<p>When juggling many admissions and the financial aid packages that come with them, how can you use this to your advantage? Can anyone offer any tips on emailing financial aid offices and how to phrase your request in getting a better package?</p>
<p>I’m not sure if there is an advantage to be got as you put it…It won’t matter much unless the colleges are competitive for the same kids. However, when you have all your packages and you have a number one favorite, you can always ask for consideration to accept their offer instead of your #2 offer, but again, they might not necessarily “match” another offer. if you ask for more money be prepared to accept the offer of acceptance if they meet whatever you are asking for. Another example of where there might be some leverage is some of the LACs in our state, they want to make their schools affordable for kids they might lose to UofM. That might happen in other states that have a ton of crossover kids that apply to both. </p>
<p>We had a much better offer last year from one top college (“College A”) than from “College B” and “College C”. All three were very highly ranked. We asked colleges B & C to please review D’s financial aid in light of the fact that cost of attendance at College A was about $10,000/year cheaper. College B (actually her first choice) asked a few more questions, and adjusted her FA to match College A. College C didn’t budge a bit. She now happily attends College B. So sometimes it helps to ask, and sometimes it doesn’t. I do believe you only have a chance at getting more aid if the colleges are comparable in selectivity/ranking/etc. And offering SOMETHING in the way of additional info that didn’t come out in the forms filled out for FA helps (gives them an excuse if they want to give you more aid, IMHO).</p>
<p>^Agree on all counts:</p>
<ol>
<li>Helps to have a more generous FA offer from a peer school.</li>
<li>Helps to have something to add that isn’t on FAFSA/Profile.</li>
<li>Some schools match offers readily, others don’t; never hurts to ask.</li>
<li>Ask for a ‘FA review’ and mention that you have a higher offer from another college that you could send them if they want to see it. Don’t rush in and ask them to match another school’s offer, give them the chance to ‘reevaluate’ their offer.</li>
</ol>
<p>Yes, we did not use the word “match”. They did ask us to send the “College A” offer so they could look at, which I did promptly (I had it scanned and all ready to go, but didn’t send it with the initial request for a review).</p>
<p>Thanks so much! These are exactly the answers I was hoping to get.</p>