I currently hold multiple acceptances, and I know sometimes the scholarships/aid you receive from one school can be used to some degree to barter with another school for more aid. I have two questions about this: first, how often does that actually help? I assume most schools only have a limited amount of money to disperse, so it seems like if school A heard I got scholarships at school B, it would have little impact on how much money school A can give out. Any experience with this? Second question is more of an ethical one: if I already know I don’t want to attend a certain school (call it school C), how unethical is it for me to hold on to that acceptance just for potential scholarship/financial aid negotiations? I’m leaning towards just giving up the seat now so someone else can have it; I don’t want to be the reason someone doesn’t go to medical school. Thanks for any help!
Holding multiple acceptances for aid opportunities?
- Thread starter ranne13
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9
965978
You’ll never be the reason someone else doesn’t get into med school. You’ll have to give up all seats except one by April 30.
Okay, sure. I’ll correct myself and say I don’t want to be the reason someone thinks they aren’t going to medical school until the last minute. It’s not considerate of others to wait until April 30th.
9
965978
I agree with you on that.
Unless these schools are very top, and school C is on the level of UPenn/Stanford, it has a low chance of working out into a scholarship/grant aid.
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Looks like OP was accepted to 3 schools (all in FL?). It is completely reasonable (and in fact wise) to hold onto these 3 acceptances while you investigate all financial aid possibilities and go to second looks if needed to learn more about fit, curriculum, etc. You can certainly let school A know that school B offered you $$$X, especially if you prefer school A. But it is not likely that these schools are going to be able to increase their offer to any particular applicant. If their financial aid offer is not generous enough for you to select their school, they will just fill your spot with someone else. Once in a while, an applicant provides much needed diversity or tippy top scores, or something else, and admissions will work with financial aid office to increase the offer somehow, but this is the exception not the rule.
(I have urged some of the tippy top applicants on SDN, holding onto 10-14 spots, including WL spots that they definitely would not take, to release asap. I heard from a couple of these students directly that they were waiting bc they did not want to "hurt the feelings" of the ADCOM staff who were so nice to them and accepted them. While certainly kind of them, it seems like it is more important to help out their other applicant peers by releasing A's and WL spots as soon as they know they are not interested, and not worry at all about hurting the ADCOM members' feelings).
(I have urged some of the tippy top applicants on SDN, holding onto 10-14 spots, including WL spots that they definitely would not take, to release asap. I heard from a couple of these students directly that they were waiting bc they did not want to "hurt the feelings" of the ADCOM staff who were so nice to them and accepted them. While certainly kind of them, it seems like it is more important to help out their other applicant peers by releasing A's and WL spots as soon as they know they are not interested, and not worry at all about hurting the ADCOM members' feelings).
