<p>Do you think if a school of similar academic caliber to Stanford gave me a better financial aid offer that Stanford would negotiate with me?</p>
<p>possibly. I unfortunately know a lot of people last year got better deals elsewhere and couldn't get Stanford to give much more, so they ended up going elsewhere. :-</p>
<p>Interesting. But what are the circumstances? What colleges gave them more and how much more? I'm not asking for thousands of dollars.</p>
<p>I read somewhere that Stanford's official policy is that they will not compete with other school's offers for need-based aid. But they probably would if they really valued you way above the people in the waiting list.</p>
<p>Duke, Princeton, Harvard. Don't know how much more.</p>
<p>What do you mean? See, Duke and Princeton are the only other schools I'm applying to; Princeton I probably won't get in, but either way, I'm hoping I could have some leverage ... ?</p>
<p>those three schools were popular competition with stanford in financial aid decisions. if you're one of the $2600 loan people you probably won't get anywhere with stanford- they're basically telling you "we don't think you need money". However if it's significant aid you might get somewhere.</p>
<p>Well, according to my preliminary offer, I'm getting 22 grants, 2.6 loans, and I pay the rest (about 17.5) . I don't understand 1. Why no work study? Could I ask for it? 2. Why not the full 4 in loans? So maybe they're already doing me a favor. I don't really know. The main issue is that my parents didn't go to college, they don't really understand the competitive admissions process, so it's taken a long time to convince them I should get to go to a top school vs. a state school. Basically, they want to pay 15. Oh well. I get to win this battle.</p>
<p>Well one thing is not having work study doesn't preclude you from getting a job on campus. So say you get a job on campus that pays say $8.50, and you work 6 hours a week, so $51 a week, for 30 weeks is 1500... then $1000 from a summer job/any work you do over break + 15 from your parents and you'd be set. :-)</p>
<p>Yes, it does sound excellent! I plan to work on campus and hopefully, they won't stick in work study later.</p>