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i posted this in the Duke thread as well but thought I'd try my luck here as well:

i just found out i got into northwestern (i thought i had withdrawn from their WL but I guess not) and they gave me 75k in scholly $$....huge surprise.

this is about 8k more than i got from duke.

would it be in really bad taste to try and negotiate with duke using the northwestern offer?

i already negotiated back in april with an offer from vandy and got more $$ from duke as a result so i feel kind of embarrassed negotiating again. however, this is a peer (ish) school offering more and the difference could cover rent for a year. Should I try asking Duke for more and if so, how should I do it (email or a phone call to fin aid)?

thanks - i really appreciate any advice!

For starters, it can't hurt to try. Worst case scenario they say no sorry, all the cash we got. But I suspect they'll fork over the extra $8k as a way to say we still really want you, and because schools seem to be hurting to keep students as they get off other WLs.

For the record though, I tried a little negotiation with Duke in April (When things were much different $$ wise) and had no luck getting them to budge the first time. I had $45k extra at Northwestern and they wouldn't match or even make a stab at it.

Absolutely negotiate. A lot of schools are throwing a LOT of money at people right now to keep them from withdrawing. I negotiated my scholarship up by $30k last week, after negotiating initially.

This year is a strange application cycle, with lots of waitlist movement. As everyone else has stated, the worst they can do is tell you no.

I negotiated a second time. I've heard many other people doing the same. Hope it works out for you!

I negotiated scholly in a number of schools.

For example, in one school I was able to raise the scholly from 71k to 90k (total). In another, from 18k to 24k (per year). I did that in more than one email and phone call.

You just need to write a reasonable letter and outline why you are seeking more funds.