helpful. I think to boil down my question to the furthest point: Do I try and negotiate school B against full ride offer from C now, or wait until LSAT score comes back and I get scholly boost from A?

Again, that depends upon where you want to end up. Based on your labeling, I assumed you wanted to go to A. Which is why I don't understand why you'd try to negotiate more with B if you got a significant boost/full from A.

If you want to go to B and get more from them, then I would wait.