<p>I'm a reporter for The Daily Princetonian covering an interesting story. (Please see last paragraph for info on contacting me about this.)</p>
<p>Two Yale students recently gave speeches at their high school about what they called "financial aid leveraging." This process involves getting into a school that is known for generous financial aid, like Princeton, and then using that offer to then get the other schools where you were accepted to match the package.</p>
<p>This has evidently worked for several students at Yale, who had taken their Princeton financial aid documentation from their acceptance letter and got an equivalent offer from Yale, often amounting to a savings of $15,000-20,000 over four years.</p>
<p>My question to everyone on College Confidential is, is this something that you would consider doing, and is it the right thing to do to get better financial aid?</p>
<p>Is this unfair to other people applying to financial aid at say, Yale, who don't have an offer from Princeton and can't get the Yale financial aid office to lower their amount?</p>
<p>If this causes students who would have loved to attend Princeton to lose out to someone with better stats who is using Princeton solely to get better aid somewhere else, is that right?</p>
<p>If you are interested in giving us responses to appear in an article in tomorrow's issue of The Daily Princetonian, please e-mail <a href="mailto:news@dailyprincetonian.com">news@dailyprincetonian.com</a> with your contact information and a reporter will get in touch with you shortly.</p>
<p>Haha...the Princetonian...I'm Asian, am I allowed to respond?</p>
<p>But no, seriously, that is something I would consider doing and I don't consider it unethical at all. An acceptance and FA package is called a financial aid/admission "offer" for a reason. If Yale wants a student, they should be willing to compete with other colleges for that student. That student isn't "using Princeton"--I can guarantee you, no one applies to Princeton with the sole intention of using them as FA leverage for Yale.</p>
<p>I hadn't really thought of this. I applied to a lot of schools, and think that it will come down to money in a big way. I thought I read somewhere that Ivies matched financial aid offers from other schools, but then thought I was going crazy. If It so happens that I get a generous offer from one of my schools, I will definately give this a try.</p>
<p>Here are my thoughts.
1. Princeton has a waiting list, so if people who get in later don't matriculate, that really doesn't hurt anyone. Princeton expects this, that's why there is a waiting list in the first place.
2. If the students are good enough to get into both places, congratulations to them. They deserve the right to bargain for more financial aid. This basically is a form of merit aid.
3. A few thousand dollars to a few people (<20 every year I assume) really doesn't affect what packages other students get. So if the students don't hurt others, why not help themselves?</p>
<p>Let me add a twist to this question. If you are admitted EA and the Yale financial aid office says you don't qualify for need based aid, can you leverage into some aid at all? In terms of total dollars this might same amount of money, but it means that Yale would have to violate its no merit aid policy. This was a question that came to mind when it became obvious that some CCers who were admitted to their first choice college EA were still filling out other applications.</p>
<p>Dang, maybe I should have applied to Princeton. </p>
<p>Everyone here always told me that such "bargaining" never works. But even if it did, it wouldn't be a disadvantage to other kids. I don't think the school goes into financial aid saying "ok, we have $3,723,456 to spend on aid this year". It's not a zero sum game, I don't believe.</p>
<p>They couldn't just have one sum, especially since not everyone who is accepted goes, and they are need blind. They have more than enough money which is why I would have no problem asking for more.</p>
<p>I got into Yale EA, and i wouldn't have a problem with telling Yale what FA other colleges are giving me. I can't force the financial aid office to do anything, but if they see that another college thinks i should get aid, they might reconsider their decision. Especially if it's an offer from a certain school i'm applying to that wins most of their cross admits with yale...</p>
<p>It does work at times, and it did for my D. I contacted our H FA officer and asked for a review. I told him I thought they might have missed something in our package as several peer institutions made better offers. I included scans of the FA letters from several schools including HYP and several of the top LACS. FA was improved by $3000+.</p>
<p>I don't see how it's unfair. The evaluation of Financial Aid is definitely subjective and it really shouldn't be if all schools claim to be meeting "need." I am strongly considering all the schools I applied to, and I'd be happy at all of them. I'd be lying if I said aid won't be a factor... if I get a better offer from one school than from another, I will probably send copies of that letter and hope they all match it.</p>
<p>Mallomar is right, in general: very few people apply to the very best colleges (HYPS) for Financial Aid for "leverage" alone. But some do, and they also apply to top LACs, Caltech, MIT, etc - those people tend to be among the top hundred or so candidates in their year, confident of admission, probably future leaders of the free world. =)</p>