Student Y enjoyed meeting you last week and having a tour of your beautiful campus. She has loved hearing from the students and faculty that have reached out to her. She is very excited about the prospect of enrolling in College Z and is honored by the award of ABC Merit Scholarship and all of the opportunties that come along with it.
Like most families, college costs are a major concern. In addition to the ABC merit scholarship from your college, Student Y has been awarded merit scholarships at other colleges and universities including a (higher) merit scholarship at (peer institution) and a (very prestigious full ride at honors college in public institution). [Documentation can be attached.]
Your college is Student Y’s first choice and we are writing to inquire as to whether any addiitonal merit aid may be available from the college to match that of (peer institution).
We would love for Student Y to be able to enroll at your institution and would be thrilled for all the opportunities that await for her there. Your college is the first choice of Student Y.
@itsgettingreal17 - would you suggest the student or the parent call? The student is rather reluctant to try to negotiate an increase in what is already a generous award. The parents are willing to try.
It is generally better to call. It is also hard to tell with the names and numbers left off of this letter if
(A) You are trying to get more money from a school that gives lots of merit or a school known to be stingy
(B) How big the gap is you’re trying to fill – are you asking for 2,000 more per year or 20,000 more per year? It will make a big difference how you approach this
The school offers a full tuition merit aid and a 1/2 tuition merit aid - DD was offfered the 1/2 tuition merit aid.
The difference in aid offered by the peer schools is $5000 - would be happy if the school matched that award.
They seem to be heavily recruiting her, emails from current students, departments, meeting with the Dean when she visited the campus. They seem to like her varied interests and the strength of her stats.
You can only try. You are simply asking the college if they will discount the price you will pay and that two other institutions have given you a lower price. It is not “aid” in a need sense. If you don’t get what you want only you can decide if it is worth the additional $$ to send the student to the more pricey institution. It is really no different than purchasing a car or a house if you don’t have a financial cap. If you don’t ask you will never know.
I actually emailed to start negotiations when I did it. That way I was able to carefully craft the wording. I would not talk about the size of other scholarships, but I would say that College X (comparable college) has made her cost of attendance $X cheaper, and you are having trouble justifying paying more. And ask if it is possible to appeal for more merit aid. I’m not sure the honors college at the public college, even a Michigan or UNC level, is going to carry any weight. I’d leave it out.
OK – so work the information your daughter got from all that recruiting attention into your 'pitch" – what is she going to bring to that campus that they need?
And, make sure you’re focused on the total cost of attendance for each school, not just the raw scholarship amount.
I just don’t see “selling herself” as helpful in this process. They have her app. At this point it is more transactional. They give merit to try to hike their average test scores or get geographic diversity or improve their yield.
I wouldn’t use the term merit aid when requesting additional aid. Schools have their own formula for calculating merit aid so that it is standardized among the students. Where you could get additional funds is if the school also has a university grant program. Students who don’t qualify for merit aid often get grant so that more students are getting some financial aid. Mine received a combination of merit, grant and scholarship which equaled that of another schools presidential scholarship. It is worth a shot since the worst they can say is no, all funds have been distributed.
Your letter is fine. We used a similar one to get more merit aid for our daughter. Send it via email as time is of the essence. Send the documentation of competing offers with the email. There is a typo in ‘additional’ in paragraph 3. Good luck.
I really don’t think wording used is all that significant. You are dealing with a person whose job is to handle these issues, so pretty much has heard it all. So I think simple is better.
I wouldn’t use the word “match” because there is always the possibility of the college choosing to outbid the competition if they think that is what it will take to get you to commit.
Merit money is very often negotiable, but also is generally governed by factors that were already predetermined before the admissions offer was sent out.
Mentioning it is the first choice is good. Where I’m going to disagree with my fellow posters is on the stance to take vis-a-vis the school.
You have made it too plain that this is a dollar negotiation like buying a car, and you want the same discount the dealer across town has offered. Colleges like to think themselves above the commercial fray (although they are happy to take donations, license patents, etc). So its all pretend, as a little kid I know would say. But IMHO you don’t want to take the chance of ruffling feathers.
Instead the way I’d word it is that the peer institutions reviewed the same FA app as this college yet they were able to award more money. Can they take another look, is there something this college may have overlooked that would allow an award of more aid?
By keeping it vague you aren’t talking about aid categories or debating how much merit aid she should get relative to her peers accepted to that school. You are simply asking for more aid however they want to package it.
Colleges have a lot of leeway in how they calculate “need”. If there is a will, there is a way. They can reclassify assets, discount others, etc. It is an art, not a science, and if they want to come up with more money and call it need-based I think that in most cases they can figure out how to do so with just about anyone other than the kid of a hedge-fund manager.
I disagree. I believe the OP said they don’t have financial need in post #5 so it absolutely is about seeing if the college will meet or exceed the competitor’s discount. Asking them to review the finances again might not get them anywhere.
Unless I am confused, the OP is an expat living on the other side of the world and her daughter will have unusually high transportation expenses. Makes sense to mention that?
@mikemac I totally disagree about colleges thinking they are above the commercial fray. Students and parents often think that, but most colleges are quite clear eyed about the financial side of the transaction, especially anyone working in the financial aid or merit aid areas.
Some colleges apparently have some leeway in awarding need based aid.
We are not low income. We aren’t even lower middle class income. When we went to DDs top choice finaid Office, they somehow gave her a Perkins Loan, and federal work study. This was in April…so it wasn’t like we were first in line applying for these limited funded awards either.
It honestly floored us.
I know…the loan was a loan. But we hit the jackpot on that when DD went into the Peace Corps and a good portion of that Perkins was forgiven.
And the work study…well it was a job. And she hit it lucky there…landing a very well laying job in admissions…which had additional funding available for when the WS funds ran out.
So @CValle be open to whatever they have to offer you. Sure we would have preferred a larger grant…but the Perkins and WS really improved our cash flow.
Ask bout subsequent years. Our kid got the Perkins for two years, but not her last two years. Oddly, her WS award just kept getting larger and larger.