Trickle-Up Theory of Scholarship Negotiation Forum

[joshhoward]

How does this sound...?

Say I get into Columbia, Michigan, Duke, UCLA, and Emory.

I go first to Emory, and probably get a fat scholarship.

Then I go to UCLA and show them my fat scholarship, and hopefully get a better scholarship their then I would otherwise have gotten.

Then I do the same for Duke, and then Michigan, and finally Columbia (and Harvard if your a genius).


Obviously, each level up you go, the scholarship will get smaller, but as long as you have a slightly lower ranked school offering a big scholarship, it would probably encourage the higher ranked school to cough up an extra little bit.

In theory, one could even find the lowest ranked school where they would get a full scholarship, and work their way up one at a time, and perhaps retain the full scholarship (or close to it) at a school where they would never have got anything close to that (but got accepted too, obviously). Sort of like reverse dominos.

Thoughts?

[TheBigMediocre]

Or alternatively, a person could just expend that ridiculously wasted energy towards making sure that he or she gets the grades/LSAT score to receive a favorable scholarship offer from his/her first pick originally.

And you're right, you would have to be a real genius to figure out how to get Harvard to give out merit aid.

[lawschooliseasy]

Or alternatively, a person could just expend that ridiculously wasted energy towards making sure that he or she gets the grades/LSAT score to receive a favorable scholarship offer from his/her first pick originally.

And you're right, you would have to be a real genius to figure out how to get Harvard to give out merit aid.

As you would have to be a real genius to differentiate between "your" and "you're"

[nematoad]

How does this sound...?

Say I get into Columbia, Michigan, Duke, UCLA, and Emory.

I go first to Emory, and probably get a fat scholarship.

Then I go to UCLA and show them my fat scholarship, and hopefully get a better scholarship their then I would otherwise have gotten.

Then I do the same for Duke, and then Michigan, and finally Columbia (and Harvard if your a genius).


Obviously, each level up you go, the scholarship will get smaller, but as long as you have a slightly lower ranked school offering a big scholarship, it would probably encourage the higher ranked school to cough up an extra little bit.

In theory, one could even find the lowest ranked school where they would get a full scholarship, and work their way up one at a time, and perhaps retain the full scholarship (or close to it) at a school where they would never have got anything close to that (but got accepted too, obviously). Sort of like reverse dominos.

Thoughts?

my friend did exactly this. he got a full scholarship to a school ranked 70 used it to get 10k/year from ucla, used that to get 10k/year from gtown, used that to get 20k/year from ucla, used that to get 25k/year from gtown and again even more from ucla. dont want to out him. so it toally worked for him but he worked hard for it.
mind you he had 170+ and 3.85+ from a top 20 UG
but if youre patient it can be worth it

[TheBigMediocre]

my friend did exactly this. he got a full scholarship to a school ranked 70 used it to get 10k/year from ucla, used that to get 10k/year from gtown, used that to get 20k/year from ucla, used that to get 25k/year from gtown and again even more from ucla. dont want to out him. so it toally worked for him but he worked hard for it.
mind you he had 170+ and 3.85+ from a top 20 UG
but if youre patient it can be worth it

--ImageRemoved--

[joshhoward]

Or alternatively, a person could just expend that ridiculously wasted energy towards making sure that he or she gets the grades/LSAT score to receive a favorable scholarship offer from his/her first pick originally.

And you're right, you would have to be a real genius to figure out how to get Harvard to give out merit aid.

As you would have to be a real genius to differentiate between "your" and "you're"

i guess TheBigMediocre is a genius, cuz it looks like he got it right.

[Kohinoor]

How does this sound...?

Say I get into Columbia, Michigan, Duke, UCLA, and Emory.

I go first to Emory, and probably get a fat scholarship.

Then I go to UCLA and show them my fat scholarship, and hopefully get a better scholarship their then I would otherwise have gotten.

Then I do the same for Duke, and then Michigan, and finally Columbia (and Harvard if your a genius).


Obviously, each level up you go, the scholarship will get smaller, but as long as you have a slightly lower ranked school offering a big scholarship, it would probably encourage the higher ranked school to cough up an extra little bit.

In theory, one could even find the lowest ranked school where they would get a full scholarship, and work their way up one at a time, and perhaps retain the full scholarship (or close to it) at a school where they would never have got anything close to that (but got accepted too, obviously). Sort of like reverse dominos.

Thoughts?

This works right up until UCLA tells you they don't consider Emory a peer school.

[joshhoward]

Or alternatively, a person could just expend that ridiculously wasted energy towards making sure that he or she gets the grades/LSAT score to receive a favorable scholarship offer from his/her first pick originally.

true, but this is obviously much later in the game, when acceptances begin coming in the mail. it may not be relatively efficient, but at that point, its seems like the best option.

[nematoad]

How does this sound...?

Say I get into Columbia, Michigan, Duke, UCLA, and Emory.

I go first to Emory, and probably get a fat scholarship.

Then I go to UCLA and show them my fat scholarship, and hopefully get a better scholarship their then I would otherwise have gotten.

Then I do the same for Duke, and then Michigan, and finally Columbia (and Harvard if your a genius).


Obviously, each level up you go, the scholarship will get smaller, but as long as you have a slightly lower ranked school offering a big scholarship, it would probably encourage the higher ranked school to cough up an extra little bit.

In theory, one could even find the lowest ranked school where they would get a full scholarship, and work their way up one at a time, and perhaps retain the full scholarship (or close to it) at a school where they would never have got anything close to that (but got accepted too, obviously). Sort of like reverse dominos.

Thoughts?

This works right up until UCLA tells you they don't consider Emory a peer school.

loyola marymount full ride gets you 10k at ucla... emory will do just fine

[joshhoward]

How does this sound...?

Say I get into Columbia, Michigan, Duke, UCLA, and Emory.

I go first to Emory, and probably get a fat scholarship.

Then I go to UCLA and show them my fat scholarship, and hopefully get a better scholarship their then I would otherwise have gotten.

Then I do the same for Duke, and then Michigan, and finally Columbia (and Harvard if your a genius).


Obviously, each level up you go, the scholarship will get smaller, but as long as you have a slightly lower ranked school offering a big scholarship, it would probably encourage the higher ranked school to cough up an extra little bit.

In theory, one could even find the lowest ranked school where they would get a full scholarship, and work their way up one at a time, and perhaps retain the full scholarship (or close to it) at a school where they would never have got anything close to that (but got accepted too, obviously). Sort of like reverse dominos.

Thoughts?

This works right up until UCLA tells you they don't consider Emory a peer school.

well it could work with smaller step, like Emory --> USC --> Vany --> UCLA etc.

but indeed, it is a lot of energy.

[valley splitter]

How does this sound...?

Say I get into Columbia, Michigan, Duke, UCLA, and Emory.

I go first to Emory, and probably get a fat scholarship.

Then I go to UCLA and show them my fat scholarship, and hopefully get a better scholarship their then I would otherwise have gotten.

Then I do the same for Duke, and then Michigan, and finally Columbia (and Harvard if your a genius).


Obviously, each level up you go, the scholarship will get smaller, but as long as you have a slightly lower ranked school offering a big scholarship, it would probably encourage the higher ranked school to cough up an extra little bit.

In theory, one could even find the lowest ranked school where they would get a full scholarship, and work their way up one at a time, and perhaps retain the full scholarship (or close to it) at a school where they would never have got anything close to that (but got accepted too, obviously). Sort of like reverse dominos.

Thoughts?

Also then and than.

[joshhoward]

Also then and than.

i guess i'm not a genius on two accounts.

[rookhawk]

-

[sarlis]

hahaha, OP, you finally started this thread. nice, lol.

[joshhoward]

Kingabraham,

You're dead on. Negotiating doesn't take genius, it takes a bit of real world training and some natural aptitude. You seem like you've been around the block a few times to come up with these strategies...it never hurts to try.

well i'm flattered

i'm really just bored, looking for ways to avoid writing my paper which is due in the morning. thank god for TLS!

[JIP3]

Also there and their. All in good fun, though.

[Snwboarder78]

The strategy would be best to apply to every other school or so on the rankings starting with somewhere you could get a full ride. That way you could maximize the retention of scholarship money on each negotiation and slowly work your way up the list until you maximize the $/ranking.

[84Sunbird2000]

It seems like Emory and IUB are the logical places to start the process, since they are the most likely to give out full rides to people who might just squeak in to schools above them. IUB is probably a really good bargaining chip, because they give out a "no-strings" full ride supposedly, which means they can function for GPA strings AND $$. Not meant to offend IUB - really excellent regional school which I am seriously considering.

[Xizenta]

Question, when attempting this method, can schools even verify your other offers?
Not thinking of doing anything dishonest, just wondering.

[UFMatt]

^^ I scanned my offer letters into PDF, which I plan on emailing to admissions.

[pauldoeslaw]

^^ I scanned my offer letters into PDF, which I plan on emailing to admissions.

What is the approach to asking schools to match scholarships? Is it best to be polite and almost apologetic, or blunt and to the point?

[Zapatero]

Question, when attempting this method, can schools even verify your other offers?
Not thinking of doing anything dishonest, just wondering.

Yes. It's not uncommon for a school to actually call another to verify the offer.