<p>I have read a lot of press about CMU matching offers. They openly say they are willing to negotiate, and I do not doubt that they do. The stories I read about them always are accompanied by someone who got more money by bringing in a better offer. However, I lived down the street from CMU for many years, and know many, many kids who applied to CMU. Not one got much more from them when they came back with competing offers. Maybe be a hundred dollars or two, and some more loans. Part of the reason, is that most of the kids I know who went through the process are Pittsburghers, and CMU has no real interest in attracting them. They do not want to be a second Pitt, and it seems like everyone in the top 10% of the class in the greater Pittsburgh area applies to CMU. When I moved to Westchester county, I heard several kids who were astonished at how "smart" those Pittsburgh kids at CMU were. Well, I believe the bar is higher for kids who live near CMU, and possibly anyone in PA. So a kid from Pittsburgh, like my friend's D, got little interest from CMU. They are so used to getting comparison offers from Case that it does not interest them a whit. A lot of tech type kids apply to both Case and CMU, so that is old news to them. Now if you have a Cornell, JHU, Stanford, Ivy offer in hand and you are not from PA, preferably from an underrepresented region, that may be a different story. And , yes, loans and workstudy are considered part of financial aid when they are offered by the college. The loans usually have some feature different from the PLUS loans available to anyone with decent credit, and may even be taken by the student at times. </p>
<p>Chocoholic, I lived in the student ghetto of Oakland, PA which was down the street from both Pitt and CMU. Many of my neighbors owned buildiings for the same purpose as your acquaintance. We knew a family with 9 kids who sent nearly all of their kids to Pitt, and they had bought a house in Oakland for very little, and used roommates to subsidize the cost. By the time the youngest finished college, it was part of the old retirement portfolio, as property values had so increased, along with rents, so that the mortgage was more than covered by rents, and it had become a great investment.</p>
<p>This is a hard choice. Our s decided on a Safety school since they offered a half tuition merit scholarship and Honors Program. Over 4 yrs that will be about 70 K. It was a tough decison but there really were pros and cons to both so without any overiding strong need to attend the full price schools I didn't mind that the merit money helped tip the scales. Now he is a Freeshman and is enrolling in a 7 wk Language emersion in Spain with this school over the summer. Thats another 8,000, I think the half tuition will pick up about 1500 of it. So I guess what I am saying is that by saving this amount of money we are able to support some of these endevors like weekend ski trips and going abroad.</p>
<p>I would certainly contact the schools and let them know about your daughter's offer. I can't see how it would hurt. I would take the school tours before asking for money though. Your daughter may eliminate a school or two that looked great on paper but wasn't what she expected once she laid eyes on them.</p>
<p>Interestingly enough, we didn't contact the school our son ultimately decided to attend and ask for money. He turned down 2 full rides and 2 full tution scholarships. He's very happy where he's at even though they gave him a miniscule amount of merit money. His school is well known for it's lack of generosity. One of the schools that really wanted him offered him 20k and when he didn't respond offered him 40k and when he didn't respond offered him 60k and...they also sweetened the pot by offering him work study and telling him he didn't even have to work, they'd give him the money anyway. :D It is tempting when you know a school wants your kid so much, but we kept our mouths shut and waited. He chose the school that offered the least and we're glad he did.</p>
<p>lkf725
That to me is always the most interesting part. What school did you turn away $$ from, and where did you go at full price. I am always curious to understand what kind of difference in quality was worth the difference in $$.</p>
<p>cruella
how did you pick that name? Do cute little puppies fear you?</p>
<p>My son turned down a couple of state schools, those were the full rides. The one school that kept raising the ante was Loyola. He only applied there because his counselor at his prep school had a lot of the top kids apply because he knew they'd get money. My kid got a lot but decided to go elsewhere. He liked Loyola and he could have gone there but....</p>
<p>I have to tell a little story here. When we went on the great college tour we had a lot of wonderful schools in mind. We visited many schools and started to get a feel for the type of school our son would be happiest at and where he would thrive. While on one of our tours (the midwest tour) we visited several schools. Two stood out and I'll tell you why. One was Washington University in St. Louis and the other was Grinnell in Iowa. My son was told the exact same thing by both schools. We were told what a great school they both were yadda yadda, then they made a big mistake, HUGE in fact. They both said, if you go here you will be able to get into the best grad schools. Then they proceeded to list what schools their students traditionally went to and both said the University of Michigan as one of the first they listed. It was like this, "if you work hard and do well here you can go to Harvard or the University of Michigan, etc etc"</p>
<p>My son was really impressed with WUST, in fact he loved it and he liked Grinnell enough that he could have happily gone there. He ended up at Michigan, he decided he would skip the other schools and go right to where they all aspired to attend.</p>
<p>So, the moral of the story is the college tours should be careful about mentioning other schools because the kids DO listen.</p>
<p>My son is happily at U of M. He managed to turn a big university into a smaller school by going to the Residental College. As far as my son is concerned if he does well at U of M, the world is his oyster.</p>
<p>As for my name...well, little puppies should fear me as I do so love to wear them when it is sooo cold outside. A girl must look fashionable you know and spotted puppies, in particular, make such a mahvelous statement, dahling. </p>
<p>I host on a Disney web site and my name is Cruella DeVil. I have a lot of fun being bad.</p>
<p>Cruella, that is such a good story,thank you for sharing it. I would never choose WUSTL over UM anyway. D and I are going to peek at UM soon, do you have any tips, or questions we should ask?
And I am glad my kitty is safe from your evil clutches.</p>
<p>Chocoholic, I'll tell you what I tell everyone who offers their kitty to me or is afraid that I lust after cat pelts and that's that I prefer cat fur on the original owner. You can sleep happliy in the knowledge that cats are safe from my evil clutches. ;)</p>
<p>Jamimom, your puppy on the other hand is fair game. I will be sending my most able assistants (although they can be quite the inept bunglers at time) Horace and Jasper forthwith to collect the little blighter. Mr. Skinner, my colleague, has had a little too much time on his hands and is just itching to do a little skinning. I do always request that the puppies be bathed as it does save a step in the process. What kind of puppy do you have? I need to know how "far" it'll go, if it's little I may use it for a collar or cuffs. ;)</p>
<p>Now on to the advice fo Chocoholic...The University of Michigan does such a good job of selling their school. I like how they play* Hail to the Victors* in the backround, It really gets you in the swing of things. If your daughter is interested in the Residential College I can help you with info there. I suppose that most of your questions would be answered on a tour. Be sure to do the tour and don't be afraid to venture off on your own to take a look-see at areas not covered in your tour. What is your daughter interested in studying? One great resource is right here on CC. Go to the Top CC university section and click on the U of M link and go and see what is happening there. It is one of the more active areas outside the main pages here. I will help you in any way I can. I know my son is a very happy Wolverine.</p>
<p>I am sorry, I corrected my mistake while you were probaby typing your response. I was just so distracted by the possibility of a new puppy coming to me that I messed up and called your D an S. Sorry.</p>