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bobbyh1919 wrote:

iamrobk wrote:FWIW, at Penn's ASW they specifically said to let them know about scholarship offers from other schools to negotiate aid.

Oh interesting thanks for passing that along. I attended another ASW which of course fell on the same days. Do you know what e-mail address they want scholarship inquiries sent to?

iamrobk wrote:

bobbyh1919 wrote:

iamrobk wrote:FWIW, at Penn's ASW they specifically said to let them know about scholarship offers from other schools to negotiate aid.

Oh interesting thanks for passing that along. I attended another ASW which of course fell on the same days. Do you know what e-mail address they want scholarship inquiries sent to?

Sorry, I didn't catch the email address but I'm sure if you just send it to the generic admissions one they'll forward it to the right people! They definitely seemed to be aware that they are behind other schools in giving scholarships though, and I got the impression that they'll get back to people pretty quickly with offers if they have them from other schools already.

bobbyh1919 wrote:

iamrobk wrote:FWIW, at Penn's ASW they specifically said to let them know about scholarship offers from other schools to negotiate aid.

Oh interesting thanks for passing that along. I attended another ASW which of course fell on the same days. Do you know what e-mail address they want scholarship inquiries sent to?

flv wrote:would it be totally unreasonable to negotiate with NYU using a substantial scholarship from Duke as leverage?

gilkile wrote:How does one go about asking for a living stipend? I have already received a full scholarship. How should I ask? I don't want to sound obnoxious.

I was thinking that because I have another full scholly offer from a school where I can live at home, I can ask them if they can help me with the additional cost of attending their school, where I would incur more living expenses.

Thoughts?

gaud wrote:What's the consensus on resending a negotiation email?

I sent one about two weeks ago and haven't heard anything. Should I resend or will that look bad?

wamanda wrote:I've got a few requests for sample negotiation letters. Rather than sending them out one by one via PM, I thought I would post it here:

Hello Dean ____,

Last week, I was excited to find out I have been accepted to [other school] with a scholarship of $____ a year. With deposit deadlines looming, I likely need to make a firm decision soon; needless to say, it is not an easy choice.

____ remains at the top of my list due to its [great thing #1] and [great thing #2], but I know I need to carefully consider all of my options in making such profound decisions. [Insert concern about why other school may be better/fit me better than this school].

I will certainly be thinking long and hard about this decision, but I wanted to check to see if my options at [this school] may have changed at all in the meantime. While I certainly appreciate the generosity of the aid I am currently receiving, I am wondering if any additional merit aid might have become available. Regrettably, given the current legal market, financial concerns will be playing a substantial role in my ultimate decision.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

kutn wrote:1. Would it be okay to use a scholarship from a lower-ranked school to negotiate?

2. Should I always mention the other school's name and exact amount of scholarship that they are willing to offer?

puremorning wrote:What I also just found to work was schmoozing with financial aid people at ASW. Case gave me 6k more for it. Totally worth it. That and the free food all weekend saved me tons of money!

tjddk wrote:

puremorning wrote:What I also just found to work was schmoozing with financial aid people at ASW. Case gave me 6k more for it. Totally worth it. That and the free food all weekend saved me tons of money!

Would you mind sharing (or PM) how you approached the subject?

I was shockingly awarded $120,000 from Northwestern. Until that point, I'd been fairly set on attending UCLA at sticker (I was hoping to maybe get SOMETHING from NU and negotiate up a modest amount). I told UCLA about the Northwestern offer (I didn't apply to many peer schools, based on my very strong geographic/personal preferences) and they came back with $60,000, which is half what NU offered.

Any ideas/suggestions/insight on how to proceed? I don't want to come off as grateful and respond to their "Congratulations! We're giving you $60k!!" email from UCLA with "SERIOUSLY? HALF??" I'm not thinking that I deserve even the $60k from UCLA, given how they are about splitters, but that I can't reasonably attend UCLA with the gap in COA being what it is.

For what it's worth, my numbers are 171/3.54.

puremorning wrote: I went and spoke privately with the head of financial aid. It sounds like schools actually get offended when students ask for tons more money. I wasn't looking for a specific amount anyway, I just wanted to lighten the burden in any way that I could of debt, and I was honest and told them that. Speaking in person allowed me to relay to them that I'm responsible with money and that I'm someone that will use the extra money wisely. I had initiated this meeting by sending an email to the dean, and once I showed up for ASW they were like, oh great! You're here! Go talk to so and so, and by the end of the day I had a new offer in my email.

puremorning wrote:
I went and spoke privately with the head of financial aid. It sounds like schools actually get offended when students ask for tons more money. I wasn't looking for a specific amount anyway, I just wanted to lighten the burden in any way that I could of debt, and I was honest and told them that. Speaking in person allowed me to relay to them that I'm responsible with money and that I'm someone that will use the extra money wisely. I had initiated this meeting by sending an email to the dean, and once I showed up for ASW they were like, oh great! You're here! Go talk to so and so, and by the end of the day I had a new offer in my email.

zor wrote:

puremorning wrote:
I went and spoke privately with the head of financial aid. It sounds like schools actually get offended when students ask for tons more money. I wasn't looking for a specific amount anyway, I just wanted to lighten the burden in any way that I could of debt, and I was honest and told them that. Speaking in person allowed me to relay to them that I'm responsible with money and that I'm someone that will use the extra money wisely. I had initiated this meeting by sending an email to the dean, and once I showed up for ASW they were like, oh great! You're here! Go talk to so and so, and by the end of the day I had a new offer in my email.

This seems silly to me (that they would be offended, not that you asked for aid). I've at least attempted negotiation with every school so far save two (the best for last! waiting for the other offers to come in), and all of my interactions have been entirely professional aside from Fordham, who was really rude. As long as you're polite, brief, and honest, they know they're running a business and that scholarships are essentially coupons they can hand out at their discretion. I have only communicated via e-mail and feel that's a better option than doing it in person where you're putting someone on the spot, but I haven't tried the latter so I could be wrong. But no one should be offended. This is their job, they do it every year.

zor wrote:

puremorning wrote:
I went and spoke privately with the head of financial aid. It sounds like schools actually get offended when students ask for tons more money. I wasn't looking for a specific amount anyway, I just wanted to lighten the burden in any way that I could of debt, and I was honest and told them that. Speaking in person allowed me to relay to them that I'm responsible with money and that I'm someone that will use the extra money wisely. I had initiated this meeting by sending an email to the dean, and once I showed up for ASW they were like, oh great! You're here! Go talk to so and so, and by the end of the day I had a new offer in my email.

This seems silly to me (that they would be offended, not that you asked for aid). I've at least attempted negotiation with every school so far save two (the best for last! waiting for the other offers to come in), and all of my interactions have been entirely professional aside from Fordham, who was really rude. As long as you're polite, brief, and honest, they know they're running a business and that scholarships are essentially coupons they can hand out at their discretion. I have only communicated via e-mail and feel that's a better option than doing it in person where you're putting someone on the spot, but I haven't tried the latter so I could be wrong. But no one should be offended. This is their job, they do it every year.