She has been invited to the scholarship weekend to compete for more money. To me that would seem to be her best shot of gaining more.
Actually she should meet with admissions because that is where the merit $ would come from. I would also have D see her GC and ask if the gc can call admissions at Hendrix as the aisdions rep would probably tell gc why your D got the merit money she got. Gc could then ask how can your D get the next level of merit ( d may need to retest for a higher score or send in mid year grades)
I tried this with two colleges that have fairly similar stats. D, of course, likes the one offering $5,000 less merit per year. I emailed the admissions counselor we met with on a visit and told her about the competing offer and how much D liked the admission counselor’s school better, felt it would be a great fit, etc. I was told to send in her first semester grades and that we might qualify for other financial need money if no more merit money were available. So we’re in limbo now waiting for first semester to be over this week, and them to review the FAFSA, which I completed this weekend.
Yep, I wouldn’t get hung up on the peer school thing (which somehow has become conventional wisdom on CC; strange).
Some schools are willing to give more money. Some schools aren’t. Some schools are willing for some kids but not others. It’s very idiosyncratic and dependent on the school, how much they want a kid, etc.
As I mentioned before, years ago, some kid got UChicago to add some merit money on top of her fin aid to match the costs at her (run-of-the-mill) state school after a big merit award there. I’m pretty certain that the UofC doesn’t consider any public with an acceptance rate above 50% as a peer.
“The worst that can happen is that they say they cannot give more…but what if they say “Yes!””
Right. I’d wait until you have their final offer. Then go ahead and try to negotiate politely. I’ve never heard of an offer being withdrawn or reduced because the family asked for more.
Make sure you convey that she would attend Hendrix if the offer was upped.
@Hanna: “I’ve never heard of an offer being withdrawn or reduced because the family asked for more.”
This did happen with some friends whose child got some money from Emory; when the family went back and asked for more money, with whatever information they had (grades, competing offers, I don’t recall), Emory then offered them slightly less than the first offer. The family ended up taking the lessened offer, because Emory was their child’s top choice, but they weren’t very happy about it.
Back in 2006 when S had applied to colleges, he was offered slightly more at Santa Clara U than his 1st choice, USoCal and we told the admissions counselor and dean of engineering about the slightly higher merit offer & showed them a copy of it. They do compete for some of the same students and while they said they don’t match offers, they did increase S’s offer to just the same amount that he was offered from SCU, making it more affordable and easier for us all to chose his preferred choice, USoCal.
I too did hear of one family who got less after they told the U that they had received higher offers from other Us, even tho their 1st choice was the target U. They did end up at one of the other Us, so it isn’t totally without danger to mention the higher offer. For most students, it is worth at least mentioning, especially if it is a 4 year renewable merit award.
“Emory then offered them slightly less than the first offer”
Wow, that’s some Godfather-style negotiating. My first offer, I pay you $10k to do what I want. My second offer, I pay you $1000 to do what I want.