Scholarship Negotiation Success? Forum

[Neidermeyer519]

Hey all. I'm about to begin the scholarship negotiation process and would just like to know the following:

1. Were you successful, and if so, for how much more?
2. What did you do to negotiate for additional money?
3. Would you be willing to share your negotiation letter, or at least the format of it?

I have scholarship offers from Syracuse and Arkansas right now, and will probably be awarded a large scholarship from NKU, and my goal is to make Louisville as affordable as possible. They have already offered 7K a year, and my numbers are at or over 75%.

[Dr. Review]

I started at $0 and got $8k/yr.

Basically, my format was as follows:

I like your school, and I want to go there, but this costs money.
Another school has offered to let me go there for less, but I still like your school.
Can I have more money?
Thanks.

[esch8]

did you call or email? A professor friend of the family (not law) said that emailing would be rude, so now I'm not sure what to do.

[snowpeach06]

I got an extra $4500 a year. LSAT was 75%, grades were 25%, or possibly lower. I went to the school as an undergrad and gave the "blah blah blah, I love it here, I want to stay, and I need to consider money, and my grades have an upward trend." They asked me about other schools i got into, then a couple of hours later they sent me the new scholarship info.

I should also note that I e-mailed first, and when I got no response I called. I tried to negotiate with another school though, and it failed. Probably because they gave me no money in the first place.

[Dr. Review]

did you call or email? A professor friend of the family (not law) said that emailing would be rude, so now I'm not sure what to do.

I e-mailed. I think that's pretty standard.

[drummerboy]

do you think this is a good time or wait until more withdrawals go thru?

[Dr. Review]

do you think this is a good time or wait until more withdrawals go thru?

Any time is fine. Waiting longer means they'll have less money to go around.

[drummerboy]

i just sent one. ill keep you all posted

[Neidermeyer519]

So would you recommend contacting the school first, then writing the negotiation email? I have also heard that it is best to scan copies of the other scholarship award letters and to send those as attachments with the email. I'm still waiting to hear from one more school before I send off my negotiation letter to Louisville.

[drummerboy]

i emailed it. theyll get the message loud and clear. in a way, youre now in a position of strength. previously, you had no leverage. look if they really want you, theyll cough up some $$$. its pretty clear that only the very rich or very misinformed are likely to pay sticker to anything out of the top 14 and even this is a stretch in this economy. i wouldnt add any copies of your other offers unless they specifically ask.

[Neidermeyer519]

So with a 27K/year from Syracuse, 8K/year (5K once resident) from Arkansas, and prediciting 12K/year from NKU as my offers, and Louisville having given me 7K a year, is there any particular amount I should ask for, or should I just say something like "want to be reconsidered for additional scholarship aid"?

[drummerboy]

i simply documented the amounts i received and also stated that savings previously earmarked for room and board are no longer available to me. which is true. the reality is that i cant afford their school without the additional 5000 bump

[Arelikefoxes]

I called two adcoms post-first deposit last year, went from 0 anywhere to +$60K and +$75...BUT I was over 75% in both at both schools, and applied SUPER late in the cycle (IE the money was committed by the time they considered me.) After some prodding, they advised me to wait until after the deposit to see if some money became available. Both schools were peers in the same market, and once deposits became due, I basically said that I wanted to go to their school(s), but I had deposited at both, and I/my family's financial considerations were very important, and asked them to let me know what they could offer me, and I would go to the highest bidder (in more friendly terms.) I then did a little negotiating between the schools ("Boy, I really want to go to your school, but this one is still $X cheaper per year factoring in COL...")

A lot of money seemed to free up after the deposits came in. If you have two choices you would be willing to attend (and are willing to risk the deposit money), I would recommend that strategy if you think getting more money will be a stretch/they turn you down.

[Neidermeyer519]

Well, the way I look at it, Arkansas with scholarship will be slightly cheaper for me to attend, albeit not by much. Yet they are ranked over 15 higher than Louisville. Then there is NKU. It is a TTTT school, but it places nearly as well as Louisville throughout Kentucky with a median salary very close to Louisville. Given this, would you assume that scholarship money from there would be very useful to negotiate, and if so, should I expect to get Louisvilel to match?

[drummerboy]

new topic what if after sending a reasonable email to the school, asking for more scholly $$, with clearcut solid, leverage regarding other peer, or better ranked schools, you get completely ignored. what would you do?

[legendkiller]

i would not expect U of L to Match an offer from NKU--significant ranking difference

It depends on a lot of factors though like:
1. Where are you on their LSAT/GPA?
2. How much money do they have left?
3. What are the odds they think you will attend?
etc

[esch8]

I've been ignored too. May have gotten lost in the shuffle. will retry

[drummerboy]

finally got a response. it was thoughtful. they evaluated each peer school i submitted as leverage and pretty much concluded that even with a scholarship boost, the cost of living at these other places would consume my money quicker than theirs. also they said that more applicants are being considered and they need to spread out the money accordingly.

[Neidermeyer519]

Sorry to hear that. I drew out the numbers and two of the three places I am using as leverage would be cheaper and one is ranked higher, so hopefully that helps.

[drummerboy]

worth a try.

[mr_pink]

I sent an e-mail to a school last week asking for a larger scholarship offer and just received an e-mail back asking me for a phone number and time that I would be available to discuss my question. Anyone have an experience similar to this one or have any idea what they may want to talk about? I don't really want to be unprepared.

[Neidermeyer519]

I've heard of this before. I think it's their attempt to illicit honest responses from you by putting you on the spot. Also perhaps to see how well you plead your case.

On a different note, I just got an LSAC fee waiver. I am strongly considering taking the June LSAT in an attempt to bring my score up several points, which I fully believe to be possible. Does anyone have any experience or know anything about using this higher score for leverage?

[solarae]

I got a call as well in response to my negotiation email and I'm a bit nervous about it. I have a phone appointment at 11:30 today with the admissions guy to discussion my request for more money. ahhhhh

[solarae]

the guy wasn't able to make our scheduled call time, and has someone in the office tell me to email the provost of admissions and the dean. so i had an opportunity to really refine my request, and i'm excited to see what happens.