<p>I wanna go to a school that gave me a $4000 but they are in competiton with another school that gave me $12500. Now they dont need to give me $10000 but I need atleast $2000 more from them. I'm writing a letter to the financial aid people. But I dont wanna ask for money I just would like to see if they could give me more. How do you say this in the nicest way possible?</p>
<p>Yes…you ARE asking for them to give you more money. </p>
<p>Politely say that their school is your top choice, but that unfortunately you need additional financial assistance to be able to attend.</p>
<p>Honestly, I would send an email instead of a letter. It allows them to more easily get into a discussion with you that might help your case. If they are truly your first choice, I would let them know that in the letter. But also let them know that a similar school has made cost of attendance $X cheaper than their cost, and you are wondering if they can please review their financial aid offer to see if any more aid is available for you. Tell them the name of the other school in your letter.</p>
<p>HOWEVER, if the other school is not comparable academically (say the school you want to go to is the state flagship and the school with better aid is a state directional), this isn’t going to get you much if any leverage. But it is still worth a try.</p>
<p>Another thing to do in your email is to offer them any additional information on your family’s finances they may not have learned from the financial aid forms. If your family supports other relatives, someone has serious health issues, or there has been a recent change in family financial circumstances (job loss, for example), those types of things give some additional info the financial aid office can work with that might change your FA calculation.</p>
<p>Above all, be respectful and nice in your request. You are asking for more money, and essentially asking them to “bend” their normal FA rules to give you some more. So be polite in asking for help. </p>
<p>Have the offer from the other college scanned in and ready to email to them if they ask for it. One reason I suggest email is because financial aid money does run out, and earlier requests are better because there is more money to be distributed early on at a lot of schools. So don’t waste days on snail mail.</p>