I also got into Cornell and Vanderbilt and got about 6k more from those schools and my mom wants me to ask them to match, but I don’t want to be rude. I’ll also probably appeal later on, but my mom wants me to ask if they will match before I accept my offer.
I’m not sure if NU does financial aid matching exactly, but usually if you appeal you can usually get a little more aid. I know my family wrote a short letter after we got our aid to the office explaining circumstances and why a little more would be helpful and they were fairly generous about expanding it even more than we expected. I know a lot of people have had different varying experiences dealing with the financial aid office so I can’t say its the same for everyone, but if you appeal you’ll definitely get closer (or possibly exceeding it just depends) the extra aid your ask for.
@Heisenbergyk Thank you! Yes, I was thinking of appealing but my mom wants me to ask them to make a match before I accept my spot at NU and I have less than two weeks until then. Fml asian moms.
Definitely call the NU fin aid office and explain your situation, but only if NU is your first choice. Asking them to match and them turning them down definitely is rude.
But being shy doesn’t earn you virtue points or anything. It’s not rude to look after your own best interests. I’m sure you can craft your message in a way that isn’t rude. Tell them that NU is your top choice and that you would love to come, but the better fin aid offer from the other 2 schools makes those 2 more affordable/reasonable financially, and see what they say.
In this case, Asian Mom has the better strategy.
Submit a financial aid appeal. The financial aid office is very helpful. I appealed and was able to bring the cost of NU from $47,000 to $34,000 with just grant money and they offered me a loan, so my folks will only be paying $29,000.
They ended up saying that they don’t match scholarships because NU is need-based in case if anyone else was thinking of trying to do the same