<p>When do I tell them? (asap, I assume, if they are already off my list). What do I say?
I have two types of letters to write:
1. I love your school but you didn't give me enough money so I won't be going.
2. I love your school but it doesn't fit with my future plans so I won't be going.
Advice?</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s all that complicated. The decisions come with a letter that you return to the college, and this letter normally has a checkbox that says something along the lines of “I decline my acceptance to ____<strong><em>. In the upcoming year, I will be attending _</em></strong>.” No questions asked, just check the box and move on. Of course, if the college offered you substantial scholarship money, or if the admissions officers were particularly nice, you might write a personal letter just on principle.</p>
<p>Some schools also have an online system where you can do this (on the admitted students portion of their website).</p>
<p>As said above, you don’t really need to do anything more than that unless they were offering you lots of money or you had considerable personal contact with the admissions officers, in which case it would be a friendly gesture to add a bit of a personal touch.</p>
<p>For case no. 1, you approach their FA office and say, School B has offered me so and so. I’d rather attend you. What can you do to make your offer better?</p>
<p>See what comes back. Can’t hurt to use the leverage you have.</p>
<p>cross post with T26E4 who says it better</p>
<p>^
^
Definitely worth a shot. They accepted you, so they want you. It’s their job now to get you to come to their school, so that might mean sweetening the deal a bit if you try.</p>
<p>
This is exactly what you do in essence. However if you’re this blunt you’re likely to get the door slammed in your face. Negotiating FA is possible, but FA staffers get upset if they have to face up to what they’re doing. So you use euphemisms and circumlocutions to avoid stating directly what you and the FA office are plainly doing. This happens everywhere, not just in FA offices. Its how you bribe people in countries where its common, and do you really think those big campaign contributions in the good `ol USA come with no strings implied?</p>
<p>Same thing here. “B offered more money. Make your offer better” is likely to get a red-faced FA staffer telling you where to put it. On the other hand “School B evaluated my file and said our expected contribution was X, but your office says its X+Y. Did you take into account the expenses we have of A and B? I’d really like to go to school here, so I was hoping you could re-examine the calculations.” may get you the offer you’re hoping for.</p>