So we are in the fortunate position that our D17 has been accepted to all of her EA schools and we are waiting on 3 RD schools in the spring. These EA schools are all safeties for her as she was well above the accepted stats, but she would be happy to go to any of them and THRILLED to go to a few that have risen to the top. She is also so fortunate to have been offered merit that will make the schools affordable on way or another (some with a reasonable amount of loans). We will not receive any need based financial aid. We do not want to dimish our good fortune in any way and we are very thankful to be in this position.
D17 is now in starting to really narrow the list and trying to look for the frontrunner school/schools (of course with keeping those 3 RD schools in the back of her mind). She is struggling with one of her acceptances and is having a hard time moving on. This school published merit stats and amounts and D17 was at the upper range of the stats, yet received much less merit $ than expected based on their information. She has also heard online of students receiving much greater merit packages with much lower stats - none OOS have received as little as she has. She has been stewing about this for the past few weeks since receiving the offer and feels that it takes this school off the table for her. Even though it seems to be a much lower “ranked” school than her others, it had been the #1 or #2 choice prior to the merit award letter and she was so excited when the acceptance came in. She was a direct admit to her program and she also was admitted to their honors college. The other school at the top of her list offered just shy of full tuition (and she also has UA full tuition in her top 5) - so she had much more affordable options. In fact, this school came in with the weakest merit offer of her 8 acceptances and if she didn’t love it so much it would have been cut immeadiately. It is so much lower than the listed amounts in their materials and the offers made to other students (last year and this year) that we are thinking there is room to negotiate a larger award.
We don’t know if we advise her to walk away from this choice or if it is worth it to pay the extra costs. Without a larger merit award she would be at the top of her budget that we have set and she would likely need to get the federal loans to make it work with health fees, travel costs, etc… We are thinking that there could not be any harm in asking them to take another look at her offer. We have been sitting on this decision for a few weeks since it came in but feel if we are going to ask we will need to do it soon before the RD offers start going out.
We are wondering if anyone had experience (success??) with asking for a larger merit award and if they had any advice. Do we make the flight to visit the school again and request in person? Do we ask for a meeting with the head of admissions? Do we call or email our request? Do we contact admissions or financial aid office (we believe merit comes from the admissions office). We don’t want to sound ungrateful for the offer and everyone would like more money so we are conflicted about even going down this path. Or do you all suggest we walk away and take one of the other more generous offers. A good situation to be in but it is harder than we thought.
Looking for advice from the CC crowd. Thanks for any helpful advice you can provide.
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This school published merit stats and amounts and D17 was at the upper range of the stats, yet received much less merit $ than expected based on their information. She has also heard online of students receiving much greater merit packages with much lower stats - none OOS have received as little as she has. S
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are you certain that this school received her highest scores?
It’s hard to really know if what others are reporting are pure merit, some need-based, or maybe some dept merit, or maybe some diversity merit. And some kids, well, lie
Is she comparing “single sitting scores” ?
are those others coming from states that send few to that school?
Yes, I would go back to the school and ask for more merit (after making correct scores were received etc…) but ONLY IF your D has decided that she really loves that school and would go there. Is she just dwelling on it because she got such good offers elsewhere? If so, just forget about it. If she REALLY loves it and knows she would go there, then I’d give the admissions office a call and say that she got a lot more merit at X schools but wants to attend your school. Can you match - if we accept right now? If they say no, then only your family can decide if the premium is worth it, but no harm no fowl.
I know some people that were successful with this method, but to have the best chance, you really should be ready to commit. In the meantime, research and rank the remaining schools to determine a top 2-3.
I wouldn’t fly there. You need to look like you need some more money, not like you can fly somewhere at the drop of a hat! This whole thing can be done over the phone with the financial aid office. Show them the better offers from comparable schools, point out her stats are in the upper range, and have her write a letter about how much she wants to go there (if she does) but can’t without a better scholarship package.
Sometimes they have 20 or 30 fantastic students for only 15 or so top scholarships, and they have to choose the ones they want the most. This may just be the case. It happened to my daughter at one school. But there were others that she got far more than we expected. In the end, it doesn’t hurt to ask for more, especially if you can be so gracious about it as you have been in this posting. They might say no, but you gotta ask!
Colleges use merit money to attract students they want who would not otherwise attend, and they work very hard to try to figure out what amount of money is needed to attract students. It’s not all about grades and test scores – it can be about filling all sorts of college wish list items – for example, the desire to build a more geographically or ethnically diverse student body, the desire to strengthen a given department. Maybe this year college X wants more STEM students – the prospective humanities major may have impressive stats, but if the goal is to bring in more chemistry majors, the money will be offered to the students who fit that agenda.
Look up “enrollment management” so you get a better sense of what merit aid is really about, from the perspective of the college. It never hurts to ask for more, but your daughter may be right to have soured on that particular college-- she’s getting the message that the college wants her, but not all that much … and that may be exactly the message the college intends to send.
However, the college may also have misjudged – if your daughter seemed to them like someone who was very eager to enroll, they might also have just figured that she would show up even with the lower award. Or if your daughter’s stats are well above norm for the college, they might have figured that she isn’t likely to enroll no matter how much money they throw at her, so they have offered a token amount while reserving funds to offer to to the students who they feel are much more likely to enroll.
I think you should hold off until RD results are in – and then let your daughter decide whether or not she wants to try to get more aid from this particular school. It may be wasted effort in the long run. But if once all results are in this school still seem worth considering, that would be the time to attempt to negotiate more aid-- it helps to be able to show more generous merit awards from peer-colleges – that’s where the advice from @suzyQ7 comes in and can be effective.
And your daughter is right to pay attention to what other students with similar stats are offered – that is not something to raise directly with the school, but it’s good intel on what is realistically possible.
As noted above, schools make merit awards to (i) attract the kids they want the most and (ii) to get kids to enroll. So it may be that for some reason this school doesn’t want your kid as much as you think they should. It isn’t always just about stats.
It is also possible that they don’t think your kid will actually enroll. That can happen to kids who have very high stats for the particular school. That sometimes results in the kid getting deferred rather than accepted (so-called Tufts syndrome).
Absolutely no harm in asking. If the low award is due to (i), they probably won’t budge. If the low award is due to (ii), you chances will be better.
So your best play on this is to convincingly communicate that this school is #1 by far and the kid will 100% enroll if the financial playing field can be leveled. Like you have the pen in hand to write the deposit check right now.
Also, keep in mind that sometimes colleges start throwing more money at students in April as the May 1 deadline approaches. It happened with one of my D15’s schools. She applied EA but then had some RD applications she was waiting for before sending her deposit. She ultimately didn’t choose the school that offered more in April.
I know of lots of students who would love to be in your daughter’s position.
If she now thinks that she deserves more merit money, and is stewing about others reports of more merit money, maybe its not the school for her if she feels somehow “cheated”.
She can ask for more money, but they can say no.
She can’t know if others received merit money because the school needed a diverse class of athletes, artists, writers, theologians, musicians, or other talented students whose finances and stats were not accessible to your family.
She needs to ask financial aid about more merit, or get over herself and move on.
If the DD is just going by what kids are posting on websites, then she can’t really know if they’re telling the truth, if some of their award is need-based, some is an award related to the student’s major, or ???
If the school is rather vague on its website about merit amounts for particular stats, then it’s hard to tell.
Recently a parent posted that Purdue (I think) gave her child a merit award that was much lower than what they expected based on what some other students had received. I don’t know if they got that resolved or not.
All your DD can do is politely ask…and let them know that she will enroll if the award is adequately increased…and be prepared to do so. Schools don’t want to jump thru hoops increasing aid only to have the student go elsewhere.
But I think without promising to attend if the merit is increase it would be acceptable to inquire if the current award is correct. The student (or parent, because I think parents have every right to step in when it comes to money the school expects the parent to pay) can explain that she used the NPC, correctly entered all her stats, and yet the award is lower than predicted. Ask the school if the correct stats were used, if something changed from when the NPC was calculated, if there is something the student put in wrong.
THEN, if the student wants to go it might be time to play the ‘if you show me the love, I will come’ card.
There is absolutely no reason to tell the student to “get over herself.” I would call and ask if they are missing any information and if not, if the amount offered is correct. You have nothing to lose.
Thank you everyone. We are still conflicted and will discuss this weekend. D17 is in the middle of her HS production this weekend and next so she is extremely busy and distracted.
Just to address some of the questions - they school has her correct test scores since she only sent her ACT and she only sat for one. She did visit the school and met with professors.
We are well aware that schools use merit for many reasons and she is likely not a target student since she is a dime a dozen above average girl from the northeast. She is quite a bit higher than their accepted students and our own state schools are very expensive so they may have made a calculated decision to offer just enough to get it close to our in-state schools without offering too much. D17s GC met with her last week and she too was quite surprised at the offer and feels that an error could have been made. She has indicated that this school is eager to start drawing from our area and currently does not pull students from here. She shared with D17 that she had a lovely conversation with the regional admissions rep. from the school and that the school was excited about D17s interest in the school.
I know that we are in a fortunate position and that it may seem my D17 should get over it. We know she has enviable options that are from wonderful schools and she will do great. However we do feel there is a possibility that an error has been made so we will likely call on Tuesday to inquire. I am figuring that the call would go to admissions. While D17 has handled all communications in her college search I think that I will make this call since it involves money.
I will update once we know something. Thank you again.
Agree daughter should call the financial aid office, not admissions. Also, if there is nothing new to add at the moment, why not wait until this is her top choice. I feel like she would need to say that for them to even consider anything as it’s unlikely to get a change.
I agree with itsgettingreal17. Your daughter needs to ask. Our rule of thumb was that it couldn’t hurt, right? We were at an admitted students weekend in April of senior year with our S at UVA where he was offered no scholarships despite nearly perfect test scores and perfect grades (EA Engineering). He patiently waited in line at the financial aid office, flashed his beautiful smile, and asked if there was any additional scholarship money available. He said he was willing to write essays, work on campus, do whatever they deemed necessary because he loved the school so much, and it was his first choice. The FA lady simply said, “No”. He is very happy at Auburn University as an elite scholar and will walk away with his B.S. in aerospace engineering with a dual minor of business and French in four years for a grand total of $33,000. Smart financial decision in our minds as he plans to attend graduate school. Just wanted you to know that sometimes kids can do everything right and folks simply say, “No.” Wishing you best of luck.
As a former admissions officer (and as a parent who was in a similar situation), I urge you to have your daughter contact the admissions rep for your region - NOT financial aid. Merit money is enrollment management for yield and the admissions office will control that decision. If you are able to revisit the school, it is worth a visit to confirm that it is still your daughter’s first choice. At that point, a conversation with the admissions rep is appropriate. Your daughter should say “this is my first choice school and I will attend if the numbers make sense, however, I have been offered x and y by schools a and b. I was surprised that the merit aid from your school was only z. Are you able to reevaluate my merit aid award?” She should NOT reference what other students supposedly received. She should mention any additional information that could warrant increased aid (e.g. upward GPA trend senior year, commendations, awards, etc.). If you are not able to visit, this conversation can still happen by phone or email. Best of luck! (Keep us posted…)
You’re talking about thousands of dollars. I wouldn’t have a teenager call, I’d do it. Colleges might prefer to conduct all business with 17-year-olds, but that’s not how we handle our finances. All large expenditures go through us.
I don’t think there’s any harm in asking the financial aid office to review the package for errors without making a commitment to attend. Just make sure your daughter doesn’t get too emotionally attached to a school until you have all the packages.
Great advice above, especially from @janjmom . What we were told by “insiders” is that you should only pursue this type of conversation if you are committed to attend the school if they honor your request.
Agree with many of the others. Mom2college kids and red poodles make good sense. And janjmom must be right too, however I know many parents who have successfully negotiated these conversations with FA offices.
Parent should do this IMO, not the kid. Parent will be paying the bills.
Only ask for more money if it is the top choice and she will commit if more money is awarded.
They are used to these requests, so don’t be worried that you are sounding pushy. This is real money.