<p>I heard that it's possible to challenge a college and ask them to offer more money. For example, let's say I was accepted into colleges A and B. College A offered me $40,000 and college B offered me only $20,000. I really, really would rather attend college B. Is it possible to say to college B: "I would love to attend your school but college A has offered me $40,000. Can you match this amount?" Is this possible? Has anyone tried this, and has it been successful? How would one go about doing this?</p>
<p>It is possible, but you donât approach it by asking a school to âmatchâ another schoolâs FA package. Rather you ask for a âreviewâ of your FA package and let them know that you were offered a more generous package at another school and ask if they want you to send it to them.</p>
<p>Remember, this usually only works with peer schools and not all schools will consider other offers.</p>
<p>I have been successful with both kids doing this, but all of the schools had relatively large endowments and so had the ability to be more generous; and one of the schools came up a couple of thousand but didnât come close to being as generous as the other school.</p>
<p>It never hurts to ask, but donât depend on it.</p>
<p>Are these schools very similarly ranked? </p>
<p>Are they the same type of school? such as both privates?</p>
<p>If school B only offers need based aid & school A offers merit, school B is going to tell you that they will miss you ;), but that is too good of a deal to pass up".</p>
<p>So, I do have a question. My son has received two FA offers, both are very generous. One is from an Ivy and the other is from a top ranked LAC. When looking at the âpoolâ of money, the offers are within $1,200 of each other. The aid is just allocated differently between parent/student contributions. Would this be a case where you could ask for a review?</p>
<p>My D was successful in increasing merit aid last year by requesting a review. She had a more generous merit offer from a peer school that she would have been happy to attend if things hadnât worked out. She sent an e-mail to her admissions counselor and the financial aid office at her desired school thanking them for the generous aid package but explaining that another (peer) school had offered her significantly more. She went on to ask them to review her aid package since as much as she loved said school, and her Dad and Uncle are ulums, she couldnât justify having her parents spend the extra money to send her there. She did end up faxing over the other award letter at the request of the FA office. In the end, her 1st choice ended up coming within $1,000 of the COA of the other school.</p>
<p>Re: post 5âŠdo you want one school to increase their aid? Iâm not sure what your question really is? It sounds like your kid got very similar aid from both school.</p>
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<p>Try to give the college a legitimate reason to increase the aid (such as unusual family medical expenses), in addition to letting them know what other colleges offered. </p>
<p>I sent the photocopies of the offers from the other colleges when I asked one college to review their offer (which had a huge gap). It made the comparison believable, vs. just saying what another college had offered. In that case, several other colleges had offered close to the same net price, but the college where I was asking for a review could clearly see they were the outlier. (While we were waiting weeks for a response, my son decided he liked a cheaper college much better, so we cancelled the review).</p>
<p>I think post #5 is referring to the allocation of grant money versus loans in each package.</p>
<p>Thumper - Yes, his aid packages are very close. We are not talking thousands of dollars. There is a difference of $1200 in cost to our family, i.e.,total family contribution (student/parent) + term-time job. These are both needs based, no loan schools. I was just wondering if it was worth requesting a review from the school whose package would cost our family $1,200 more annually. That would be three plane tickets to and from school.</p>
<p>You can always ask. The thing is you cannot expect a change. Some schools will make an adjustment and others simply canât or wonât.</p>
<p>Re: that $1200 differenceâŠis the lower school his number once choice and will that $1200 difference mean he canât attend?</p>
<p>I think that he is definitely leaning towards the school with the better FA offer. As he hasnât been able to visit any schools to date (financially unfeasible), he doesnât want to make a commitment until he has had a chance to see the school during the admitted students overnight program. I just thought if we could possibly take away the $1200 difference, he would be able to make his decision based solely on the schools themselves. While $1,200 wouldnât prohibit him from attending the other school, it would factor into the final decision.</p>
<p>cost our family $1,200 more annually. That would be three plane tickets to and from school</p>
<p>then thatâs a good point to make. Actually, itâs probably more like one ticket thatâs âone wayâ in the fall, one roundtrip at holidays (pricey), and one ticket thatâs âone wayâ at the end of the school year.</p>
<p>You can ask. I suggest your student practice couching terms of his request as humbly and politely as possible.</p>
<p>Has anyone had success earning additional merit money with submission of additional information for consideration?</p>
<p>My D has been accepted to her top choice school with a university merit scholarship that is much less than we expected. Her acceptance is to the Creative Writing program, but the basis is purely academic (GPA, SAT, rigor and ECs only). The application did not require her to submit a sample of her writing. </p>
<p>Has anyone successfully requested additional material be reviewed by the relevant department (in this case, the Writing Department) and/or admissions for consideration?</p>
<p>The CW Dept of this university is well-regarded, but acceptance to a major such as Creative Writing without a writing sample seems analogous to an acceptance to the Music Department without an audition.</p>
<p>You can tryâŠbut clearly the awarding of merit money is based on general academics at your daughterâs school. If they had wanted to consider additional material for this merit award, they would have asked for it.</p>
<p>Just FYI, there are some schools that give academic merit aid to music majors that has nothing to do with their audition performance awards.</p>
<p>^ Oh, absolutely (I was one of those music majors many moons ago). I guess Iâm wondering if anyone has had success earning anything additional when the supplemental information is volunteered with a request for consideration.</p>
<p>Weâve had a few offers come in 20K, 37K, 38K (subtract out 5 in student loans from each school number), school 2 came nowhere close to their net price calculator⊠School 1 is in line with the FAFSA, schools 2 & 3 are willing to take another look but school 3 has already said they donât have a large endowment and donât offer large packages. Unfortunately our C only applied to a couple of schools and only the first school was one that offered merit he doesnât want to go to school 1 howeverâŠ</p>
<p>I have no idea how to approach school 2, they seem to have more of an endowment and I have no idea what happened with the net price calculator</p>
<p>maui, is either parent self employed, are you divorced, do you own additional real estate? The Net Price Calculators donât work well with any unusual financial situations. They work best with standard earnings, and the like.</p>
<p>Thumper, no nothing unusual at all which is why we are shocked, I am truly in shock over it. I think I mentioned DS applied to only a few schools, and the first school is not one he wants to go to, but if he wants to go to college he now has few choices, try to join the ROTC program at college 2 or go to school 1⊠we have extraordinary medical bills but Iâve been told there will likely be no extra money from school 2 once they get to that⊠Iâm really in shock. 15 or 20k (with 5 being a loan) was doable, but double that? No, itâs not even remotely possible and before anybody jumps on me, weâve spent 72K over the last few years on medical bills⊠they took priority over college savings. I seriously consider just stopping my treatment so thereâs money to pay the colleges. Of course if my student had bothered to do better in high school and understand the need to apply to a range of schools, my student wouldnât be in this boat.</p>