<p>My son has been admitted to Trinity. From our visits, both this time around and with an older sibling, the school comes off very favorably when compared to its Texas peers, Austin College and Southwestern. Unfortunately, the school is substantially more expensive. Any hints or tips that anyone has which would help obtain a better offer? Understandably, schools do not want to get into a bidding war but if you make it clear that Trinity is a clear first choice, do you know if they'll come down further? I'd appreciate any past or current experience that would help give me some added insight.</p>
<p>Sorry to tag onto your thread since I can’t help you with your question, but do you mind if I ask what you/your son liked about Trinity over SW and Austin College? My son is starting to look at all 3 as well, although we haven’t done any comparisons of the FA packages. The packages appeared to be similar, but I will have to look again now that you have asked.</p>
<p>While the fit for each of the three has to do largely with the choice of major, there are differences that arose between the three schools that are distinct. Each school has a niche of their own. </p>
<p>Austin College is a great place to get an undergraduate liberal arts education and then head to graduate school. If graduate school was a kid’s aim, that’s where I’d recommend. Also they’re the best pre-med option I can imagine owing to their relationship with the TX Tech med school. Kids who agree to commit to Tech medical school are guaranteed a spot provided they graduate with a 3.2 gpa. That’s a really nice deal. The recruiters and staff genuinely like their product and want to see your child come to Sherman. That being said, Sherman isn’t for everyone…</p>
<p>Southwestern gets a great crop of kids. Nice campus and close to Austin. A much more bohemian feeling student body- I base this off visits both of my kids had, years apart. We know kids who go there and love it. The recruitment is more standoffish, somewhat of a turnoff. After you’ve done several visits and learn the ropes you know whether or not your kid is a good fit academically and socially. The “We’ll have to see whether you’re up to snuff to make it here” as a way to produce a feeling of exclusivity was ill advised. </p>
<p>Trinity seems to be a very good blend of hard sciences and liberal arts. For my kid’s proposed major, technology, their resources are more than double Southwestern and 5x that of Austin College. They were friendly but professional. When he visited, once he made his interests known two different professors spent as much time with him as he needed. I came away very impressed. </p>
<p>Money made available from each school seems to be heavily slotted based on rank/GPA and I haven’t figured out what type of additional discretionary fund might be available, thus the reason for my post. From what I’ve been told, these schools realize kids are looking at the others, respectively, and do not want to get into a bidding war. </p>
<p>Austin College was very generous- about 20k per year, SW- 12k, and Trinity - 7.5k. Your child might get a better offer dependent upon their rank. My question remains, can/will they go up and if so, how can I go about getting a better deal? </p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>That helped me incredibly. Thank you very much. We had the same feeling about SW that you nailed in your summation-I thought maybe we were being overly sensitive.</p>
<p>That is interesting that the 3 would not want to get into a “bidding war.” I guess Texas has enough brilliant and talented kids that they do not need to compete in that way. :)</p>
<p>Have you visited with the FA office with the AC offer in hand? You are not asking them to increase the offer (not a bidding war at all!), just meet it so your son can realize his dream school. If you can get TU to match AC, be sure to find out about the recurring amounts of those discretionary funds! There is nothing worse than having your future upper-level student being put in the position of losing funds that he thought would be recurring and having to take out the very loans that we all hope to avoid anyway!!</p>
<p>You’re most welcome for the response. Glad to know it was helpful. </p>
<p>I definitely intend to make Trinity aware of other offers. From what I’ve been told the typical reponse is “Yes, we’re aware they do give more dollars.” I also understand that you can approach them from the angle you mention. I’d like to know if there’s anyone who has done that or some variation and what success they may have had. </p>
<p>Good luck to your kiddo and enjoy the ride!</p>
<p>I think it’s great that you guys are really looking so carefully at these schools. Since Trinity has higher ACT and SAT scores that the other two schools, it would probably be more difficult to get as much merit aid there. In fact, after Rice, TU has the highest scores in TX. This includes Tx at Austin and Texas A&M in College Station.</p>
<p>I hope in making your decisions, you also look into the dorms, and how do the various schools assist in Study Abroad if your student wants that. A look at the endowments would also be wise, since while your student is there, that kind of available money for aid/internships will be important. In 2009 Austin College had an endowment of $109.4 million, Southwestern’s was $227 million, and TU’s was $883,739,000. Yes, that’s correct.</p>
<p>My daughter graduated from TU in 2011. If you have any questions I might help you with, feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>I think Trinity’s endowment is now almost 1 bil.</p>
<p>This is the response we got when we asked:</p>
<p>Unfortunately, we are not able to reconsider students for scholarships after a final decision has been made. We use the same criteria for all students when reviewing applications and can only use information provided at the time of application to determine admission and merit scholarships.</p>
<p>We are still looking forward to attending the 360 program in March. We have not seen the school in person yet and this will be the last school we see before she decides where to deposit!</p>
<p>Darn, need. I hope somewhere you run into a door of negotiation that swings wide open for you. My DS got an email today that he has been accepted, but we are still waiting on the official notification to see what kind of aid he might qualify for. Whatever it is, it sounds like that’s the final word, though. Keep us posted!</p>