Mention peer school money and acceptances in LOCI? Forum

[Rory1987]

Is this a good or bad idea?

[Upton Sinclair]

Don't do it.

[lovejopd]

Why not?...

[Hattori Hanzo]

Go for it w/o mentioning dollar amounts. If it's a named scholly, drop the name. If not just mention you got significant $$$.

[Sandro]

Use terms like "almost half the cost of attendance" / half tuition / full tuition etc.

[fragged]

I used specific amounts in one email I sent because I wanted that school to know exactly how much the school ranked 20 spots higher than them offered me. You can bullshit around the issue or you can just be straight with them. Admissions and financial aid people don't know WTF you're saying when you say "$$$" or "significant amount." I ended up with a bump in my offer from the school, so clearly it worked for me - but perhaps I would have gotten even better results if I had used more tact. I'll never know.

edit: The post above has a good approach, using terms like "half tuition" which essentially gives them a number without actually giving them a number (as long as they can do math).

[acadec]

If you're trying to leverage more money out of a school that's already accepted you, it's a good approach. But I thought LOCIs were mainly used to persuade schools that hadn't given you a decision (or had waitlisted you) that you would be more likely than the average applicant to attend if accepted, and so accepting you would be a good idea. In that case, it seems like a pretty poor strategy to tell them about the wonderful offers you have from peer schools, because those seem like they would give you an incentive to snub the school to which you're writing.

[fragged]

Oops, my first lesson as a 0L - read the OP.

I just realized you asked if you should mention money in the LOCI.

In that case the answer is "No."