My friend recently got her financial aid reward letter from her #1 school of choice. Her estimated yearly cost of attendance before student loans is about $16,000. After loans it’s about $11,000. She’s able to save up about $4,000, so she needs the cost after loans to come down about $7,000.
I know private schools have a lot of discretionary funding. How lenient are they on average? If she were to have them “compare” the financial aid letter to another institution, how likely are they to match it by $7,000?
Private schools do not always have discretionary funding, especially if they do not have a large endowment and their financial model relies on tuition funds. She can ask the other institution if they have additional funds to offer, but the answer might be no.
Yes people have reported that working and reported that not working. I must be a school they consider a peer. And it should be need aid, not merit aid. If she wants to attend the more expensive one, she has to let them know it is her first choice and she will commit if they meet that.