Negotiating merit scholarships?

Paying for College
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<p>I just got acceptance letters to Earlham & to Seton Hall, both good schools - but both pretty hefty. Earlham is offering me $12,500 a year; Seton Hall is offering me $22,000 a year. I'm not expecting any realistic amount of financial aid - just being realistic here (our tax bracket is pretty high, frankly), but my parents are only paying the price of their preferred state university tuition, sans room & board (around $8,000). </p>

<p>For comparison: I have a 3.65 GPA, great letters of recommendation, good & consistent extracurriculars with some leadership positions in there, and I was just certified as having one of the top 5,000 SAT scores in my state (2087 - not sure how the 7 happened, but oh well!) Do I have a shot at negotiating a merit scholarship up a bit? If so... how would I do that, and what is the procedure - would I ask the financial aid office for a review, or would I contact admissions? Has anyone here successfully negotiated a merit scholarship, or is it just a bad idea to even try?</p>

<p>It's not that I'm not grateful for the offered merit - it's just that in this economy, I really don't want to be $80,000 to $100,000 in debt at the end of undergrad when I'm definitely getting a Master's, and may go for a PhD in Psychology and then intern for a year... that's a recipe for financial disaster.</p>

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<p>You are far more fortunate than many, many college seniors. Your parents are willing to pay $8000 per year, and Seton Hall is giving you $22,000. </p>

<p>That means that you are about $10,000 short. You can borrow $5,500 in direct student loans. A summer job or part time job would help you come up with a large portion of that other $4.5K. Do you have any savings?</p>

<p>No one WANTS to end up with school loans, but for the majority of students, it is necessary to take the direct loans. It isn’t Seton Hall’s problem that your parents are unwilling (sounds like they might be able) to pay more for your education.</p>

<p>You can always ask, but you are being unrealistic. You have a very generous offer.</p>

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<p>I realize I am more fortunate than many.</p>

<p>In total, considering all fees and not even counting the meal plan if I choose to get one, I’m actually around 15-20,000 short. While I will be working this summer, I have no savings; what I had was used on applications to college and the costs of actually sending transcripts from my high school. </p>

<p>The reason I’m asking is that I do have friends who are frankly way better off financially than me, with good qualifications but not as good as mine, who ended up getting full rides from universities more prestigious than Seton Hall with absolutely no connections. I’m not sure what strings were pulled there, but they weren’t the conventional ones, and I do know one person who negotiated up to 30,000 from a 20,000 (again, with slightly fewer qualifications than me.) I figure it didn’t hurt to check around and see if it was an option.</p>

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<p>Much depends on the particular U involved and how much the U really WANTS the particular student. The only thing we did to try to slightly increase S’s merit award was to share with the target U how much competing U was offering to award our S in merit award. They said they don’t negotiate but did increase S’s merit award the exact amount that competing school offered.</p>

<p>If you’re $15-20K short every year, does that mean you’re $60-80K short in total? That would be WAY too much debt to take on. If you can’t get more of a commitment from your folks and/or U, I’d really carefully and quickly examine less costly options, like your in-state flagship U and perhaps consider choosing a dream U for grad school.</p>

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<p>Do you have a more affordable option? This seems a LOT of loans to me.</p>

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<p>Yes, it does mean I am 60-80K short in total, unfortunately, when you take in the extra hidden costs everyone pays like book fees, etc, that add up.</p>

<p>I do have a more affordable option - a nearbye state U - already accepted me. I could live at home and commute, but frankly, that’s not an ideal environment for me at this point in time. Parents will pay tuition, I pay room and board (which is MORE than tuition… a little weird) but I can probably mostly squeeze that out this summer if I end up with a few small scholarships from my high school. Total costs would be juuust about $17,000 for freshman year with me responsible for half of it, unless the U decides to grant merit aid, which is still a possibility (they continue granting it into September… a little odd). </p>

<p>It’s just that this university is right in my home county (not a plus for me, I’ve had more than enough of it), and while the programs are GOOD, they’re not exceptional. My parents really want me to attend the state school and live at home. I’ve applied to the honors college at the state U, haven’t heard back yet…</p>

<p>My only issue is that there’s a very real possibility I want to work for the government in cyberdefense, psychology, or translation and diplomacy. If I choose to go the third route, my dream job would be working for the UN. Seton is right there and has several former students/faculty there as well as internships, AND there’s that 4+1 program to get a Master’s in 5 years (likely less for me, what with a ton of AP credits expected to be amassed by the end of May.) </p>

<p>Would an alright state U get me into a dream grad school, assuming I continue a similar level of achievement in undergrad as I have in high school? (Dream grad schools would be Stanford, Brown, NYU, possibly Seton. I plan to pursue a PhD if I go into psychology, so I’m looking at fellowship rates, etc etc.)</p>

<p>I don’t know. I’m really just stressing over this and trying to determine what’s best.</p>

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<p>Here goes some parental honesty. Very few schools give full rides and I honestly doubt the people you know with lower stats than yours got a full ride, sounds like a well spun story(on their part). My D’s stats are considerably better than yours and she received Full tuition at an OOS State flagship and very generous scholarships at several privates but nothing close to a full ride. You can call and ask for a bump in your scholarship, but I doubt you will see anything more than a 5k, maybe 10K, increase…still leaves you with a lot of debt.</p>

<p>Graduate schools care about test scores, gpa and if possible undergrad research. The schools you mentioned I believe would need higher than a 3.65 and higher test scores.</p>

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<p>If you go to instate U you could save up your money and maybe go
To grad school or do a summer internship at UN. Do NOT take on crushing debt that will limit your option going forward.</p>

<p>Our S’s merit award only went up $2500 or so a year, and they really wanted S. it made the school more affordable</p>

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<p>I have been accepted to some nice schools with merit money, 20-27K, and then I have been accepted to a fabulous state university, with OOS tuition, and no merit money at all. Can I negotiate or ask for money, at all, at the fabulous university, or am just suppose to be “glad I was accepted?”.</p>

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<p>bagirl, You can try but state schools generally won’t negotiate with OOS students. They depend on the tuition differential OOS students bring.</p>

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<p>“I’m actually around 15-20,000 short.”</p>

<p>If so, that school simply isn’t affordable. Living in the dorms at your state flagship sounds like your best bet.</p>

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<p>@Longsx3: This was the son of a family friend. I was there when the letter was opened. I saw the acceptance package; I saw the letter (acceptance, then aid). Yes, it was a full ride. I realize how rare they are, but there you are, I guess some people just get really lucky?</p>

<p>@Hanna: My state flagship is tops, but I got no merit aid there either as well as no FA. I’d be around $13,000 minimum in debt per year there as well (assuming I get the cheapest dorms, cheapest meal plan - which is required, and spend absolutely nothing on transportation), and that’s assuming tuition won’t go up at all (which it will)… </p>

<p>Full disclosure: One of the state Us I was accepted to (Millersville University, for the record) is one that I would graduate from with extremely minimal debt to, possibly, no debt at all. It’s decent, I’d likely be in the honors college, I’d have some really nice study-abroad options if I went into diplomacy/languages, and I’d likely get out with a bachelor’s in 3 1/2 years considering my AP courses. The thing is, while decent, it’s certainly not the flagship, and I’m not sure about my chances at a “dream” - or even decent - grad school. Everyone that I’ve asked and everywhere that I’ve looked have said completely different things about how much universities weight where you got your bachelor’s - it matters a ton, it doesn’t matter too-too much, it matters but not to the point that it’ll make or break you if you’ve got great everything else. It makes me nervous - how much does undergrad school REALLY matter, honestly? Not performance - obviously that matters a lot - but the name of the school itself? (I know it differs from field to field, but on average.)</p>

<p>At this point, would the state U with minimal to no debt be my best bet?</p>

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<p>It’s a tough go when you are in high school and it seems like everyone is going away to school and getting all of these great deals. Whatever your friend or anyone else gets is not a in issue for you, though if you want to take a gap year, and try again as your academic profile is much better than some students who got such great deal, that can be an idea. The fact of the matter is that the world is not fair. Some of us get better parents, richer households, and some of us get into better choices of schools. </p>

<p>In my opinion a state U with minimal to no debt is your best bet. It does not look like you can count on your parents to be helping you out a whole lot when you get out of school, as indicated by how much they are willing to fund what you want right now. If you have a whole lot of debt, you are going to be stuck living at home while paying it off and depending on work prospects locally. If you graduate debt free, you’ll have a lot more options at age 22. It’s still not going to be easy. My own kid will testify to that, but at least every dollar they make is their own and not going to pay back their college costs. </p>

<p>I like Seton Hall, and know some kids who went there. To go into debt to go there is not a good idea Millersville is a perfectly fine university. Very pretty, I understand, from those who have gone there, and a good education can be had. I have a lot of family members who went to these smaller PA state schools, Clarion, Slippery Rock, West Chester, and that has not been a hinderance to their objectives at all, and in some cases, the smaller environment contributed to the likelihood of success. Your flagship schools are the most expensive in the country for their own state residents. </p>

<p>All you can do at this point is do the numbers and see what the final results are. If your parents are giving you a limit on what they can pay, you have a commitment from them as to what they will pay. A lot of over optimistic parents have rah rahed their kids into expensive decisions and then could not come up with money that they told their kids not to worry about Your parents seem to have taken the financial commitment part of this seriously which is a big plus for you.</p>

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<p>Another great advantage to choosing a school where you can go mostly debt-free is that you will be able to spend more time and resouces on internships, which can be a great boost in your marketability when its time to find a job and/or go to grad school. The $60-80K+ total over 4 years is a BAD idea; they should be taken off the table. If you really don’t like your affordable option, a gap year and reapplication is a possibility, especially if the school that offered you nearly a full-ride will keep the offer on the table for another year.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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Studies I have seen show the place where you get your UG degree is not nearly as important as the person. YOU define how you do in the end. If you have drive you will rise in the end.</p>