Mom2boys Posted March 13, 2019 Share Posted March 13, 2019 Has anyone successfully negotiated for a tuition reduction or additional merit money? Ds's second choice school is offering significantly more (as in double) the merit and talent money of his first choice school. We'd like to get more from his first choice school as that is the only way we can afford to send ds there. Any advice for us on negotiating with school #1? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arch at Home Posted March 13, 2019 Share Posted March 13, 2019 We have not been successful. When we asked, we were told that the only way we could get more was if we had a significant change in our financial situation which we did not. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted March 13, 2019 Share Posted March 13, 2019 You can always try. Sometimes you can get more (but maybe not what you want), but some places don't budge. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teachermom2834 Posted March 13, 2019 Share Posted March 13, 2019 We went to an admissions event at one LAC and the admission head talked about this and said "don't even try to play another school's offer against ours because we don't match the competition." Though...they aren't going to rescind admission if you try, I am sure. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanny Posted March 13, 2019 Share Posted March 13, 2019 You can file a Financial Aid Appeal. Possibly they will increase the aid. If you don't do that, then you have their Final offer. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted March 13, 2019 Share Posted March 13, 2019 A couple of old threads about this (found in the pinned thread on the top of this board): How do you ask for more money? Tactfully asking for more award $ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoodGrief Posted March 14, 2019 Share Posted March 14, 2019 (edited) My daughter's brother in law had an exceptionally successful financial aid appeal at Yale, but it involved a complicated personal situation that wasn't readily clear in typical financial aid paperwork One of my daughter's schools matched the offer from another similar school on appeal. Edited March 14, 2019 by GoodGrief 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tree Frog Posted March 14, 2019 Share Posted March 14, 2019 My oldest DD was third in her class of over 700 and was about a hundredth of a point behind number 2. We asked dd's school of choice if they would give her the additional aid they offer the salutatorian and they did. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't very much. But it solidified her desire to attend that school. Her school was a private school We tried unsuccessfully at younger dd's public school of choice. I would think you would have better luck at a private school as they seem to have more flexibility in how they award their money than the public schools do. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoggirl Posted March 14, 2019 Share Posted March 14, 2019 Are they peer institutions? And what “level”/“type” of institution are we talking about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted March 14, 2019 Share Posted March 14, 2019 If you look at College Navigator under Net Price for the schools you can see how much is normally paid by families in different income bands. I would start there. It could be that one school just doesn't give as much aid. If your financial situation changed from the tax year used for financial aid, you can file an appeal. You will need to submit specific info to support an appeal like receipts for medical expenses or evidence of change in income. You can try to negotiate bases on another offer, but these happen less often. A negotiation should be done by the student not the parent. Parents can and should be involved in an appeal based on the assessment of family need. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted March 14, 2019 Share Posted March 14, 2019 Podcast 103 might be helpful. https://www.collegeessayguy.com/podcast 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom2boys Posted March 15, 2019 Author Share Posted March 15, 2019 Thanks so much for all the good advice. DS did make an appeal by phone this morning, and was turned down. But he is glad he tried, and they gave him props for calling himself, versus having his parents call. This particular school is notorious for giving very little aid, and we knew that going in, so we weren't surprised by the outcome. It was important to ds to know that he had tried everything possible to attend this school, and now he has the peace of knowing he did everything he possibly could. So, onward and upward. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted March 15, 2019 Share Posted March 15, 2019 Wow, VERY good for him for calling! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty ethel rackham Posted March 16, 2019 Share Posted March 16, 2019 Very good for him calling! Dd tried with her school and they said the same thing. "Kudos to you for doing this yourself. But no." But, when she was undecided where to go a week before the commitment deadline, they ponied up a few thousand more per year. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lanny Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 This morning, I read 2 articles on my phone from ShumskyCenter.com They were in my Google Feed. I think I'd read one of them several months ago. They were written in 2016 and 2017. One of them said the average tuition discount in private universities was 48.3% That may or may not be true, and I assume it varies with the school and with the student involved, but it is IMO worth asking for a discount. This is one of the URLs I sent to my DD: http://shumskycenter.com/top-10-college-admissions-mistakes/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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