<p>I was wondering if there is any good reason to accept an offer right away instead of waiting until May 1 or the end of April? My son is deciding between a couple of schools and I guess I'm wondering if the schools ever come back with more $ when it gets closer to the deadline?</p>
<p>From what I have seen and heard of the scholarship process, if the schools have come in with their packages already, they aren’t likely on their own to change them. If you have a school where your S may want to go but you feel the package is not enough to allow you to go there, you can appeal the aid package,which includes aid, scholarships, etc. I would recommend contacting the school(s) in question, and appealing the aid package if you want to see if you do better. Note this is simply my experience, but it probably is better to be proactive rather than waiting until may 1st to see if a school decides to change their offer. </p>
<p>My son was offered more for one camp right after he declined. It wasn’t enough, but it was a nice gesture. I’d definitely ask. It can’t hurt. </p>
<p>Could be apocryphal, but a few parents have bragged to me that when they declined an offer for study with a powerful teacher, the school called them back with more scholarship. I have four fairly high-achieving kids and that has certainly never happened to me! (The story always ends with them going to the other school, anyway, so it could be just a tall tale to create the illusion desirable junior is…) If you truly need more money, you should make an appeal, but be prepared to back it up with reasons why you need the help.</p>
<p>OT: I just noticed they’ve reset the editing clock to 15 minutes from one hour. </p>
<p>My fiance’s son is not a music kid, but one of his colleges sent a letter 3 weeks after the first financial aid letter doubling the academic scholarship he got. I think it’s because he applied to a school where the girls outnumber the boys slightly more than 2 to 1. </p>
<p>Just be prepared for it to not be very much. In our case it was a little extra. Definitely not enough but it was a nice gesture. If we don’t get much of an offer for a camp my son wants to attend, I plan on appealing. I didn’t even know one could appeal. </p>
<p>Merit Scholarships are highly negotiable. If the top choice has not quite offered enough and one of their peers has offered a better deal you can go back to #1 with the other offer and ask if they can do better. This should only be done with the #1 choice really since it is implicit that the right number will result in attendance. It also only works if the other school is somewhat comparable to the #1. It also helps if you are filling a particularly desirable gap at #1. If you are, then just asking may be enough too. There are threads from previous years about the process. </p>
<p>We will be reaching out to several schools for more aid. I can’t believe it’s April. S has received several large scholarships and one full ride. The teacher is great but he’s not sure about the school. We’re trying not to pressure him, but money is an issue. S was accepted at 8 schools and also wait listed at one school. He did not get into his first choice despite what he felt was a great audition. Many schools claim to be needs blind but I’m not sure all of them are. </p>
<p>
This is not universally true. Some schools simply cannot do better on merit beyond a cap. It’s true that having offers from schools that are comparable or more selective can be helpful. You should not play one school off against another, however-- schools don’t want bidding wars, and you’d be surprised at how fast news travels. </p>
<p><a href=“A Parents’ Guide to Conservatory Auditions, Part 22: Appealing Financial Aid”>http://www.violinist.com/blog/karenrile/20144/15696/</a> Here’s a recent column on appealing college financial aid decisions.</p>
<p>Great article! In the article it says to target only one school. I actually have been telling my son to contact a couple of schools since he can’t seem to determine a clear favorite, but maybe this is not a good idea. I’m also concerned about sending a copy of an offer to from school A from school B since I worry about them finding out and causing hard feelings. Do they share this information? The music world is VERY small…</p>
<p>Oops I was talking about summer camps.lol. but I still say it can’t hurt to ask.</p>
<p>I agree with GH, I would not send the actual offer from school A to School B, and I would not tell them “match this or my kid is not going there”. It seems appealing, but as others have said, it is a small world and word gets around. What I would do if it were my child, I would get in touch with a school and say “My child is seriously wants to go to your school, but the aid package we got simply is not financially doable for us as a family, and is there anything the school can do to bring the school back into the running”…You don’t want to say “School A gave my son a merit scholarship of 20k, you only gave us 5k, so could you match that”, they likely will balk IMO. It all depends on how much the school wants a student, but IME that kind of appeal generally works better at programs trying to attract a higher level of student then one of the generally recognized 'top programs"…also does depend on need, it may work better for an English horn player than a violinist, least in theory. I think in general GH is right, that if you appeal it likely won’t be a lot of money, I have heard apocryphal stories of kids appealing, and the school rushing to send them huge aid packages and such, and like GH, I am skeptical, if the kid was that good that the school really wanted them they would probably give the aid up front, and if the school is anywhere competitive, odds are that very few kids applying are so incredible that they would do something like this, one of the things to keep in mind is that among the uber competitive programs, most of their kids are probably on the outer edge of the bell curve in terms of ability…</p>
<p>Actually it’s quite the opposite. This is a business, and using other offers as leverage is common practice. In fact most schools that have an appeal process outright ask what your other offers are, and ask you to provide proof. If they want you, it’s important to let them know how in demand you are. Also a lot of schools won’t give aid up front if they don’t think you are going to attend their school. They will wait for you to re-approach them before they send you an offer. It’s definitely a cat and mouse game where everyone is trying to get the most of the deal with the least cost. </p>
<p>Actually a few years ago I was requested to send copies of other offers by a school–so you may need to be prepared to do this. I can understand why they may ask–parents could make up anything they wanted to. </p>
<p>I’m not comfortable playing one school against the other, especially since my son hasn’t decided among the offers. He was so focused on his first and second choice that he hadn’t thought much about the other schools. Second choice is wonderful with a great teacher, but is offering almost no aid or scholarship money so he won’t be able to go there. The other schools are actively courting him. He really is in an enviable position but hasn’t been able to process everything after the initial rejection. Do people typically bump up against the May 1 deadline? We haven’t even received financial aid packages from two of the schools. </p>
<p>We too were asked by the my daughter’s first choice school (and she made very sure that they understood it was her absolute top choice) to provide copies of any merit scholarships awarded to her from other schools. In the end, they did come up with more scholarship $$ (almost double the original offer), but this of course might not happen in your case. Good luck!</p>
<p>^^^ This is what happened for my 4th daughter. It was far and away the best program for her specific interests, but we could not afford it with the original aid package-- a third of what was offered by more competitive schools (more competitive as per ratings, not in my daughter’s estimation: this was her first choice.) The school took a while to respond, but they did finally raise the scholarship and she was able to attend. It’s been the perfect school for her, so I’m glad we made that effort. </p>
<p>Another twist on the merit scholarship front, we had a studio teacher offer son extra $ during a sample lesson and visit but told son he would need to accept it right away or he would offer it to someone else. Fortunately, son replied that he had to discuss all financial issues with his parents and the studio teacher managed to leave the offer open for a week while we decided. </p>