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I was accepted to WashU this morning. I'm still waiting on a couple of other schools to hear back from but I'm wondering how I should approach going to my school and asking for more money. I had a one year non-renewable 15K scholarship (bumped up from 10K once they found more money). I'm one of the top students in the class and from what I gathered in speaking to my classmates one of the few at the top with no money.

I was thinking about sending an email to the Dean of Students today, something along the lines of this:

Dear Dean XYZ,

I was wondering if I could discuss continuing scholarship opportunities at a meeting with you this Monday morning? I recall being told that with strong academic performance, I'd have an opportunity to receive another scholarship, as the one I received during my incoming 1L year was non-renewable.

Please let me know if that works for you,

Cornhuskers3

Sound alright? My basic strategy is to lay down my grades and see what they say to that and if they don't bite, lay down my transfer acceptance. The problem is I don't really wanna go to WashU (distance, know no body in STL, no friends/no family there, leaving GF, go to school in the market I want to return to). Any one with any advice on negotiating scholarships from schools? Think this is a good strategy or just go straight for the jugular and say I got into XYZ and I'm gonna leave unless you give me money.

Also, what is the best strategy to go about talking to other schools I'm currently waiting on? Is it in bad taste to contact them and say, "I got into XYZ however you are my top choice and I have a deadline at XYZ of July 24, any way I'll be able to know soon about a decision?"

Disclaimer: I am a rising 2L transfer hopeful just as yourself, so anything I say is specific to my school and my personal interactions and experience.

While I cannot speak specifically to your school, I can say that my school and a few others I know of reserve scholarship funds specifically for this purpose. Personally, the Dean of Students at my school has been very open to discussing these things and was very candid about reserving such funds for top students. I was not told about this until I came to him to discuss transferring. I think your approach is good, I would just say to stay humble as is evidenced by your example e-mail.

Also, I do not know your Dean of Students, but if he has an open door policy and you are close-by it may be worth it to stop by and talk in person. I received some insights I otherwise wouldn't have and even got a Fall internship offer out of it.

OP here. I accidentally made my thread anonymous to start out with.

I appreciate your advice. I'm definitely going to meet in person (just sending an email to set up an appointment since her hours aren't normal during the summer months so I don't have to be constantly be going out of my way to go by and see if she's there since I'm a 30 minute drive away).

My only fear is that she's kinda shrewy. She claims to have this open door policy and is nice to your face but she's a former big law partner so we're essentially just cattle to her. I haven't had much interaction with her. She seemed nice enough in the email interaction we had when I was requesting a letter of good standing (If you need any further help, let me know--was kinda taken aback) but I've heard some not so nice things from some of my friends about her (although they have pulled some dumbass things, one personally picked up his own letters of good standing and sent them out personally to schools and when they questioned him, he said contact her so she was getting contacted by like 10 schools....kinda dumb to get pissed at that when you allow the option to pick up your letters personally but I digress).

Anyways I think my strategy would be the best way to go about it. Like I said, they did mention continuing scholarship opportunities aside from book awards (when I first went there and on their website) so hopefully I shouldn't have to pull the transfer card and I can just get by on my grades.

Another point. I've heard from discussing with other students and friends the line of "why would they even give you money? You're already there". Has this been a prevalent problem in any one's experiences?