Top Law Schools

Hi,

I'm just starting my negotiation process, as my financial aid offers have trickled in rather late (still waiting for 2 of my schools).

So far from the schools I am seriously considering, these are my need/merit-based offers:

Columbia - TBD
Berkeley - TBD
Duke - $81k
Georgetown - $127k
UCLA - $90k

1) My Duke scholarship interview was with Dean Hoye. Would it be okay for me to send my first negotiation letter to him? Or is it better to send to the generic financial aid email? Not sure what protocol is but Georgetown is asking for an answer by Friday (got their offer late last week), so I'm trying to determine which point of contact would give me the quickest turnaround...

2) My sequence strategy as of now is to hopefully leverage GT to get Duke to increase (thank you new USNWR?), then send the hopefully higher Duke offer to Berkeley, and then finally get Berkeley's hopefully competitive offer to Columbia.

If anyone can provide insight and thoughts on these points above, that would be much appreciated. Thanks all!!!

I think the best strategy is always to negotiate straight from bottom to top, with the exception that you target your desired school last. Go to UCLA with your other offers first and try to swing close to a full ride. Then take your offers to GULC. Bounce them off one another until they don't budge. Do the same with Columbia and Berkeley. Once you think you've maxed out everyone else, then take your offers to Duke. If you hear back from Columbia/Berkeley, go there before duke since that's your goal. Once you get the offer from Duke, you can see if anyone else will budge on their numbers, but you're almost always going to see the most movement in the first round.

I also advise people who have a strong #1 preference to tell that school how much you would be willing to immediately withdraw everywhere else and deposit for. They will often be willing to kick you more money to lock you in, it helps them get a clearer picture of their class/numbers.