<p>We received notice of our daughter not advancing from a semi finalist to a finalist for a University's most generous merit scholarship. In the same email she was informed that she has been accepted at this school. We are interested in knowing if she is being considered for other merit scholarships. What is the best way to communicate with admissions and who better to initiate the communication? Parent or student? Telephone or email?</p>
<p>Student.</p>
<p>Either one. But the student should read the website thoroughly first to know something about what that U has to offer.</p>
<p>Thank you Happymomof1. Additionally, do you make it known (tactfully) that if merit aid isn’t provided you won’t be attending their school?</p>
<p>There’s no reason to be tactful; say it flat out. This is a business transaction. Treat it as one. She’s already been accepted, so there’s no harm in asking for what she wants. </p>
<p>Yes and my advice would be prepared to answer the question “What is it going to take” and be clear in your mind if this is the uni she will attend if you get what you ask for. I don’t think it is necessarily about being tactful I think its about not being a “player”. You want something from the uni so they will expect something from you. </p>
<p>My daughter was making the contacts regarding admission, but when it came to the money, I had to take over. She just couldn’t, at 16 years old, negotiate what really is a 4 year, $200,000 contract. It was all friendly, but I told the school she couldn’t agree to go there on what had been offered, and they upped the offer just a little to what we needed. It wasn’t a specific scholarship or award, just tweaking the offer.</p>
<p>I’m sure she will be considered for other merit scholarships. They are usually tiered on performance/test information. Good luck to you.</p>
<p>While I usually think that the student should have the contact with the college, when it comes to the finances, I see no problem with a parent handling that. And if it’s true that she will not attend without merit aid, there is no harm in stating so.</p>
<p>Parent should be the one asking the questions by
Email or phone call. Although I think that good negotiators do it by phone. Disclaimer: I am not a good negotiator. </p>
<p>In getting accepted, the college is in the driver’s seat and making the decisions while student tries to get selected. In accepting their acceptance, you are in the driver’s seat and making the decisions while the college tries to get selected.</p>
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<p>Sure, why not? Provided that it’s true. It’s early days yet. Depending on where else she has applied, she might not hear from some schools for another month or more. Does she have other options that you are absolutely sure are available? </p>
<p>Thanks all! She has been admitted early at our State Flagship and has been invired into their Scholars program, (No merit money but some very nice privileges) She is in contention for significant merit at two other schools, she has been notified of such. It is likely there will be two more schools where a decent amount of merit money will be made available as well.
As it relates to the school which was the impetus for this thread, I will interact with admissions as it relates to the financial particulars. I am not sure whether I would do that fairly immediately, (that is my inclination) or to wait until all decisions have been received?</p>
<p>Is this school your D’s clear first choice, or does she prefer one of the others, or does she not have a favorite? Unless it is her first choice, I think at this point you just have to wait until more results are in. You <em>could</em> ask if she is being considered for other merit awards, but I wouldn’t get into any actual negotiation until you have a better picture of what she is being offered at other schools and what this school is initially prepared to offer her. It can indeed be agonizing, but this time of year involves a lot of waiting and agonizing for many, if not most, families of HS seniors. :)</p>
<p>You could, after all, find yourself giving them a bottom line figure that turns out to be LESS than they were actually prepared to offer. :)</p>
<p>BTW, when it comes to the money phase, I think it is absolutely fine and actually expected for the parents to take over.</p>
<p>No, this is not our daughters first choice. It is a very good school and she would definitely be content there but there are several other schools that she would prefer to attend.
I am a bit perplexed with merit money awards. If a school has a particular scholarhip they offer and the set amount for being a recipient of that scholarship is X, additional amounts can be negotiated? I am assuming they can. It is going to be interesting to see how all of this transpires.</p>
<p>Usually you have to indicate that your child WILL enroll if X amount is offered. A school doesn’t want to go to the trouble to get this for your child, only to have you go elsewhere (or use that offer to get a better offer elsewhere).</p>
<p>^^Agree Mom2, that’s what I meant about not being a player. If you’re going to go in and negotiate the cost the only thing you have to dangle is a commitment from the student. If you are ready to make that commitment go for it. </p>
<p>GreatKid, I don’t know about specific competitive scholarships with pre-established terms, but in general I think that schools have a pot of merit money that they can use to entice the students they want. This is a key factor in enrollment management, as is admit/deny.</p>
<p>Let’s say a school is looking at 5 candidates: four are full pay, and the fifth has an EFC of 0 but really high stats for the school. If the COA is $50K, to pick a round number, the school can offer each of the full-pays $10K and collect $160K per year, plus boost their important USN&WR stat of how many of those accepted attend. If they meet the full need of the really high stat kid–let’s call it $43K after fed loans and work study–they may lose the 4 full pays to a peer institution and so take a hit to their stats and coffers simultaneously. So what they may do with the really high stat kid is admit/deny: give him sufficient need-based FA plus merit to cover all but $20K of his need. Either his parents go broke trying to pay it, or he takes out huge loans, or he goes elsewhere. In any case, the school is better off, statistically. Now if one of those full pay students has high stats for the school, or the lacrosse coach wants him on the team, and his family comes back and says “Peer school has given us $15K, but S would rather attend your school. What can you do?” , the school can throw in an additional $5K and win the desired student. </p>
<p>Thanks Consolation! I get it from their point of view/business perspective. I anticipate that it was strategic when our daughter received notification from them that the good news came first, “You have been accepted, congratulations” and they commended her academic accomplishments and then went on to share the bad news as it relates to their most generous scholarship, that she was very highly considered as a semi finalist but the applicant pool was incredibly strong etc. There are other scholarhips that this school offers, I haven’t yet inquired as to whether she is still in contention for them, I would assume she is if she was a semi finalist for their largest scholarship. I have some thoughts as to how I will structure my communication with them.
It is a bit tough knowing how to proceed without knowing what her other acceptances are and what merit packages will be presented to her. She has applied to 15 schools, 10 of which I anticipate we will be full pay at. Four Ivies, 3 top ten LAC’s, 1 top 20 National University. There are 5 schools where it seems likely merit money will be offered. Among those five there is a fairly wide disparity among the schools USNWR’s rankings. I do wonder how a school may view a better merit aid offer from a school they don’t consider to be their academic equivalent. I guess it will depend upon their perspective of how they will benefit either academically or financially.</p>
<p>It sounds like your D has a sufficiently varied list. You’ll just have to wait and see what her acceptances and financial packages look like. </p>