<p>Anyone else get an amazingly low aid package? Other schools are offering $30K more. Dartmouth is not even an option for this price...</p>
<p>You should visit dimensions and talk with one of the financial aid representatives. Rice offered me $15.3k per year and is already much less than Dartmouth, but I think that I'm going to be able to afford going to school in Hanover.</p>
<p>Even if you can't make it up to New Hampshire, try giving them a call to work something out with them.</p>
<p>Talk to them, particularly if you have another need-based school to compare with. In my experience, they'll at least match what the other schools give. </p>
<p>Another thing of note is that while a lot of other big-name schools will start out with big finaid packages, many of them will really cut back your junior and senior years, figuring that you won't transfer. Dartmouth doesn't cut back--in fact, the two years I paid the least were my junior and senior years.</p>
<p>hope:</p>
<p>you have a full ride (Robertson) to Duke. No school will match that.</p>
<p>Congratulations.</p>
<p>Actually, Dartmouth gave me the best package as compared to Bowdoin, Brown (by far), and Vanderbilt.</p>
<p>all ivy's will match the offers of other ivy's</p>
<p>dcircle: I don't think that is true anymore. Other than Princeton, no Ivy can match the new finaid policies of Yale (which the OP received lotsa money from) and Harvard. Other than those three, Dartmouth finaid is excellent.</p>
<p>that's actually a good point. columbia, dartmouth, and brown may no longer be able to match harvard, princeton, and yale. i'm not sure about this.
i'm sure, however, that columbia dartmouth and brown will all match each other since they have very similar financial aid budgets.</p>
<p>It's also important to note that Dartmouth will match need-based offers from schools other than Ivies. So any big LACs, any big non-Ivy privates--Dartmouth will almost always match them if there's no merit-based component.</p>
<p>do you guys really think brown and dartmouth will match? I got great aid from dartmouth, and kinda crappier from Brown, but there are times I think I like brown better. so it might be worth a call or email to the brown fin aid office?</p>
<p>It's always worth a call. You have nothing to lose in trying except for half an hour on the phone.</p>
<p>It would be hilarious if they actually said "how dare you!" and rescinded your admission, but that's not going to happen.</p>
<p>Yes Dartmouth and Brown compete for the same students and will match FA awards. But the best way to have this happen is to write a letter asking for a review of the FA package, and include a copy of Dartmouths' FA letter.'
But as BB said, no school will match a full ride scholarship.</p>
<p>I think I'll call their finaid office. How long do you think it would take to revise the offer?</p>
<p>I think they won't revise anything unless you send then documentation, with which to base a revision on. You can certainly call them and let them know it's coming, but I would be very surprised if they commit to revising anyting on the phone. Are you going to admitted students days for both schools? We sent in our appeal letters within a week of acceptances, and both D and B let us know their revised FA amounts at meeting with the financial aid officers during those events.</p>
<p>UPenn and Cornell gave me great financial aid packages. When we sent Dartmouth my offers from those schools, it increased my aid and became the cheapest school I was accepted into (cheaper than all the UC's, and I'm a California resident).</p>
<p>My experience was that Dartmouth, Williams, Vanderbilt and WUSTL all had financial aid offers within $500 of each other. If your offer was so very different from other schools then they probably misunderstood something in your profile, call them and simply ask why the difference, they are friendly and really want to help the accepted students attend (however, this excludes any merit aid, which Dartmouth won't match).</p>
<p>Apparently Dartmouth in 18th in the nation for offering the worst financial aid: Test</a> Prep: GMAT, GRE, LSAT, MCAT, SAT, ACT, and More | The Princeton Review</p>
<p>This could get bad :|</p>
<p>D gave my S a great FA package. And they increased it to superb upon appeal.</p>
<p>That Princeton Review ranking was based on student surveys taken before Dartmouth's new financial aid initiative was announced last January, which implemented the following changes:</p>
<p>(quoting from Dartmouth</a> News - Dartmouth announces new financial aid initiative - 01/22/08)
1. Free tuition for students who come from families with annual incomes below $75,000
2. Replacing loans with scholarships
3. Need-blind admissions for international students
4. Junior leave term with no earnings expectation </p>
<p>My financial aid package is quite generous, and I've raised the subject with friends and heard no complaints so far.</p>