<p>By better, I pretty much mean any. I did not receive any merit award, and I am fairly certain that my need based award will be zero as well. I've heard that CMU does sometimes adjust their aid to compete with that of a partner institution. How exactly does this work?</p>
<p>Should i choose to negotiate for better aid, I'm not sure that I will have much to bargain with. The offers from the other schools I got into havent really been spectacular either. The University of Arizona and Arizona State University Honors colleges both have offered me 15k/year for my national merit finalist status. The obvious problems, though, are that neither school is the same caliber as CMU and even if they were, CMU does not participate in the National Merit program. In a similarly iffy case, I was accepted to Rice, but with no merit aid other than the 1k/year that I will receive as a NM finalist.</p>
<p>Do any of you know if the financial aid office will consider the fact that I can attend UofA/ASU for free or Rice for ~= 40k/year, while attending CMU will cost ~= 50k/year? Or will they probably just look at the scholarships i have received, tell me they don't participate in the National Merit program, and leave it at that?</p>
<p>My interviewer told me I could do this as well. Definitely gonna try to negotiate. I got a 15k scholarship to my state school, so maybe i can use that to convince them</p>
<p>Yeah, I heard about this too, this whole “We’ll match any competitor’s FA” deal. And it came from my AP Economics teacher, believe it or not. The thing is, I’m not sure if it applies to state schools - only private ones? Apparently she also says students admitted to programs that CMU is not well-known for, say HSS, will receive better financial aid packages. I don’t think this helps you, bco09, but I was wondering if anyone had any previous experience with this.</p>
<p>Somewhere on the CMU financial aid web pages they have a list of “peer institutions”. You can get an idea of what they mean from that. We went through the process for my S last year and they did bring their offer up to matching. They will want to see the other FA offers.</p>
<p>OK…now we are getting somewhere…my s received a nice package from RPI (merit and loans of 24K/yr) and he has been accepted to CMU as well…how do we go about approaching them for the matching award?</p>
<p>"Our merit-based financial aid strategy is aimed at rewarding the highest quality students. It aids high-quality students from middle-income families who may not have qualified for financial aid if it were awarded solely on the basis of financial need. </p>
<p>We have been open about our willingness to review financial awards to compete with certain private institutions for students admitted under the regular decision plan. Unlike most institutions, the university states these principles openly to those offered first-year admission under the regular decision plan. While early decision students are not eligible to participate in this aid review process, we will meet their full demonstrated need as calculated by the university, and consequently, they will receive consideration for merit-based scholarships. </p>
<p>We use statistical modeling as an aid in the distribution of limited financial aid dollars. It is a strategic tool that helps us pursue our goal of increasing the quality of the student body while using our resources as effectively as possible. This modeling takes into account a student’s intended college major, academic and artistic talents, non-academic talents and abilities, as well as financial need, but does not consider a student’s participation in recruitment activities, such as a personal interview or campus visit. This approach to awarding financial aid is unique to Carnegie Mellon and has not been developed with the aid of any outside consultants."</p>
<p>I don’t expect any of you to know the answer to this, but if you do then please tell:</p>
<p>Will they possibly make an offer to equalize the overall cost of attendance with another institution as part of competing with peer institutions (good for me…)? Or is it entirely based on matching the financial aid amount (not so good for me…)?</p>
<p>When our son was admitted three years ago, he got the FA package showing $0 aid. Somewhere in the brochure in the package was a little paragraph that discussed asking for a “Request for Review of Financial Aid Package”. It’s actually a one page form with that title - time was very short so we asked the FA office to fax us a copy. We faxed it back with a copy of the Penn FA printout from DS’s acceptance there - and ended up with a small grant for all four years. We also submitted an adjustment to DH’s income since it was coming in somewhat less than originally estimated. But the grant was clearly identified as merit and we were not required to ever submit more FA forms. Thank goodness!</p>
<p>Getting accepted is a given. Also you have filed the fafsa and applied for FA. </p>
<p>The question you and they need to discover is at what amount will it take to change your mind. They don’t know who you applied to but they are fairly sure that a state school is your fall back choice. </p>
<p>Let’s assume your CMU EFC is $10,000, and your ASU EFC=$0. You tell CMU that you really like to attend and you got an offer from ASU for $15K, full tuition, you still must come up with room and board. ASU COA is $25k and your true cost is $10K out-of-pocket. </p>
<p>CMU’s COA is $50K. To make your cost to CMU equal to your cost to ASU, Carnegie Mellon must offer you a package of $40,000 per year. Of course everyone would take this offer, but CMU can’t do this. Suppose CMU offers you $20,000; This means that you must come up with another $20,000, and it is assumed that you already have the EFC of $10,000. Your total cost is $30,000. CMU’s offer is still $5000 more than ASU. Can you accept this?</p>
<p>Question: You have to answer whether you can afford $100,000 of loans if you take the $20,000 offer. CMU and everyone else on CC would say that much debt is foolish. </p>
<p>Something you need to keep in mind is that ASU does not guarantee housing after freshman year. CMU guarantees housing for 4 years. </p>
<p>This really is a classical game theory exercise. Nash Equalibrium works extremely well. CMU does not negotiate. It will offer what they think will get you to attend but they know that they can never win or should they win against a full tuition offer from a state school or lesser ranked college. </p>
<p>You may get something but don’t expect to get a whole lot. In our DS case, he did get something with stats similar to yours. We however could afford the full COA.</p>
<p>There is nothing wrong with Arizona or ASU. They are fine schools. My manager is from ASU, my niece is at Arizona, my BIL (sisters hub) has his phD from Arizona.</p>
<p>We did this with our son. Please note that CMU does not guarantee to “match” offers from other schools. What they will do is “consider” other offers.</p>
<p>We too faxed the form, since time was tight, along with a narrative. I don’t suppose they’re looking for a sob story, nor do they want to engage in a bidding war to snag you or your kid. But I don’t think it hurts to let them know you won’t be able to attend without further help. </p>
<p>We faxed financial aid summaries from 2 schools, both private, neither on the peer list (one was Johns Hopkins, I don’t remember the other). They gave him additional $2500 grant (not loan) per year. Doesn’t sound like a whole lot but it is $10,000 over 4 years…actually it was $12,500 since he stayed five years (got a masters) and they kept that grant in force the fifth year too.</p>
<p>It was a joint effort. My S initially called to find out what was needed. Then we called to clear up some questions we had and sent in the request/documentation.</p>
<p>CMU is open review financial awards to compete with certain private institutions for students admitted under the regular decision plan. Make a written petition to the Financial Aid office and enclose copy of the offer from the other University where you feel you have made a better offer. Show your interest in CMU.</p>
<p>So do I really need to have a particular reason (ie, I am living on the streets, please give me more money), or can i just say that i want more money because so and so is giving me this much, and i might be going there instead of cmu if you dont give me money?</p>
<p>I got a very nice package from JHU, and I don’t think I will be as lucky for CMU for some reason, but I really like CMU better…</p>
<p>You do not have to have a specific reason; ask CMU for a copy of the form “Request for Review of Financial Aid Package” and send it with a copy of the JHU package.In fact, one of the options to check on the form is:</p>
<p>__I have applied for financial assistance at Carnegie Mellon. I have attached copies of my scholarship and financial aid offers from other private institutions.</p>
<p>There’s another option to check if you didn’t previously file for aid and have offers from elsewhere.</p>
<p>But JHU is not one of the official peer institutions so it may not get you more money. On our copy of the from from April 2006, it said:
<p>Back when I was doing this stuff I sent in the aid package I had received from RPI, which was considerably better than CMU, and CMU agreed to match it. If they hadn’t, I wouldn’t currently be an alumni. :)</p>