Bargaining for scholarships

call the school and dont really mention the other scholarship.
Just ask Financial aid if that "old" package was the best package they could offer you. Or if scholarships will be added later on or during the summer.

Be discrete about it.

DocNroll said:

Does anyone know if there is a way to "ask for" a scholarship to a school? I received a decent scholarship to one school and was accepted to another ("better") school without a scholarship. I've heard of people using scholarships as bargaining chips to get money from other schools and I was wondering how you might go about asking for money. Would you email the financial aid officer or call them? Thanks!

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It usually works better if both have offered you something. Since the one school is much better, and didn't give you money, you're probably an expendable applicant to them.

chibrown01 said:

call the school and dont really mention the other scholarship.
Just ask Financial aid if that "old" package was the best package they could offer you. Or if scholarships will be added later on or during the summer.

Be discrete about it.

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Quite the opposite. Tell them straight up what you got and the difference in costs is hard to swallow. Ask if they can do anything to help lower the costs.

DrBowtie said:

It usually works better if both have offered you something. Since the one school is much better, and didn't give you money, you're probably an expendable applicant to them.

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^this.

If you do call, be professional about it.

I have a similar question: is sending a financial update letter after the financial package is given inappropriate? I am talking about sending something along the lines of special circumstances (like in the CSS profile) or extenuating debt... ie something to elicit a pity reply?

I mean if it is true, will they have gripes on me about it? I'm a little paranoid considering an acceptance was rescinded because a school didn't receive my credit report. (I sent it in the mail, and have the electronic dates of the credit reports, so I may have possibly appealed). Fortunately I withdrew the same day, right before I checked my mail to discover the rescission.

I would specifically tell them that you would like to attend their school but that the difference in cost is very large because other schools offered scholarship money blah blah blah. Then ask if there are any possible ways that their cost can be offset?