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My situation: I've been accepted to UCLA, Duke, UVA, Emory, UT and UNC. I live in California and want to work in California after I graduate, but am from North Carolina and have lived in Atlanta, and have an interest in one day returning to one of those areas. I have a spouse and kids, and for them, UCLA will be the least disruptive place for me to attend, so that's where I'm leaning toward going. I want to do public interest work, but I'm open to working at a firm for a few years to pay off my loans (won't qualify for LRAPs because of spouse's income).

Scholarships as they now stand:

Duke: $67,000
UCLA: $60,000
Emory: $105,000
UNC: $46,000
UT: 0
UVA: 0

I wrote to UVA and tried to use my Duke scholarship to negotiate some aid, to no avail. I'm aware that Texas has you send in all your offers at once, and I haven't done that yet. My question is one of strategy. Do I go to UCLA with my Duke offer? Or Emory, even though it's a lower ranked school, because it's a higher offer? Is it worthwhile to write to UT first, wait on their reply and see if that beats Duke's offer and, if so, use UT's offer to negotiate with UCLA? Basically I want to know if you're better off using a higher offer from a peer-ish school, or a lower offer from a higher ranked school to negotiate? Would love to hear UCLA-specific advice if anyone has any.

why not both?

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Mack.Hambleton wrote:why not both?

yes

you can just say, I have these two very attractive options, what can you do to make ucla my numero uno (hint: gimme $)

Go to UCLA and UNC with Emory and Duke's offers. If you get a bump out of UNC and UCLA, tell UT about all the offers. If you get any bumps after that, go back to Duke and UCLA. Emory doesn't negotiate scholarships, generally.

My vote is UCLA with more money. The admissions office is very nice and are generally willing to negotiate, esp b/c of your family reasons for wanting UCLA.