My daughter is a rising graduate student at the University of Mary Washington with a 3.95; i.e., one B in seven semesters.
Duke, Wake Forest, Boston University, and Maryland have accepted into their Master’s of Business Analytics programs with scholarships ranging from $18,000 to $25,000. (She is still waiting to hear back from Michigan Ross and MIT Sloan.)
My question is can she engage someone, who I do not know, at each of the four schools to seek additional financial or non-financials enticements.
To be honest, I do not know what non-financial enticements might be of value to her career path after graduate school and would be grateful for any suggestions.
What is her end goal? My DD has an MSBA. She can definitely negotiate for additional money. I would not recommend a lot of debt for this degree as experience and skill is going to matter a lot more than the name on the diploma.
She contacts the person who contacted her (from the offer letter).
Yes. It is a careful dance. She first has to decide her hierarchy of schools, and what is most important to her (how much she wants the school vs the overall $$). Then she writes a very short/extremely polite email along the lines of "I was delighted to get the offer of a place and (whatever they called the scholarship). I am evaluating my options and wanted to confirm (deal). (Deal) can be what they offered, (“that this is the best offer you can make”) or it can be specific ("if you could match the offer that I have from X school, which is Y). It is important to be realistic, and honest with both herself and the schools. There is not going to be a bidding war- these programs are expected to make money for the school! and none of those schools are short of talented applicants.