<p>I was wondering: Have any parents ever negotiated a financial aid offer? Meaning, have you said "My S or D is getting $??? from such and such ivy, so such and such other elite private school, if you can match that, she'd rather go to your school?" What does one need to do to successfully do this?</p>
<p>Jellybean, look at this link:</p>
<p>I interviewed a kid who was totally depending on aid-- single parent ill with cancer and no $.</p>
<p>He was admitted to my alma mater and also to several other top schools. One of the others gave him the best aid but he wanted to go to mine. He called me, I called the financial aid office, and they matched the other aid package.</p>
<p>I can't imagine it always works but in this case it did.</p>
<p>My D was admitted to four schools. Her #1 choice had the initial #3 aid package. </p>
<p>I was fortunate to be able to set up an appointment in person with the FinAid office when D was visiting for Open Campus but I imagine you could accomplish the same via telephone, e-mail, and FAX.</p>
<p>The process was...professional and amiable in tone but businesslike. Certainly less adversarial than an IRS audit. By the time the dust settled, D's grants went up by $6K per year and the package went from #3 to (barely) #1. I did provide them a copy of the #1 offer. I did have a frank and comradely discussion of my tax returns...I have two Schedule C's and one is a bit complicated. NOTE: they backed out some depreciation into my income and they shouldn't have. They were very good about taking into account the nature of SoCal real estate, i.e., just because you own property at X price here doesn't mean you're well off. I indicated very strongly that my D wanted to come this college. I was <em>extremely</em> careful never to back them into a corner and say "If you don't do Y, she can't come."</p>
<p>I don't know if it made any difference but my D did receive a modest merit scholarship from the school and other indications would lead one to believe she was one of their top 30-40 or so applicants and that they wanted her fairly much.</p>
<p>I stayed polite and businesslike throughout and it worked out, for which I am grateful.
I would never be so crass as to say "Match this." They're sophisticated enough that they can figure this out on their own.</p>
<p>My brother in law attempted this with Emory....his daughter received a sizable offer from Tulane and zip from Emory. He sent Tulane's offer to Emory in an effort to match,etc. They did not make any adjustment. She's at Emory.</p>
<p>Reading the posts here it seems that some colleges will negotiate merit aid offers. I would only warn that if one chooses to go this route, I think that it should only be done if the college is clearly the student's top choice. To negotiate a better "deal" and then decline the offer could negatively impact future students in a similar position.</p>
<p>Another thing to consider is that merit aid often requires a student to maintain a minimum gpa. I know of 2 students who lost merit aid, one for only one semester however, because of grades. Of the 6 merit aid offers my S received only one(RPI) did not have any gpa requirement.</p>
<p>Originaloog, my D's school did not adjust my D's merit aid; it re-evaluated our finances after a frank and comradely discussion. Now, the <em>effect</em> might be the same, but it wasn't a boost in merit aid.</p>
<p>I do agree though that it's not cricket to be holding FinAid negotiations with more than one at a time. We gave D's school the clear impression that it was her first choice and that we wanted to make it work.</p>
<p>Sigh. She was talking more about her school today. I feel as if she's hit one of the jackpots of life. It makes writing the forthcoming tuition check easier.</p>