Page 1 of 2

Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 2:34 pm
by VerdiShmerdi
http://www.utexas.edu/law/depts/finaid/ ... match.html

Here's the situation:

I applied ED (non-binding) to Texas as an out-of-state student with numbers that were almost exactly at the median. I was accepted in November and still haven't heard anything about scholarships. My sense is that I am not an attractive scholarship candidate for them this year.

The above program caught my eye the other day (I somehow overlooked it in previous visits to the website). I have a substantial award from a school that I would consider a peer (Minnesota), but I am not sure how UT would feel about that characterization.

Does anyone have experience/insight on this program?

Re: Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 2:56 pm
by Esc
VerdiShmerdi wrote:http://www.utexas.edu/law/depts/finaid/ ... match.html

Here's the situation:

I applied ED (non-binding) to Texas as an out-of-state student with numbers that were almost exactly at the median. I was accepted in November and still haven't heard anything about scholarships. My sense is that I am not an attractive scholarship candidate for them this year.

The above program caught my eye the other day (I somehow overlooked it in previous visits to the website). I have a substantial award from a school that I would consider a peer (Minnesota), but I am not sure how UT would feel about that characterization.

Does anyone have experience/insight on this program?
You can try to negotiate for scholarship (you have nothing to lose by trying), but there's no guarantee you will be successful. UT is a far superior school, and doesn't usually give out scholarships to people at median. If you want to see numbers of people who received scholarship this year, go check out the Texas Class of 2013 thread.

Re: Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 3:02 pm
by Sauer Grapes
....

Re: Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 4:36 pm
by emkay625
My guess is it has to be a top-25 school, if not top-20.

Re: Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 4:44 pm
by emkay625
Also, keep in mind Texas low cost of living.

The link above says they take that into consideration.

Let's say you get a scholarship from Georgetown, definitely a peer-school for Texas. say they offer you $7500/year.

Unfortunately in that case, you're unlikely to get anything, because your total cost of attendance would still be much lower at Texas in comparison, because cost-of-living in D.C. is probably double what it is in Austin.

Looking at Minnesota and Texas' web pages, the COL seems to be roughly the same, so you might have a shot.

Re: Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 6:03 pm
by bmontminy
I am planning on going through this process, and was wondering if you were expected/allowed to send an accompanying letter??? I am wondering the value of a LOCI of sorts aimed more towards scholly money after already being admitted.

Re: Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 12:18 pm
by de5igual
emkay625 wrote:My guess is it has to be a top-25 school, if not top-20.
Texas will only consider T14 and maybe UCLA/Vandy as peers. They won't budge even with a substantial offer from USC.

Re: Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 2:34 pm
by TheVoynichManuscript
f0bolous wrote:
emkay625 wrote:My guess is it has to be a top-25 school, if not top-20.
Texas will only consider T14 and maybe UCLA/Vandy as peers. They won't budge even with a substantial offer from USC.
Can anyone confirm this? I thought I read in another thread that someone successfully negotiated some money from Texas after receiving a full ride to Baylor.

Re: Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 3:03 pm
by Havaianas
TheVoynichManuscript wrote:
f0bolous wrote:
emkay625 wrote:My guess is it has to be a top-25 school, if not top-20.
Texas will only consider T14 and maybe UCLA/Vandy as peers. They won't budge even with a substantial offer from USC.
Can anyone confirm this? I thought I read in another thread that someone successfully negotiated some money from Texas after receiving a full ride to Baylor.
)

hmmm... well what do you guys think -
I haven't heard fin aid from GULC or USC yet (more or less peer schools) but I do have $$ from Duke. Should I go ahead and just send them my Duke offer considering it's ranked higher?

Does anyone know if it is better to wait and have more offers or do it ASAP while they still have funds?

Re: Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 3:08 pm
by Applicant2010
Wait until you have more offers. I asked UT that same question and was encouraged to wait until the end of February at the earliest to get as many offers as possible.

Also, they may only consider T-14 + UCLA/Vandy as peers, but I believe the instructions say that UT wants to see all of your scholarships regardless.

Re: Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 3:09 pm
by kittenmittons
Applicant2010 wrote:Wait until you have more offers. I asked UT that same question and was encouraged to wait until the end of February at the earliest to get as many offers as possible.

Also, they may only consider T-14 + UCLA/Vandy as peers, but I believe the instructions say that UT wants to see all of your scholarships regardless.
No reason not to send them all in.

Re: Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 3:19 pm
by Havaianas
kittenmittons wrote:
Applicant2010 wrote:Wait until you have more offers. I asked UT that same question and was encouraged to wait until the end of February at the earliest to get as many offers as possible.

Also, they may only consider T-14 + UCLA/Vandy as peers, but I believe the instructions say that UT wants to see all of your scholarships regardless.
No reason not to send them all in.
Ok great to know. I'll be patient for another 2 weeks or so. Thanks a lot.

Re: Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 3:29 pm
by de5igual
TheVoynichManuscript wrote:
f0bolous wrote:
emkay625 wrote:My guess is it has to be a top-25 school, if not top-20.
Texas will only consider T14 and maybe UCLA/Vandy as peers. They won't budge even with a substantial offer from USC.
Can anyone confirm this? I thought I read in another thread that someone successfully negotiated some money from Texas after receiving a full ride to Baylor.
it happened to me last year. submitted usc's offer of 48K and emory's of 78K and was denied.

Re: Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 5:55 pm
by TheVoynichManuscript
f0bolous wrote:
TheVoynichManuscript wrote:
f0bolous wrote:
emkay625 wrote:My guess is it has to be a top-25 school, if not top-20.
Texas will only consider T14 and maybe UCLA/Vandy as peers. They won't budge even with a substantial offer from USC.
Can anyone confirm this? I thought I read in another thread that someone successfully negotiated some money from Texas after receiving a full ride to Baylor.
it happened to me last year. submitted usc's offer of 48K and emory's of 78K and was denied.
Ah. I see from you LSN account though that you were offered some money from Texas up front. I was asking more about people who weren't offered anything initially but were able to negotiate something using substantial offers from lower-ranked schools.

Re: Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 1:12 pm
by bmontminy
I sent in my request via e-mail last monday containing a Full-Ride to Baylor (only applied to Baylor and UT)...I'm not terribly hopefuly, but would be nice if I could get at least a small scholly to make it feel like they really do want me there, and would definitely help me make my decision between the two :| .

Re: Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 1:20 pm
by Havaianas
bmontminy wrote:I sent in my request via e-mail last monday containing a Full-Ride to Baylor (only applied to Baylor and UT)...I'm not terribly hopefuly, but would be nice if I could get at least a small scholly to make it feel like they really do want me there, and would definitely help me make my decision between the two :| .
good luck! I'll definitely be watching to see what happens!

Re: Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 2:31 pm
by bmontminy
Thank you, I will update ITT when I hear anything at all, I sent it in last Monday and received an e-mail saying that my request had been received, but that the scholarship committee would not be meeting until 'late february,' and I would be notified when a decision was made. I heard rumors that in the past the scholarship committee would meet every Friday, don't know if that is still the case but it is very possible tomorrow could be the deciding day although i don't know if I will hear the verdict via snail-mail or e-mail, it just says 'in writing.'

Re: Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 11:44 pm
by John J. Rambo, Esq.
I'm also curious about how UT views scholarship offers from T20 schools.

(Tag.)

Re: Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2010 9:17 pm
by Applicant2010
Bumping in case anyone has some results...

Re: Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 10:47 am
by Havaianas
Applicant2010 wrote:Bumping in case anyone has some results...
aww you got me all excited that somebody was reporting back! I have a feeling I'm gonna just send them my Duke offer in soon...

Re: Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Tue Mar 02, 2010 11:25 am
by CMDantes
You should go to UT regardless.

Austin > Waco and the career opportunities will make up for the initial pain of brokeness.

My .02, let us know how it goes.

Re: Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2010 3:09 pm
by bmontminy
Sorry for those who got excited thinking this is an update of results :lol:

Just spoke with the Financial Aid office who said that the scholarship committee meeting had been postponed until Friday March 12th....So i will be waiting at least another 8 days before I hear anything :cry:

Re: Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 6:40 am
by Havaianas
bmontminy wrote:Sorry for those who got excited thinking this is an update of results :lol:

Just spoke with the Financial Aid office who said that the scholarship committee meeting had been postponed until Friday March 12th....So i will be waiting at least another 8 days before I hear anything :cry:

Any updates? I should be sending in my offers next week.

Re: Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 4:27 pm
by catharsis
Havaianas wrote:
bmontminy wrote:Sorry for those who got excited thinking this is an update of results :lol:

Just spoke with the Financial Aid office who said that the scholarship committee meeting had been postponed until Friday March 12th....So i will be waiting at least another 8 days before I hear anything :cry:

Any updates? I should be sending in my offers next week.
people have started to hear back already on Friday when the meeting took place. one individual heard via phone call. gl

Re: Texas - Financial Aid Matching Program

Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 4:16 pm
by Sarwald
Just got a scholarship matching reply from UT Law today and I am so relieved! Makes my decision that much easier.

I sent in a Vanderbilt offer of the Chancellor's Law Scholarship (27,000/yr) and an explanation, and the UT financial aid matching committee was able to increase my funds from a Townes Hall (7000/yr + resident rate) to a Dean's Excellence in Law Scholarship (12,000/yr + resident). With the difference in the two schools' total costs, this was a good result for me. 169/3.9/Master's degree

Many thanks to the TLS forum for helping me learn about the process.