Hi all! I wanted to post this in the financial aid section, but I wanted to know specifically if anyone had experience with negotiating aid from Dartmouth. I recently got accepted into the class of 2022. I was hoping to ask them to match my aid from JHU, but am not sure if they would do it since it’s not an Ivy League. Does anyone know how I should go about doing this? Does Dartmouth respond better to email or call? Also, does Dartmouth do “side letters” guaranteeing to keep the aid for 4 years too? Does anyone have any other tips and advice? I would choose Dartmouth over JHU, but only if they match my financial aid- my family and I cannot afford to pay the full price. Thank you in advance!!
I know I requested a financial review, but it was from a peer school. Dartmouth met the package given by the peer school and the aid was consistent for the 4 years my D was in Hanover.
Is your financial aid package from JHU all need based aid or is there a merit money component. Dartmouth only gives need based financial aid so it will not matter if you get merit money from someplace else.
Dartmouth may not consider JHU to be a peer school (they mostly look at cross admits: the Ivies, AWS, Notre Dame, Duke, perhaps Wash U).
Either way you will have to submit a request for a financial review. Fill out the form along with the financial documentation and the financial aid award. You can scan in everything and email to the financial aid office.
Our experience is dated, but @sybbie719 is correct that the request for review is the place to start. I found them very responsive, although we were simply asking them to match Harvard. They may or may not view JHU as a matching institution, although it’s hard for me to see why not (https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities), but you have absolutely nothing to lose by asking.
Our experience is also dated, but H requested a review based partially on a change of income and D came up significantly, matching S’s offer from Pomona, and also restructured the package. I don’t know whether they actually matched it on purpose, or whether the figure was arrived at because of the change of income and a restructuring based on some other issues.
Good point, @Consolation. I had actually started with pointing out some factors that weren’t apparent from any of the forms and mentioned Harvard only in passing, but that was what caught their eye – and they went from nada to matching within a couple of hours after I faxed them [ah, the old days] a copy of Harvard’s letter. No way to know how they would have responded without that, but D still thought I was marvelous, so … good times.
Thank you everyone! Update: they matched JHU 
Yay! Go Big Green! We all hope you have a wonderful four years in Hanover.