First World problems

BU offered me $15k a year for three years. I would love to go (will send my seat deposit this weekend in all likelihood) but I also want to make the debt more manageable. Do you think BU would care at all about a $75k (all three years) scholarship from UC Hastings? I know they're not peer schools but I don't have anything else to put forth.

They probably won't, but the worst they'll say is no. There's no reason not to ask.

I guess if there's harm in asking, I'll give it a try,

Congrats on getting a little more out of BU though! Which school are you most interested in?

Thanks! I'll give it a shot. Yeah that does make for a tough decision -- which one do you think you'll go with?

If I can get BC to beat BU on price, BC in a heartbeat.

To update, I negotiated with UT-Austin and they upped their offer from $21000 to $45000. Now I'm going to try the same thing with Cornell; does anyone know if there's a specific person we need to email, or is it just the financial aid office? With UT-Austin it was a specific branch of the office.

Thanks for the responses! Yeah I see it both ways--- on one hand, the implicit threat of "if you do not up my offer, I will go to school_A who gave me the higher offer" is no longer relevant, but on the other hand I also think it can be a reflection of your 'market value' so to speak, so if you are thinking about it the second way, the expiration aspect does not matter.

When you say "pulling a fast one" do you mean like seriously unethical and would be grounds for no $ + un-accepting you? Or just like "nice try, buddy" kind of thing? I am thinking about saying that I received $x per year from School X, $y from School Y, any way you can up my offer?? and see what happens. Thoughts??

In other news....

I am guessing the answer will be "fat chance" but do you think there is any potential leverage trying to use a very large GW scholarship to negotiate w/ NYU?

(i know nyu won't match it 100% obviously)

Hey guys!

I got really lucky with 115K total from Boston U. I just got accepted into Fordham with 15k total. What's the best way to negotiate? I like Fordham and love NYC but is there a chance to get anything significant from them (I heard they're stingy)?

Need advice!

Alabama:

Initially 10k a year with top 40% stipulation, if outside then reduced to 6k

1st attempt: 20k a year with same stip

2nd attempt: 22k a year with top 50% stipulation, if outside then reduced 8k

Extremely happy with this considering my gpa is 2.5!

.

Hey, quick question about negotiating scholarships: Is it more effective to call and discuss or is an email the better option?

I would email (if you called, they'll probably tell you to email them). It puts them in an awkward position if you call but they're not exactly in a position to offer you the money right away. A lot of schools assign scholarship money by committee, so calling also doesn't help if committee approval is required.

If you don't hear back after a while, I would consider calling to follow-up (but NOT to ask for money directly) to make sure that you emailed the right person, etc.

I also make sure to mention any earlier-than-usual deadlines in my email.

The best approach is to get one of those squeeky dog toys and bop the admission council member on the head while singing "mo money mo problems" by B.I.G.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUhRKVIjJtw&ob=av3e


Seriously I got 15k more total from WUSTL by asking nicely via email.

I just sent an email asking for merit or need-based aid from SCU. I got $0 and no other offers from other schools... haven't heard back from 2. I really have no idea how this will play out but if I don't ask, the answer is always no. It would help to get any money on top of what the GI bill provides. Crossing my fingers for good news!

SCU is very stingy. Good luck!

I am pretty much set on going to Michigan but haven't deposited yet. They offered me $10k/year. I emailed the admissions office a couple of weeks ago to ask about possibly increasing my merit award, and they said they said it's not their practice to compete with other schools' merit award offers, but that they could pass along my inquiry to the Financial Aid office (they would need to know which schools offered awards and how much before making a final determination). I didn't get any scholarship offers from peer schools (frankly, I was surprised to get any money from Mich, as my LSAT is below their median) so I don't have a ton of leverage. However, I'm wondering whether it'd be worth it to email the Financial Aid office before I put down my seat deposit, let them know I'm hesitating because UCLA offered me twice as much as Michigan (this is true) and see if there's any possibility of them increasing my award. Is this a waste of time? If not, any thoughts on how to politely go about doing this? Thanks.

I won't be using any of the scholarships I negotiated, but I figured I would share my experiences for others.

Early in the cycle I was offered $120,000 from UVA.

WUSTL later offered $135,000.

I used those two offers to negotiate from $60,000 to $120,000 at Cornell and $74,000 to $142,000 at Texas.

Any sense in providing an update about a job promotion? I already sent them a competing scholarship offer..Would mentioning the promotion give me any more leverage?

I got about 10k a year from a top 10 ten school, and just sent in the deposit. Is there anyway to ask politely for more? Or once I sent it in, I'm done?

Can always ask. Why'd you wait to ask though? If there are changed circumstances or something, mention it.

I've been negotiating back and forth with a school and I'm looking for some outside perspective/advice on a current letter. Anybody have a second to take a look at it?

Doubtful. Try it and tell us.

Sure