<p>Hi. I am a new poster but I have read a lot of other threads. </p>
<p>My D has be accepted to a few schools and has received a small talent scholarship from one of them. We have not heard any financial info from the other schools yet. I would prefer not to name the school or the amount of the scholarship if that is okay with you all.</p>
<p>I want to see if more scholarship money available for her, since this school is her first choice and even with the scholarship it is more expensive than her second choice. Is it appropriate for my D to contact the studio professor? The professor did tell her to let him know if there was anything he could do to help her with the process, so he opened the door. But talking about money is seems like something I should do. I am not sure how comfortable she would be with the idea of talking money...but who knows, maybe she would be okay with it.</p>
<p>I will leave to others the specifics of “how to.” I work in academia (not in music) and it is common, indeed expected, that (1) accepted students will ask for more aid, both based on need but also based on merit and (2) accepted students will play one school’s scholarship off against another. I know it sounds distasteful but everyone understands that higher education is very expensive and that getting the best students means that we may have to pay for it. The school will not be surprised to hear from you. The worst thing that could happen (especially if you are nice about it) is that the school will say no.</p>
<p>I do think that it is better for you to deal with this rather than your daughter. Kids of 17 or 18 are even more uncomfortable about such things than we parents are. And you don’t want to affect the relationship that your daughter will have with her professors and administrators.</p>
<p>Linde is right. And I did not understand this until my third child. I would suggest that your daughter contact the teacher explaining that she is very excited about the school and his teaching, but that it is a financial hardship for the family so her parents will be writing to ask for a re-evaluation of her merit scholarship. She can ask if the teacher will be willing to support her, and leave it at that. Then the parents need to prepare the letter. It will be a stronger case if you have higher scholarships from comparable institutions, so you might want to wait until all awards are in. Good luck!</p>
<p>Thank you both. That was what I was thinking. I guess I did not realize I was supposed to write a letter and formally request a reevaluation of the award. I thought all I needed to do was to call the school.</p>
<p>I like the idea of having my D sending an email to the professor in order to give him a heads up. That gets her involved in the process and at the same time does not make her responsible.</p>
<p>When we went through this last year, the professors went to the financial aid committees to support our request. In one case, it was effective and in the other case the professor did not succeed. I don’t think you need to write a formal letter so much as send an email to see if there is a formal process for re-evaluation. (I like email because there is a written trail, although a phone call is certainly quicker.) Last year, even though we were requesting re-evaluation of merit awards, we did create a detailed statement of expenses (tuition for other kids, etc., stuff that does not show up in the FAFSA.)</p>
<p>Should she contact the professor now and start the process or should we wait to hear from the other schools? #2 choice said we will have the info in about a week.</p>
<p>We were successful when we had the $$ from others in hand. Then we went back to #1 choice. They increased the amount though they did not match the other. The schools need to be comparable.</p>
<p>Agreed. You are more likely to get an increase in aid if the school genuinely believes it may lose your daughter. That could mean simply that the cost is prohibitive or it could mean that the school has competition. I would wait to hear from the other school unless you have a compelling reason to act quickly. The week won’t make a difference if she doesn’t get in to the second school, I think.</p>
<p>Okay, so she got the letter from #2 choice. This one is the in state state school. The scholarship came in significantly higher. She would be able to go to #2 choice for about 10k a year less then #1 choice. I guess it is time to contact #1 choice.</p>
<p>Now that we’re through this years decision/scholarship process, I wanted to post some of things we found out for next year’s music majors. We found that each school that son visited after he was accepted did increase the amount of the talent scholarship offered during his sample lesson. In retrospect, I wish we had revisited two of his favorite schools that came in with much higher but still nice packages. Also, waiting close to the end of the decision process seems to have inspired the extra largess since they had a better idea who was accepting and what their ensemble needs would be for the coming year.</p>
I would suggest that your daughter contact the teacher explaining that she is very excited about the school and his teaching, but that it is a financial hardship for the family so her parents will be writing to ask for a re-evaluation of her merit scholarship. She can ask if the teacher will be willing to support her, and leave it at that. Then the parents need to prepare the letter. It will be a stronger case if you have higher scholarships from comparable institutions, so you might want to wait until all awards are in. Good luck!</p>