I have been accepted to three schools: two PA state schools, plus Penn State, which is my top choice. The two state schools have offered me fully paid tuition, so I would only have to pay for room and board and meal plans and such. If I tried to bargain with Penn State with my financial aid package, would they be able to help me out at all? I haven’t gotten the package yet (I was just accepted a few days ago) but I want to know my chances with aid from them.
Not likely, IMO. But give it a go and see if you can maybe get a bit more. PSU simply does meet full need most of the time and does not have to do so to get the students it wants. Those other colleges may feel they have to do so. If your are “hot” enough stuff for PSU to pay for you, maybe. But I’ve yet to see that other than in athletic awards. They just don’t tend to pay for academic merit in terms of full tuition or big awards.
PSU = gives lousy aid
What are those two other schools?? Likely they’re not peer schools. Temple gives out a lot of tuition awards. PSU isn’t going to care.
PSU doesn’t have to give out great aid…it has enough people who will pay.
The other two schools are West Chester and Kutztown.
Would it make more sense for me to ask for aid from the specific school I was accepted to within the university? I was accepted into the College of Arts and Architecture as a Music Education major…would the college itself be able to do more?
Doubt it would make any difference, but go on ahead and try. I’ve known kids who have tried to get PSU to counter with a Pitt award and it didn’t happen. They just don’t work that way. But talk to the fin aid office, admission and the specific schools and see if they can come up with anything more for you. What is your Family EFC ? Have you run the estimators or filled out your FAFSA and gotten your SAR which would give you the actual EFC?
I haven’t been able to do the FASFA or get my EFC, but its going to be very low…single dad working part-time, and not a lot saved up, while putting another child through college.
Why don’t you run the numbers through an EFC calculator so you have some basic info? You did not get financial aid packages from Kutztown or Westchester but merit money since you did not even submit the FAFSA yet. So find out what your need actually is. Run the numbers through the schools’ (all three of them NPCs) to see how they come out. You are not even close to being able to discuss this intelligently when you have no idea what you got the money for, that you mix need and merit and have no idea what your EFC is. Get you info together or your chances are zilch you can even discuss this reasonably.
Ok, thanks so much for the help! 
Congratulations in getting full tuition awards. That is quite an achievement, especially 2X over.
PSU isn’t going to care that those 2 schools gave you such nice awards (congrats on them).
You can ask the depts, but likely they don’t have the funds.