Negotiating scholarships works!!!!! Forum

[vbc515]

Doesn't the negotiation have to be like, "if you fucks don't give me fuckin money im gonna go to these schools who will"

HAHAHA well that's why I was thinking in order for it to be a credible "threat" I'd still have to be a prospective student...but then I thought, really, what school has the time to call all the other schools I mention in my letter to make sure I am still a prospective student there?

[omninode]

Hi everyone,

Just a quick question... does anybody know if I still have to be a prospective student of all the schools who I am mentioning to try to negotiate scholarship money? I'll use an example to clarify... I have been accepted to U of Miami with $25k a year and Tulane with $30k a year, but there is close to 0% chance of me going to either. Do I still have to be a prospective student at both when I write UGA or Emory, for example, schools that I am seriously considering and trying to negotiate scholarship money with, or can I go ahead and withdraw from Miami and Tulane so the spots open up for others and just attach copies of the acceptance/scholly letters when I write to UGA/Emory?

Thanks!!

In negotiating, the implication is that you will go to another school if you don't get what you want. So, yes, I think you should keep those other schools open.

[Pt324]

Hi everyone,

Just a quick question... does anybody know if I still have to be a prospective student of all the schools who I am mentioning to try to negotiate scholarship money? I'll use an example to clarify... I have been accepted to U of Miami with $25k a year and Tulane with $30k a year, but there is close to 0% chance of me going to either. Do I still have to be a prospective student at both when I write UGA or Emory, for example, schools that I am seriously considering and trying to negotiate scholarship money with, or can I go ahead and withdraw from Miami and Tulane so the spots open up for others and just attach copies of the acceptance/scholly letters when I write to UGA/Emory?

Thanks!!

There's been a history of some schools calling others to confirm scholarship details. If they call another school and you are no longer a prospective student there, you've pretty much lost all of your leverage in negotiating because you no longer have the alternative of "walking away" from Emory or UGA.

Also, although it might be a bit harsh, don't worry about opening spots for others. This is your life and you earned those acceptances, so you might as well use them for as much leverage as possible.

[ColtsFan88]

Hi everyone,

Just a quick question... does anybody know if I still have to be a prospective student of all the schools who I am mentioning to try to negotiate scholarship money? I'll use an example to clarify... I have been accepted to U of Miami with $25k a year and Tulane with $30k a year, but there is close to 0% chance of me going to either. Do I still have to be a prospective student at both when I write UGA or Emory, for example, schools that I am seriously considering and trying to negotiate scholarship money with, or can I go ahead and withdraw from Miami and Tulane so the spots open up for others and just attach copies of the acceptance/scholly letters when I write to UGA/Emory?

Thanks!!

There's been a history of some schools calling others to confirm scholarship details. If they call another school and you are no longer a prospective student there, you've pretty much lost all of your leverage in negotiating because you no longer have the alternative of "walking away" from Emory or UGA.

Also, although it might be a bit harsh, don't worry about opening spots for others. This is your life and you earned those acceptances, so you might as well use them for as much leverage as possible.

Truth. It's a nice though, and feel free to withdraw ASAP once you're done negotiating, but you definitely lose your leverage once you withdraw from the school.

[vbc515]

Thanks everyone for your responses. What you are saying does ultimately make sense, and obviously I'll need some sort of meaningful leverage in order to be successful in squeezing some more money out of schools I'm interested in attending. I just have a horrible guilty conscience that reminds me constantly I'm hoarding spots from people who actually want them...eek!

[laxbrah420]

I'd like to add that posting in a thread, "Just withdrew: hopefully my spot and fatty scholarship goes to someone else" is one of the douchier/pretentious things you can say.

Withdraw and be done with it if you're genuinely doing it to do good. Or keep your spot and let your lack of deposit inform the school.

[bobbyh1919]

Thanks everyone for your responses. What you are saying does ultimately make sense, and obviously I'll need some sort of meaningful leverage in order to be successful in squeezing some more money out of schools I'm interested in attending. I just have a horrible guilty conscience that reminds me constantly I'm hoarding spots from people who actually want them...eek!

You earned the spots though. I've withdrawn from a few schools I knew I couldn't use for leverage and knew I wouldn't be attending, but am still hanging on to acceptances I'm considering to varying degrees. Once your mind is made up, withdraw everywhere else ASAP, but until then I wouldn't worry about it too much.

[splitbrain]

So should I take my first shot at negotiating in March before the deposit deadlines and then, regardless of the outcome, a second shot the few days after the initial deposit deadline?

I have a feeling timing is crucial and want to make sure I do this right...

[LawperaMan]

Thanks everyone for your responses. What you are saying does ultimately make sense, and obviously I'll need some sort of meaningful leverage in order to be successful in squeezing some more money out of schools I'm interested in attending. I just have a horrible guilty conscience that reminds me constantly I'm hoarding spots from people who actually want them...eek!

I would imagine most schools would wait until after the seat deposit deadline to expand their pool of accepted students, since they accept far more students that they could actually admit anyway. I doubt you are having any impact whatsoever on another applicant.

[Titleist]

How much leverage would a scholarship to to SMU part time be to Houston?

Also, what about 90k from Baylor and 24k from Tech?

[rahrah]

Would any successful negotiators be willing to send me a copy of one of their letters? Pretty please ?

[wamanda]

Would any successful negotiators be willing to send me a copy of one of their letters? Pretty please ?

Hey, kid--look up.

[Nate15]

Would any successful negotiators be willing to send me a copy of one of their letters? Pretty please ?

(Somewhat) long-time lurker, first time poster. Same request as above, if anyone would be so kind.

Thank you very much!

[wamanda]

Thanks everyone for your responses. What you are saying does ultimately make sense, and obviously I'll need some sort of meaningful leverage in order to be successful in squeezing some more money out of schools I'm interested in attending. I just have a horrible guilty conscience that reminds me constantly I'm hoarding spots from people who actually want them...eek!

You earned the spots though. I've withdrawn from a few schools I knew I couldn't use for leverage and knew I wouldn't be attending, but am still hanging on to acceptances I'm considering to varying degrees. Once your mind is made up, withdraw everywhere else ASAP, but until then I wouldn't worry about it too much.

"Considering to various degrees" is a good way to put it. Negotiating is a long and harrowing process. I ended up attending a school that I originally considered as a mere bargaining chip. Turns out it is a great fit for me, even though I had initially dismissed it. Where you ultimately attend is a huge decision, and its not a bad idea to keep your options open.

[rahrah]

Would any successful negotiators be willing to send me a copy of one of their letters? Pretty please ?

Hey, kid--look up.

Found it!! Thanks!

(Somewhat) long-time lurker, first time poster. Same request as above, if anyone would be so kind.

Thank you very much!

Go back a page and look for wamanda's post

[JonnyBart]

Hey guys, after seeing the requests above, I'll post my scholarship negotiation letter. I've replaced the schools' names with letters. FYI, I was able to get my original offer (20K) up to to 32K. Hope this helps.

Admissions,

I was admitted to AB Law earlier this past fall. I went to see the school recently and was very impressed; I am giving very strong consideration to attending AB Law in the fall.

One of the most important factors in my decision is cost of tuition and the subsequent scholarship money that I will be receiving. I was offered a scholarship of $20,000 from AB Law and I have also received scholarships from other schools where I applied. Given my offers elsewhere I was hoping for some movement on my scholarship offer from AB Law, my offers from other schools are below.

$30,000 per year from AC University Law School. They have offered me additional money if I interview with their scholarship committee; they’ve indicated I would be up for a possible full scholarship.
$25,000 per year from The University of AD Law School.
$15,000 from AE University Law School.

I also have applications under review in at AF Law, University of AG Law and AH Law.

As you can see, I have many schools and offers to consider before making my decision. I would love to talk about this further with you and I’ve included my phone number below, so feel free to call me with anything you want to discuss. I’ll be in touch.

Best Regards,

Jonathan

Good luck on your hunt for more cash

[jsvaughn]

looking for some advice, heres my situation:

10k a year at Alabama
10k a year at Indiana
nothing from Temple

25k a year from Hofstra
20k a year from DePaul
13k a year from Chicago-Kent

also still under review at Georgia, North Carolina, WUSTL, W&M, and Emory. Although at this point I'm kind of assuming that theyre just waiting to ding me (ive been complete at all since at least thanksgiving)

Numbers: 167/2.5, NC Resident

Do I have anything to negotiate with at this point?

And if I do should I go ahead and send out negotiation letters?

[tjos]

Can someone tell me this - is it a good idea to use a school as leverage that you've been admitted to that's ranked 10-15 spots higher than the school you're trying to increase your scholarship with if you don't have a scholarship offer at the higher ranked school?

Example: I'm into A ranked in the 40s with no scholarship and B in the 50s with money - should I say I've been admitted to A and am considering it to up the offer from B, or should it be a school I've got a different/larger scholarship offer from?

[rahrah]

I got a grant for 23k / year but I must establish financial need in order to receive it. There are no other stips besides meeting financial need every year. Is this something I can still use to negotiate with?

[Dake!]

Hope for all the negotiators:
Two successes...
$0 at a T-20, up to full tuition schol (sent two emails)
$10k per year, up to full tuition + stipend at a highly ranked school (negotiated with other schol offers + T3 acceptance)
It really does work!

[punkyg0608]

Hope for all the negotiators:
Two successes...
$0 at a T-20, up to full tuition schol (sent two emails)
$10k per year, up to full tuition + stipend at a highly ranked school (negotiated with other schol offers + T3 acceptance)
It really does work!

Congrats, that is awesome!

What do you mean "sent two emails"? Meaning you sent another email after a rejection?

[SuchGr8Heights]

Hey all,
I've applied to nearly 40 schools and have heard back from 11 so far. I was admitted to 10 and rejected from 1 (W&L). I've received scholarship offers from 6 of them. Obviously, the schools are located all over the country. I have several questions and was wondering if anybody could help me out:

1. Should I wait until I get a better sense of $$ that I might be getting elsewhere?

2. When negotiating, is it more effective to show them offers from schools within the same regions?

3. Would an effective method look like so:
Three schools A,B, and C
Rankings: Rank(A)<Rank(B)<Rank(C)
Scholarship: Schol(A)>Schol(B)>Schol(C)
Should I first e-mail school B with the offer from school A, wait for B's better (hopefully) offer, and then in turn e-mail school C with school B's new offer?
That's probably a confusing way of wording, but the basic concept seems to be pretty common (from what I've seen).

Any help would be appreciated!

[accidentalhippy]

I was recently accepted to the UW, but have been seriously considering my full tuition offer from Michigan State as I hope to eventually work with small businesses in MI state.

To be considered for scholarships at the UW one has to submit a 500 word essay. Should I reference the MSU offer and why it is so compelling to me in that essay? Or should I wait until I receive the initial UW offer to negotiate?

Incidentally, I am not a rankings junkie and have compelling professional and family reasons to weigh both admissions equally.

[punkyg0608]

I was recently accepted to the UW, but have been seriously considering my full tuition offer from Michigan State as I hope to eventually work with small businesses in MI state.

To be considered for scholarships at the UW one has to submit a 500 word essay. Should I reference the MSU offer and why it is so compelling to me in that essay? Or should I wait until I receive the initial UW offer to negotiate?

Incidentally, I am not a rankings junkie and have compelling professional and family reasons to weigh both admissions equally.

No, definitely do not mention MSU in that essay! Talk about how much you love UW, and that's all. Once you hear from UW about scholarships then send them an email saying you prefer them to MSU but money/family is a factor...

[UMiamiCane]

I just received my scholarship offers (earlier this week and the end of last week). Is it too early to negotiate?
Can I use my scholarship at WUSTL to ask UF for more money and vice versa? I don't know if WUSTL would care about my offer from UF, so my angle for WUSTL would be that I am in state at UF and would need more money to leave that offer. And I would tell UF that I'd really prefer to stay in-state but WUSTL is offering my $60,000.