I have been admitted to Duke, CMC, and USC with full tuition. Price of a school matters a lot to me, but I would much rather go to CMC than USC. I would like to contact Duke and CMC financial aid and see if they could match the difference between the prices of their schools and my merit scholarship. Obviously, this is asking for a lot but I have heard of people making these negotiations before and getting better packages. Needless to say, I’m visiting Duke and CMC soon but have no clue where to start. I want to schedule an appointment with their aid offices, but need advice on what to say, and what I should do before hand (i.e. writing and calling). I want to know that my request will be going into the right hands of people who have power to do so. How can I approach this professionally, and how can I effectively explain why I deserve a better offer? Also, I have received 27,000 per year at Scripps, and although it’s not my top choice, I am wondering if its worthwhile to also see if they can match USC’s offer. Please don’t tell me to not bother because I am! If anyone has experience or knowledge about negotiating with colleges please help me out.
Typically those are cases of colleges trying to snag students from competing schools with larger financial aid budgets. For example, Cornell might be willing to fork over a little more financial aid if it means getting a student who might otherwise choose Harvard.
You are unlikely to have success convincing a top college to match a merit scholarship with financial aid.
“Let’s say you don’t have special financial circumstances—but another similarly ranked school just offered you more in merit scholarships or grants. You can still go back to your number-one choice and ask for more money using your better award offers as leverage, says Vasconcelos.” other websites say just the opposite, I know what I’m talking about. CMC and USC are similarly ranked colleges. I just don’t know how to do so professionally.
Dont even bother. Duke and CMC do NOT negotiate FA when shown Merit scholarships from what they consider to be a “lesser college”.
In fact, NO college will negotiate FA when someone gets a huge Merit scholarship.
we DID try to "negotiate with other colleges- Pomona, Chicago, Brown, Dartmouth Carleton, etc, when DS was offered the Trustee Scholarship.
it was an utter waste of time.
So you and your parents need to decide whether you want to be PAID to go to USC, or pay thousands of $$ to CMC or Duke for the “privilege” of going there.
My 2cents- Take the Trustee Scholarship and rejoice.
Having "Trustee Scholar, USC " on your resume 5 years from now will open up many more doors than a degree from those other 2 colleges.
BTW, DS just received his PhD from Caltech. A degree from USC can take you anywhere.
Fight On!
Proud mom of a USC Trustee scholar.
This was very helpful to learn about. Obviously disappointing, but not surprising. Has anyone heard of any sort of success story with negotiating? A friend of a friend that I know was able to negotiate close to full tuition between usc, ucla, and northwestern, I’m not sure how though.
Re: your friend…it is VERY likely you don’t have the whole story. USUALLY successful financial aid reconsiderations are because of changes to the family finances that were not reflected on the financial aid application forms. Things like…parent losing a job, unreimbursed large medical expenses, house burning down without insurance.
It’s very possible your friend had some financial extenuating circumstance to present to the financial aid offices which made them reconsider their award to him.
okay… I guess my final question is, Is it worth it to try and see if CMC or Duke will take my offer from USC into consideration? Is there ANY possibility that this reward could result in a better offer from one of these colleges?
^no.
FA is not treated or awarded the same a way as a merit scholarship
You were given financial aid by CMC and Duke based on your financial need.
USC gave you a merit scholarship.
that was regardless of your financial need.
they are apples and oranges in their eyes.
You can ask…but don’t hold your breath.
I am a little confused…you say you got need based aid from Duke and CMC…but NONE from USC?
I thought USC guaranteed to meet full need. Of course…if you got a merit award…that reduced your need to $0…then USC would NOT be able to give you a nickel of need based aid…because colleges do NOT give need based aid when the need isn’t there.
No what I’m saying is that I got merit aid from USC, and no need based aid although I applied for it. I’m sure you all know that even though I haven’t qualified for need, that doesn’t mean I can afford it. I asking since I got a merit scholarship from USC, if Duke and CMC would take that into consideration and if that would qualify me for a MERIT scholarship at those schools or try and close the gap between prices to try and convince me to go there
I havent gotten need based aid from any of these schools, I’m aware that merit and need don’t cross over
So are you saying…you didn’t get merit aid from Duke or CMC?
If that is what you are saying…then good luck. Apparently that means you did not meet the bar for receiving merit aid at those schools…which by the way give MOSTLY need based aid…and VERY competitive merit aid.
I doubt seriously that any college is going to match another MERIT award from a different college. Each school’s sets their own bar for awarding merit aid. And each school also awards based on the strength of the applications at their school. They aren’t going to care about merit aid from another school…different college…different criteria.
Now…if you were talking need based aid…that would be different.
So what’s wrong with USC? Presumably you applied there with the intention to attend if accepted,
Nothing, I’m just seeing what I can do about the prices of other schools that I’m also interested in. I’ve been under the impression from multiple people that I’ve talked to and researching that getting a merit scholarship from a similar school may cause other schools to make an offer that is different to their original one.
"… another similarly ranked school just offered you more in merit scholarships or grants. You can still go back to your number-one choice and ask for more money using your better award offers as leverage, says Vasconcelos.
You’ll want to attach the award letters you received from the other schools to the appeals request as documentation. In the appeal, ask the school if they can match the other offers, adds Tommy Blair, financial aid director at Roanoke College.
“Show the college the cost they are up against: Here are my awards, here’s what it’s going to cost me to attend college X, Y and Z. I want to be at your school. Can you close the gap?” he advises."
OP, you have to realize that ANY HIGHLY COMPETITIVE college that only accepts a small % of students, like USC or Duke or CMC, and who turn down THOUSANDS of applicants, is NOT going to bend over backwards to try and snag a student who was not awarded EITHER need based aid or a merit scholarship .
There are THOUSANDS of students who will pay full freight to get off the wait list at highly competitive colleges…
Roanoke college is NOT a highly competitive college.
so again, you are comparing apples to oranges- colleges that turn down the vast majority of applicants vrs lower tier colleges.
I suggest you rejoice in your good fortune, instead of wasting time trying to find pennies that will not be found.
Anyone in my position would try and weigh their options! I’m seeking help not hostility, believe it or not I’ve never done this before.
okay, so i’ve been looking at this thread for a bit, and i think you should pick usc. here’s why:
— you received a great merit scholarship that eliminates tuition
— usc has a great alumni network that you can use to your advantage
— you get all of the benefits of living in los angeles
— the weather is pretty hard to beat
duke and claremont mckenna will NOT match what usc is giving you because, like the others have said, you received a merit-based scholarship, not need-based financial aid. it would be different if you received, say, $30K from usc and only $25K from duke in need-based financial aid, because that is when negotiating financial aid serves a purpose.
the only reasons i can see you passing up your deal from usc are if you genuinely hate the school AND your parents can pay the full price at duke or claremont mckenna like they’re (apparently) both asking you to do.
honey, I know you havent tried, but we did, and failed, as have many others [and that even with DS being awarded considerable FA from many tier one colleges, but they would not budge when it came to increasing, or even coming close to matching a Merit award…]
I’ve been on CC for 14 years and have seen these kind of requests every single year- all to no avail at the most competitive colleges. You can try, but in all likelihood you wont succeed, for the reasons I already mentioned above.
My strong recommendation is to go to USC, where Trustee Scholars are treated like gold.
Presumably you applied to USC with an intention to attend if accepted and the school was affordable. Otherwise…why would you have bothered to apply there?
USC is a great school. Go back to your reasons for applying there on the first place.
What has changed…other than you’ve been accepted elsewhere…where the costs are not affordable.
Has the grass really grown that greener!?
agreed, it’s just a tough spot to be in where I don’t qualify for FA but my family can’t pay for these kinds of tuitions. Many adults and college counselors told me that getting merit scholarships somewhere else, aka USC, could equate to a scholarship at these schools, obviously I understand how that is not the case. I was very very happy to get the opportunity I got at USC, I just also love other schools I applied too and hate that they automatically are out of the question, which I didn’t realize until this forum because of false info I had gotten.
Did you run the net price calculators on those college websites BEFORE you applied? That would have given you ar least a ball park of your net costs.
USC is a great university. Congratulations on your acceptance.