My D has merit offers from two colleges she is deciding between. College A (44% acceptance rate) has offered a couple of thousand less than University B. Uni B (35% acceptance rate) is definitely a more prestigious school. If D decides on College A, is it common for people to ask colleges to match or give better merit offers?
There is also College C, (25% acceptance rate.) This college gave no merit, as D doesn’t have top stats for this school. (Not top stats for Uni B either.) It is quite prestigious, much more than College A, though I am not sure if it is a lot more prestigious than University B. Are we in any position to ask for a financial incentive at all? Do people ever ask if a college can maybe “freeze” tuition for her years at the college? Sorry if this all sounds really ignorant. Insight appreciated.
Merit aid awarding policies vary from school to school. You can ask, but it's very possible that the school with the higher merit aid is simply a place where her stats were higher.
If the college doesn't freeze costs for ALL students, they are not going to freeze the costs for you.
My friend asked for more money at a private school, and she got a little bit more. I have another friend who asked for more money at an OOS state school and she got an additional $3000. I have never heard of anybody asking to have their tuition frozen, however it certainly does not hurt to ask. The worst they can say is no. Good luck!
Thanks for the responses. @thumper1 , her stats are highest at College A, above the 85% percentile. I was amazed that Uni B gave her more than College A. I am a bit clueless about this aspect of college admissions. I don’t know if College A simply offered what they could.
I guess at College C, she has no leverage then, even if Uni B is probably pretty close to that school in terms of prestige? Again, not sure. Happy to make an idiot out of myself on CC, but don’t want to do it at the college my kid might attend:-)
We submitted an appeal of our financial aid package to our daughter’s top choice. We mentioned our older son’s mental illness and included FA offers from two state schools in Maine. We were happy that they gave our daughter an additional $4,100 per year in scholarships (total of $30,600 in scholarships / year). She’s a good student, but not outstanding. It can’t hurt to ask!
Oh, the other thing I should have mentioned is that it’s always a good idea to talk to an FA person at the school. The woman we spoke to told us that the school has a small music scholarship for kids who play instruments well but who are NON-music majors! In addition to the annual stipend, the student gets free weekly lessons every semester. My daughter is going to submit a video of herself playing jazz piano - I hope she gets the award.
Thanks @MaineLonghorn . Do YOU think there is any chance that we could use the offer from Uni B to perhaps get a little money from College C,which I think is going to be her top choice (changing by the hour over the last couple of days though:-)
Yes, I think it’s worth a shot. On this school’s form to request additional FA, they had a box to check off about having received a better package from another school.
Our financial advisor told us that he was practically shameless when his daughters were applying to college. He called the school over and over again. He called the FA department, admissions, individual academic departments. He ended up getting a good bit more aid than was first offered.
Rather than ask them to “match” what another school offered, I would recommend that you “appeal” the FA award. Provide the FA Office with some information that they did not have and tie it to a need for a little more in an award.
The results will vary from school to school. Some school have very limited aid and have no room to move, others have more room to maneuver. Don’t come across as “threatening” to go elsewhere, but rather give them something on which to hang their hat. Best of luck.
@glido I wouldn’t ever threaten, and I would not ask until she tells us it is her top choice. Do you recommend emailing or speaking with someone? @MaineLonghorn i don’t know about a form. Is there usually a form to fill out when doing things like this at private colleges?
My daughter’s school had one titled “Financial Aid Re-Evaluation Request.” It stated, “Please indicate the primary reason(s) for your request for re-evaluation.” Choices included “financial circumstances,” “circumstances other than financial,” “competing financial aid or scholarship offer,” and “another institution without a competing financial aid offer.” After checking the appropriate box or boxes, we had to attach supporting documentation.
Instead of comparing how much aid each school has awarded your daughter, you should be looking at the net cost of each school. If the one offering more aid is a higher priced school, there would be little reason for another school to match it if their net cost is lower already.
@hoosiermom thanks for pointing that out. I didn’t think of that. They are all pretty similar, give or take a couple of thousand dollars here and there, but it suddenly makes Uni B’s offer a little less attractive.
I have heard of people successfully appealing financial aid offers, but merit is a different thing as many schools have set levels of merit. So you get the X scholarship or the Y scholarship but not necessarily a customized scholarship. But hey, it’s worth a try. Not sure if it is advisable to quote acceptance rates/prestige. That may be a turn off to the schools and may not even be accurate for this cycle. But if they are now hearing from students who are turning down offers, they may have some extra money to go around.
Thanks @wisteria100 , I only mentioned acceptance rates here because I don’t know if “selectivity” of a school has any bearing on whether they might up an offer. As in, lower ranked school feels they need to match a more generous offer when a higher ranked school is the competition.
Linda- don’t put too much hope on the whole “lower ranked vs. higher ranked” taxonomy at this stage of the game. Schools can’t give out money they don’t have. So even if- theoretically- a college would LOVE to up their award, you may be dealing with a “well is dry” situation. It would be lovely if every college tried to match or outdo every other college in their ranking neighborhood, but it doesn’t work that way.
Yes, understood blossom. Thanks! I am certainly not counting on any extra money, especially from the school that didn’t give her any in the first place.
Just sent an email to one of the similiar SLACs that my son was accepted to. Two came out at nearly the same cost when subtracting institutional awards (merit+need) from direct cost. The third came out $4000 higher. I emailed the higher school and asked about an appeal. The higher school was fully need based. They said they would not consider a school to school comparison, but would consider medical expenses and a tax issue we had. Then they sent us the forms we needed for both.