<p>If a student receives an offer of a full ride from School B, is it okay to mention it to School A which is their #1 choice?</p>
<p>Sure, School A will either improve their financial aid offer or tell the student "enjoy your 4 years at school B". I have heard of both happening</p>
<p>If school B is a competitor to school A, then school A will most likely match B's offer. If your children got a full ride from your local state college, don't expect the top 50's universities to match it (unless the state college happen to be in the top 25's.)</p>
<p>This is a bit different, but for example: NYU and Columbia Law have been fighting over top students, and the title of "Number #1 Law School in NY," if you got into both, and NYU offers your more money, expect Columbia to match it.</p>
<p>It depends on what your full ride is. If you have a full ride that consists of merit money and your child is also accepted at an Ivy, stanford, MIT or a school that only gives aid based on need, it will not be matched (as these schools often do not give merit money).</p>
<p>If you get merit money at school A based on meeting some type of GPA.SAT requirement, and you want school B to match the scholarship if school's B requirement for full ride scholarship is higher then don't expect a matching offer.</p>
<p>Even at peer schools, one school will not necessarily match the offer from another school (it will depend on how badly the school wants the student).</p>
<p>The schools are comparable and compete with each other. Both schools have recruited my D.</p>
<p>I just didn't know if it was in poor taste or not to do that. I don't want School A to think we're playing games - but OTOH, I don't want to let a chance to slip by that they'll match the offer.</p>
<p>I encourage you to tell school A that school B is giving out more money. My highschool teacher got into Villanova and BC, and Villanova offered him more money. He went to BC with the Villanova's financial letter, and convinced the FA officer at BC that he wanted to go attend BC more. BC matched the offer from Villanova. He and I believe that BC and Villanova being former Big East rival helped alot.</p>
<p>Some schools, (Carnegie Mellon is well known for this) encourage submission of other offers. If you are a student the school really wants, and the financial aid given by a comparable school is drastically more generous, the package can be changed to your favor. Sometimes the offer signals that there may have been a gray area in the financial aid picture, particularly PROFILE schools, that could be viewed differently.<br>
However, do not expect a match. I know someone who received a phenomonal package from Vanderbilt, when he wanted to go to CMU. CMU just gave him a little more loan money. The student has to be one highly desired by the college, and usually the competing offer has to be from a school that the college feels is its peer, at least. Also, if a mistake is found by looking at significantly different packages, changes will be made, but none of these scenarios is guaranteed. But unless you try, you never what might happen.</p>