<p>My daughter applied to and has been accepted at 5 schools. The FA packages are very, very different. The quality of the schools is somewhat different. Here is the deal in order of school selectivity (from most selective to least)</p>
<p>School A
Plus Loans 10,000
Grants 6250
Work Study 1850
Stafford 2500</p>
<p>School B
Grants 20,000
Work Study 3,000
Stafford 2,500
Plus Loans 2000</p>
<p>School C (her first choice)
No word yet, but their formula is stingy</p>
<p>School D
President's Scholarship 9,000
Grants 8,000
Stafford 2,500
Plus Loans 3,000</p>
<p>School E
no FA word yet, but not interested</p>
<p>So, question is -- 1.can we use the generous offer of School B to leverage a good offer from school C? 2. Does the offer from school B suggest that they want her a lot? 3. At school A, someone with exactly the same scores, NMS status and grades got 7000 merit, but we did not. Is it worth asking about that?</p>
<p>Depend if the schools are rated simarly. Money from a lower rated school will not help but if they are comparable schools it could help. It also depends on the cost of the school. My D applied to schools from 30,000 to over 40,000, so we expect to get less at the 30,000 one.</p>
<p>There are a lot of factors that go into the granting of merit awards. Though grades and test scores do count, the schools generally use this money to try to "buy" students to fill in what they want for their school community. The very top students generally get good awards, particulary those with high SATs, but after that there is really no pecking order in academic indices. If the school is lopsided M/F and wants more males, guess who is more likely to get the money? If they are a very vanilla school ethnically, they will include that in the equation. If they are trying get a certain department off the ground that is considered. And geographics count as well. Non athletic scholarship schools often provide money through merit to attract the athletic types. </p>
<p>It never hurts to try to negotiate. There are a number of threads discussing this. As the ultimate negotiation, but your student truly must feel this way, you can tell a school you will commit if the offer from school B is met. You should look up the school in the USN:::&WR Ultimate College guide . The financial info section for each school will give you an idea of the type of package you are getting for that school and for the school's academic stats. </p>
<p>I would not count PLUS loans in the package as you can get them on your own for any amount up to COA-aid. If your EFC is not being met, you can address that issue. Good luck in negotiating.</p>