<p>I was recently admitted into the honors program at a small LAC - unfortunately, no merit aid was offered. Another university also admitted me to the honors program and with free tuition, too.</p>
<p>This LAC is my first choice by far, however, at the given price my parents would not be able to afford 4 years. Do you guys think it would be possible to talk to them and perhaps ask for merit aid? Do you think that's going to work? I'm going to mention the other university's offer to them, but I don't know how else I should go about it.</p>
<p>Any advice would be great. Thank you, and y'all have a good day.</p>
<p>Unfortunately I do not think it will work. Most schools award merit aid based on the applicant being in the top percentage of applicants for that major, other factors might be diversity in terms of student body or geographical background of student, etc. You can talk with the FA office and let them know that they are your first choice however the funds don’t seem to be there. I wouldn’t hold out much hope that they will match the other schools offer. Each school considers merit aid according to it’s own set of criteria.</p>
<p>Yeah, I was thinking it wouldn’t work. I’ve already had a response from them, and I could definitely tell my query annoyed them. This school is very, very white with one of the smallest international school populations around, so obviously diversity - I’m a biracial international kid who has lived in 5 countries - is not on their top agenda.</p>
<p>Ahhh, oh well. I guess I bow down in defeat.</p>
<p>Thanks for the response! :)</p>
<p>p.s. for anyone reading this in the future, I read an article on the net about this working at another LAC. I think it was Dickinson? Obviously that was before the economic crisis, so circumstances are different now.</p>
<p>A neighbor boy is currently negotiating with his #1 school in regards to merit aid. He was offered a nice scholarship initially but then got better ones from two other LACs who compete for the same students. He went to the admissions counselor who had worked with him and showed her the other offers. They are now within $500 of the other offers. It most certainly worked for this family. The student has B+ GPA but outstanding ACT.</p>
<p>Wow, that’s great NorthMN! My LAC, however, is known for not giving good merit aid in general, so I guess it’s not gonna work.</p>
<p>I had originally contacted the financial aid office, do you think I should contact the admissions office instead? Perhaps there’s another department I should speak to first?</p>
<p>I’m a straight A student with an alright SAT score (certainly above their average).</p>
<p>This LAC is also expecting me to pay postage to tell them I won’t be attending. Ha, no thank you.</p>
<p>Most US schools do not give merit aid to internationals. (Did you research whether your LAC is one of them, or did you just assume that merit aid would be available?) It is unlikely that any negotiations will work.</p>
<p>I am most certainly aware that many places do not give merit aid to internationals. I only applied to ones that did (I got a full scholarship from AU, for example), so their policy of not giving merit aid full stop (to both local and international students) is new to me.</p>
<p>Another LAC also did not give me any merit aid, stating that no merit aid is given to international students. I just wish these schools would update their websites that state merit aid IS in fact available to us. Would’ve saved me a lot of trouble. Oh well… :/</p>