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Has anyone been offered / renegotiated for scholarship funds after the first deposit? Post your successes/failures here!

Figured I would start this, as I am one of those who is essentially on the financial aid waitlist at several schools, and I wanted to have a place for everyone else in the same boat to share their stories.


To start...I applied way late (at deadline), and I was told by USC and UCLA that they would postpone my financial aid decisions until after the deadline, and to expect to hear from them later this week...

Anyone else?

I did. My request was really transparent. I told them my deposit represented my commitment, but that I still had reservations about cost and were considering other (cheaper) options.

If the school has the money and feels your request (and competitive offers) are there, they'll work with you. State institutions obviously have less flexibility. Just another reason to cast a wide net in applications.

If anyone's interested, my approach was:

Explained my interest in school (from ASD, my meeting with the admit dean, etc). Explain that i already sent my deposit. Explained my financial situations and pointed them to my FAFSA (useful to me, probably not others). Outlined my other scholarship options and then I hammered home the comparison of total cost (all three years) when comparing schools. I simply asked them to meet me in total cost and they came pretty close

My attempt at WUSTL was met with a smackdown. But they appear to have actually run out of money, so I'm not taking it personally.

This thread is relevant to my interests. I made a request for more scholarship money from my top choice and was told that no decisions on reallocation would be made until after the deposit deadline. I'm now deposited at two schools and wondering where I'm going to wind up. I really hope my top choice lets me know something by June.

Be polite, but keep reminding them. I was in a similar position and it seems as though they almost forgot about me. After a few more (very polite) e-mails, they eventually addressed my request (its being reviewed by the dean) and I was ultimately approved.

Depositing at both schools gives you some leverage and I truly believe that if schools have money to give, they hand it out in a fair manner.

I have tried before and after deposit deadlines, I received the same answer: they were over budget, if there was any change I would be notified. So no luck for me.

Just heard back from UCLA...who bumped my $1160 scholarship offer to $67,000, without any competing offers (I just asked for reconsideration, and an updated resume). I like post-deposit negotiations!

NerdmoD wrote:Just heard back from UCLA...who bumped my $1160 scholarship offer to $67,000, without any competing offers (I just asked for reconsideration, and an updated resume). I like post-deposit negotiations!

Wow!! Congrats. That's awesome.

kommatas wrote:

NerdmoD wrote:Just heard back from UCLA...who bumped my $1160 scholarship offer to $67,000, without any competing offers (I just asked for reconsideration, and an updated resume). I like post-deposit negotiations!

Wow!! Congrats. That's awesome.

Thanks! The nice thing about UCLA being just outside of the T-14 is that they had a lot more of their schollys turned down for sticker/competing offers at schools just above them in ranking. Gives a them a little more wiggle room financially to throw some money around after the deposit date.

In my request for further consideration, I sent a copy of a scholarship award from another school. I now have full financial aid reports from both the school I'm trying to get to match and the other school. Should I send another e-mail with that information, or will I be telling them something they already know (and annoying them needlessly in the process)?

jks289 wrote:My attempt at WUSTL was met with a smackdown. But they appear to have actually run out of money, so I'm not taking it personally.

+1. Grumble grumble...

TipTravHoot wrote:In my request for further consideration, I sent a copy of a scholarship award from another school. I now have full financial aid reports from both the school I'm trying to get to match and the other school. Should I send another e-mail with that information, or will I be telling them something they already know (and annoying them needlessly in the process)?

Has the number changed at all since you last sent it? If so, it's new information. If not, they prob already have it on file, but who cares? The worst thing that can happen is they say no...

NerdmoD wrote:Just heard back from UCLA...who bumped my $1160 scholarship offer to $67,000, without any competing offers (I just asked for reconsideration, and an updated resume). I like post-deposit negotiations!

Nice, I started at $0 initially, had a competing offer that got me to 22.5k pre-deadline, and ended w/ the same offer as you post deadline. I think they wanted the slightly higher LSAT scores (170 here) I sent an LOR and a LOCI as part of my final negotiation

I also tried to negotiate with USC...and got my offer of $0 bumped to $75K! Haha, this has been a good last two weeks for me!

weee wrote:Nice, I started at $0 initially, had a competing offer that got me to 22.5k pre-deadline, and ended w/ the same offer as you post deadline. I think they wanted the slightly higher LSAT scores (170 here) I sent an LOR and a LOCI as part of my final negotiation

Nice work!