Negotiating scholarships works!!!!! Forum

[juliachild-ish]

I just had a major success in negotiating my scholarship from UTexas! They had initially offered me $93,000 over three years (in-state tuition as a non-resident, plus an additional $15,000 discount per year). But then Northwestern gave me $150,000, so I sent in my request to Texas, and got a response two days later, upping their offer to a full ride. I am so happy I'm on TLS, or I would never have known to ask for more money. Yay!

[gator6589]

Anyone had success negotiating at Chicago -Kent ? Also for any of you who were successful how long was it before the school responded with an answer? Weeks, days?

[gothamm]

I just had a major success in negotiating my scholarship from UTexas! They had initially offered me $93,000 over three years (in-state tuition as a non-resident, plus an additional $15,000 discount per year). But then Northwestern gave me $150,000, so I sent in my request to Texas, and got a response two days later, upping their offer to a full ride. I am so happy I'm on TLS, or I would never have known to ask for more money. Yay!

/]
thats great. so where will you be attending?

[gaud]

I just had a major success in negotiating my scholarship from UTexas! They had initially offered me $93,000 over three years (in-state tuition as a non-resident, plus an additional $15,000 discount per year). But then Northwestern gave me $150,000, so I sent in my request to Texas, and got a response two days later, upping their offer to a full ride. I am so happy I'm on TLS, or I would never have known to ask for more money. Yay!

Could you pm me with more details to how you asked? please

[Neidermeyer519]

I sent my email on Friday and heard back by Monday, although I have heard instances of people going weeks without hearing anything. It all depends on how inundated they are with applications.

[caligulove]

QUESTION: I asked for more money from a T2 using several higher offers from other T2 schools in January. I was shot down. Even though the school dropped 11 ranks, I am still interested in attending so I sent asking for mo' money (I did not cite their fall as a reason to give me more money). Given they already said no a few months ago, was this wise? Has anyone been successful at getting more scholarship simply by being annoying?

[gothamm]

QUESTION: I asked for more money from a T2 using several higher offers from other T2 schools in January. I was shot down. Even though the school dropped 11 ranks, I am still interested in attending so I sent asking for mo' money (I did not cite their fall as a reason to give me more money). Given they already said no a few months ago, was this wise? Has anyone been successful at getting more scholarship simply by being annoying?

can't hurt

[rs2004]

QUESTION: I asked for more money from a T2 using several higher offers from other T2 schools in January. I was shot down. Even though the school dropped 11 ranks, I am still interested in attending so I sent asking for mo' money (I did not cite their fall as a reason to give me more money). Given they already said no a few months ago, was this wise? Has anyone been successful at getting more scholarship simply by being annoying?

I wouldn't put their rankings fall in the email. But if your other T2 offers are from schools that are now higher ranked, I think you should put their rankings in the email. At the end of the day, it will be you who is footing the bill so try again.

[juliachild-ish]

I just had a major success in negotiating my scholarship from UTexas! They had initially offered me $93,000 over three years (in-state tuition as a non-resident, plus an additional $15,000 discount per year). But then Northwestern gave me $150,000, so I sent in my request to Texas, and got a response two days later, upping their offer to a full ride. I am so happy I'm on TLS, or I would never have known to ask for more money. Yay!

/]
thats great. so where will you be attending?

Thanks! Still torn between Berkeley at sticker and UT full ride...and if Stanford happens to miraculously call me in the next few weeks, they would obviously be in the running. Pretty happy with my options right now!

[gothamm]

I just had a major success in negotiating my scholarship from UTexas! They had initially offered me $93,000 over three years (in-state tuition as a non-resident, plus an additional $15,000 discount per year). But then Northwestern gave me $150,000, so I sent in my request to Texas, and got a response two days later, upping their offer to a full ride. I am so happy I'm on TLS, or I would never have known to ask for more money. Yay!

/]
thats great. so where will you be attending?

Thanks! Still torn between Berkeley at sticker and UT full ride...and if Stanford happens to miraculously call me in the next few weeks, they would obviously be in the running. Pretty happy with my options right now!

why no harvard?

[thewarflamingo]

UF increased from 18K to 24K.

[ktg808]

Negotiating does work! I just got Illinois to increase my scholly from 75k to 96k. Still waiting to hear from Wash U.

[twozeroseven]

Has anyone tried contacting a school about reducing or eliminating the dreaded top 20% clause in order to receive aid the 2nd/3rd year? I have received a heavily backweighted offer from a school. If I don't maintain top 20%, this could cost me $100,000. Given that I have significant offers from higher ranked schools, I am concerned about the possibility of racking up more debt to attend an institution that provides fewer job prospects. If it were a GPA clause (i.e. 3.0), I would be fine with it. But top 20% makes me nervous.

This is possible to do. Although my guess is that it will be very hard because they are using that stipulation to free up money next cycle to lure more unsuspecting 1L's in. Top 20% is just nonsense. You basically have no control over that.

[zonto]

I tried to remove a top 1/3 stip and it was a no go. Bwoww bwowowowwwww...

--ImageRemoved--

[dpk711]

Cornell upped my scholly from $45,000 to $60,000 after I showed them my $105,000 package from GULC -- I don't think it will be enough to sway me to Ithaca though.

[Rikkugrrl]

Has anyone tried negotiating with South Carolina? There was a speaker at ASD that made it clear that they don't do scholarship negotiations until they have a good idea of who's coming and who's not, but I'm wondering a. how much of that is true and b. when exactly that time is?

[Fabs5180]

What have you guys found to work best, phone call or email? We guys guys successful in talking with Admissions or Financial Aid Offices?

[23402385985]

What have you guys found to work best, phone call or email? We guys guys successful in talking with Admissions or Financial Aid Offices?

I wrote a typed letter and sent it in and it worked very well, I thought.

[ktg808]

What have you guys found to work best, phone call or email? We guys guys successful in talking with Admissions or Financial Aid Offices?

I initially emailed people in the Financial Aid offices about who to contact about merit aid, and in both instances I was told to contact the dean of admissions. I'd still start with Financial Aid.

[cassidylane]

Hello!

I'm going into UCLA finaid in person to talk to them about my financial aid. I'm not being offered any grant money right now, and though I have some offers from lower ranked schools (BC and Fordham) I'm not only leveraging that so much as just trying to say....if I get money from you guys I will withdraw from all my waitlists at higher ranked schools....except without actually saying that (obviously haha). I also want to emphasize that (read: beg because) my parents are not helping me out at all despite the fact that their information is contributing to me not getting much aid.

In summary: Any advice about A) talking to them in person and B) negotiating a scholarship when you currently aren't being offered anything at all? I figure no matter what its worth a shot, its not like they're going to rescind my offer. Plus I want to ask about some residency and LRAP stuff as well.

ETA: I'm only interested in public interest. Is this a point that I should emphasize?

[Siamsa414]

Has anyone had success negotiating from $0 to merit aid? I'm picking between two low-T14 schools, and haven't been offered any money at either. I'm thinking of telling one school that I'd like to enroll but am concerned about the much higher cost of living in their city--think I stand a chance?

[cassidylane]

Has anyone had success negotiating from $0 to merit aid? I'm picking between two low-T14 schools, and haven't been offered any money at either. I'm thinking of telling one school that I'd like to enroll but am concerned about the much higher cost of living in their city--think I stand a chance?

Just did this at UCLA. The dean said he'll relay all my information to the scholarship committee as soon as possible. At the very least they're giving me another look. Can't hurt to ask!

[TT09]

How many success stories have their been for people that have been accepted off of the WL and given scholly $? I just got accepted off of one last Friday and most likely will not attend without some dough...

[gaud]

How many success stories have their been for people that have been accepted off of the WL and given scholly $? I just got accepted off of one last Friday and most likely will not attend without some dough...

Heard it happen from ASU

[wamanda]

Thanks so much for this thread! It literally helped me save $90,000. My story:

I was accepted at UCLA with $60k. I was then offered $75k at BU. I tried to negotiate UCLA up. They didn't budge on scholarships, but they did offer need-based aid that I hadn't realized I would qualify for/they hadn't seemed to consider me for before, which brought me up close to $90,000.

Later this summer, I was accepted off the waitlist at Duke and UVA. I wrote to the Dean at UCLA about this, saying I was tempted by the prestige these schools could offer/job opportunities that might outweigh the financial aid from UCLA. They responded later that day with another $30,000, bringing me to just about $120,000. (This, by the way, happened before Duke even offered me a $48k scholarship. You totally can get scholarships off the waitlist!)

Then, just recently, I got in off Michigan's waitlist. I told Michigan about my offer at UCLA and they offered me $60,000. I told UCLA that I was strongly considering Michigan (I swear, I wasn't even trying to negotiate at that point...I was seriously about to attend Michigan) and the Dean called me with ANOTHER $30,000.

I chose UCLA. At this point, they are literally paying me to attend. All in all, I talked them up $90,000. Granted, I had some decent leverage, all conveniently spaced out, thanks to waitlist. But still, this is rather ridiculous--especially considering my LSAT is exactly UCLA's average. I'm not exactly Harvard material that they were trying to win over.

My final advice:
1) stay on waitlists, even if you aren't super interested in the schools. First, you could be surprised at how your desires change over the cycle (I originally hadn't been very interested in either UCLA or Michigan, but ended up falling in love with both schools). Waitlists can work out quite well if you wait until the bitter end, and they give you much-needed leverage.
2) Ask about need-based aid. You may not qualify, but it doesn't hurt to ask. Most schools denied me flat-out for need-based help, but UCLA gave me tons. You never know how each school does its calculation.
3) Don't be afraid to try to start a bidding war. I never was able to get a real one going, but there is nothing wrong with using School A's scholarship offer to leverage School B into a better deal and then taking B's increased offer back to A. Some people quit after just one round, but I don't see the need. Every time I got off a waitlist, I told the school about UCLA's offer and then took that school's counter-offer back to UCLA. I'd have nothing right now if I hadn't done that.
4) NEVER be afraid to ask for more money. UCLA did say no to me once when I was accepted off Penn's waitlist. But then, just a couple weeks later, when Michigan accepted me, they were much more ready to negotiate, even though Penn and Michigan are peers. Just keep trying! As long as you are polite and not an ass, there is no harm done.
5) Don't listen to naysayers. SO many times, my friends and family told me to stop negotiating, that I had talked UCLA up as much as possible and should be careful not to piss them off. But UCLA never once seemed annoyed with me. Now, my friends and family all think I am amazing for getting so much money and apologized for trying to dissuade me. Now I am going to law school for free!

Hope this helps. Get that money!