Scholarship Negotiation

Started by Lovebox
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Lovebox

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I was fortunate to get into two schools as a reapplicant (I submitted way too late before). I have been awarded a scholarship at school A but not school B. I like school B more. My SO will not let me choose B because there's a HUGE cost difference now. Is there anyway to negotiate? I am afraid of getting my acceptance taken away or coming off as ungrateful.
 
Lovebox said:
I was fortunate to get into two schools as a reapplicant (I submitted way too late before). I have been awarded a scholarship at school A but not school B. I like school B more. My SO will not let me choose B because there's a HUGE cost difference now. Is there anyway to negotiate? I am afraid of getting my acceptance taken away or coming off as ungrateful.
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Sorry, your SO cannot be making these decisions for you.

You're the one going to medical school. Not your SO. It's your education. Take charge of it


There's no harm in asking School B what they can do in terms of finances.
 
I think it's important to consider my SO's opinion because we are a family, and my SO is uprooting to follow me to medical school.
 
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You say, I want to choose you, "B" but the cost difference between "A" and "B" is $X and I just can't do it. If "B" really wants you they'll try to narrow that gap but if not, then "B" could say, "Sorry, you are lucky to have a low cost choice. We wish we could offer you (more) money but we don't have it [or --unsaid --you aren't a high priority].
 
CodeBlu said:
Sorry, your SO cannot be making these decisions for you.

You're the one going to medical school. Not your SO. It's your education. Take charge of it


There's no harm in asking School B what they can do in terms of finances.
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I see the point you made in the above post - they are family, and it is nice that you are respecting their opinion.

That being said, you can definitely negotiate. It's not like they can take your seat away, they can just decline to give extra aid. 🙂

Anything new in your life you might be able to leverage? It always helps to have a reason. Or, just be straight with them. Say you'd like to attend, but would need more aid before you could say yes, you have other options, blah blah blah.

Good luck!
 
CodeBlu said:
Sorry, your SO cannot be making these decisions for you.

You're the one going to medical school. Not your SO. It's your education. Take charge of it


There's no harm in asking School B what they can do in terms of finances.
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How can you possibly say that. When you get married/commit yourself to someone else, you give up some freedom of decision making. Plus, I'm confident the OP will get a quality education and become a doctor regardless of which of the two (s)he picks (assuming they are in the US..)

To the OP:
I've definitely seen other threads where people have been successful with cost negotiations (http://forums.studentdoctor.net/archive/index.php/t-804132.html OR http://forums.studentdoctor.net/archive/index.php/t-512599.html)

Personally, I feel like it might be a little early to be contacting schools about this. Maybe wait until you apply for financial aid and get the full cost summary from the two schools?
 
This is absolutely your chance to negotiate and play hardball. They wouldn't rescind an acceptance simply because you ask for more money. They may push back a bit, which is when you know to back off. Otherwise, some careful negotiation could end up in a BMW or a house in your favor (multiply every little bit by 4 years and it sure adds up).

It's WAY too early - wait until financial aid packages have been distributed in February/March.

The other key is that in order for the strategy to work, school "B" usually needs to be as good or better than school A. Harvard isn't going to try to woo you away from your full ride at Gudger State College - they're Harvard.
 
HumbleMD said:
This is absolutely your chance to negotiate and play hardball. They wouldn't rescind an acceptance simply because you ask for more money. They may push back a bit, which is when you know to back off. Otherwise, some careful negotiation could end up in a BMW or a house in your favor (multiply every little bit by 4 years and it sure adds up).

It's WAY too early - wait until financial aid packages have been distributed in February/March.

The other key is that in order for the strategy to work, school "B" usually needs to be as good or better than school A. Harvard isn't going to try to woo you away from your full ride at Gudger State College - they're Harvard.
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I know a case where a school beginning with H lured a student who would have otherwise attended an unranked school. It happens.
 
Beekachu said:
How can you possibly say that. When you get married/commit yourself to someone else, you give up some freedom of decision making. Plus, I'm confident the OP will get a quality education and become a doctor regardless of which of the two (s)he picks (assuming they are in the US..)

To the OP:
I've definitely seen other threads where people have been successful with cost negotiations (http://forums.studentdoctor.net/archive/index.php/t-804132.html OR http://forums.studentdoctor.net/archive/index.php/t-512599.html)

Personally, I feel like it might be a little early to be contacting schools about this. Maybe wait until you apply for financial aid and get the full cost summary from the two schools?
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👍 wise words.
 
Lovebox said:
I was fortunate to get into two schools as a reapplicant (I submitted way too late before). I have been awarded a scholarship at school A but not school B. I like school B more. My SO will not let me choose B because there's a HUGE cost difference now. Is there anyway to negotiate? I am afraid of getting my acceptance taken away or coming off as ungrateful.
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Letting your SO decide where you go to med school is about as beta as you can be. Alpha up and be a man.
 
AZFutureDoc said:
Letting your SO decide where you go to med school is about as beta as you can be. Alpha up and be a man.
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:laugh:

This.

manand2bikinigirls.jpg
 
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NickNaylor said:
No rules are unbreakable, but for 99% of the population they are.
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Yes, I'm not implying anyone should think they would be the exception, only that the exceptions exist.
LizzyM said:
Or a student whose need became greater with a change in circumstances that made the less expensive school a seemingly better choice.
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A valid point, though it seemed from the way you stated the situation and the content of Humble's post you were responding to that the case was one of scholarship and not financial aid. For clarification, if an applicants situation drastically changed between financial aid estimation and matriculation, would it be unheard of for the financial aid estimate to be adjusted accordingly?
 
gettheleadout said:
Yes, I'm not implying anyone should think they would be the exception, only that the exceptions exist.

A valid point, though it seemed from the way you stated the situation and the content of Humble's post you were responding to that the case was one of scholarship and not financial aid. For clarification, if an applicants situation drastically changed between financial aid estimation and matriculation, would it be unheard of for the financial aid estimate to be adjusted accordingly?
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I'm sure that there are many times when a school will give a student additional loans to cover extraordinary expenses. In this case, the applicant withdrew on the basis of cost and was offered an additional grant.
 
AZFutureDoc said:
Letting your SO decide where you go to med school is about as beta as you can be. Alpha up and be a man.
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That's a terrible attitude, IMO. If your SO is making the life change to uproot and move with you wherever you go, that means your relationship is clearly serious. This is not the time to be an "alpha male" (not to mention, you could very well be female...) Your SO deserves some say in where you go. While I don't think he/she should make the call for you, it's definitely a joint decision.
 
ksmajmudar said:
That's a terrible attitude, IMO. If your SO is making the life change to uproot and move with you wherever you go, that means your relationship is clearly serious. This is not the time to be an "alpha male" (not to mention, you could very well be female...) Your SO deserves some say in where you go. While I don't think he/she should make the call for you, it's definitely a joint decision.
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Yeah, you just have to LOL at single people telling those in relationships how much their SO's opinion should count :laugh:.
 
theseeker4 said:
Yeah, you just have to LOL at single people telling those in relationships how much their SO's opinion should count :laugh:.
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Glad you posted this because I was about to lol. And to OP, it won't hurt to ask, I'm sure people at the schools know that you aren't made of money. The worst that can happen is they say "sorry we can't offer you any money" or whatever they say. Just don't be like "school A is giving me X dollars, so you better give me Y amount or else I won't come here"
 
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Does having more acceptances give you an advantage/ lead to more scholarships when schools are giving financial aid packages?
 
by604 said:
Does having more acceptances give you an advantage/ lead to more scholarships when schools are giving financial aid packages?
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Like Lizzy said, you can't really negotiate effectively if the one school you're accepted to as all of the leverage. Of course you could always ask for an increase in your scholarship, but I doubt that would lead anywhere. Scholarships tend to be used as recruiting tools to steal applicants from other schools. Why would they want to spend more money on you if you have no choice to attend school anywhere else?
 
NickNaylor said:
Like Lizzy said, you can't really negotiate effectively if the one school you're accepted to as all of the leverage. Of course you could always ask for an increase in your scholarship, but I doubt that would lead anywhere. Scholarships tend to be used as recruiting tools to steal applicants from other schools. Why would they want to spend more money on you if you have no choice to attend school anywhere else?
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So when financial packages are given, does each school know the other schools you've been accepted to and adjust how much they might give based on that knowledge? Or arepackages given independently and having several acceptances simply increases your chances of receiving more money which in turn you can use to 'bargain'?

Thanks for the replies
 
by604 said:
So when financial packages are given, does each school know the other schools you've been accepted to and adjust how much they might give based on that knowledge? Or arepackages given independently and having several acceptances simply increases your chances of receiving more money which in turn you can use to 'bargain'?

Thanks for the replies
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The latter, though at some point schools do become aware of which schools you're accepted to. Or something like that. I'm not sure, it seems to change with every post I read on SDN. Maybe Lizzy can clarify for sure.
 
by604 said:
So when financial packages are given, does each school know the other schools you've been accepted to and adjust how much they might give based on that knowledge? Or arepackages given independently and having several acceptances simply increases your chances of receiving more money which in turn you can use to 'bargain'?

Thanks for the replies
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I think there was a case in early 1990s, against MIT and CALTECH, who consider themselves sister institutes, for exchanging information of this kind. Supreme Court ruled that that was price fixing and illegal. So legally they can't do this.
 
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I think that there are price fixing issues but if school A knows that you hold offers from schools A, B and C and know that School C is usually very generous (or very inexpensive), then School A knows that it has to be generous or be resigned to losing you to School C. In some cases, a school will shrug and move on (particularly if their yield is good that year and they have plenty of offers being accepted) but if you are a highly desirable candidate for one reason or another (cough URM cough) then you might get a little something in an attempt to lure you away from schools B and C.
 
IMSingular said:
I think there was a case in early 1990s, against MIT and CALTECH, who consider themselves sister institutes, for exchanging information of this kind. Supreme Court ruled that that was price fixing and illegal. So legally they can't do this.
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5 F.3d 658: The United States of America v. Brown University et al.👍




http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/5/658/626013/

"We reject the argument raised by an amicus curiae that MIT's conduct is protected by the First Amendment. The Supreme Court has characterized academic freedom as "a special concern of the First Amendment." Regents of the Univ. of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265, 312, 98 S.Ct. 2733, 2759, 57 L.Ed.2d 750 (1978) (opinion of Powell, J.) (upholding the use of race as a factor in admission decisions of a medical school). The freedom of a university to make its own judgments includes four elements: a university may "determine for itself on academic grounds who may teach, what may be taught, how it shall be taught, and who may be admitted to study." Id. (quoting Sweezy v. New Hampshire, 354 U.S. 234, 263, 77 S.Ct. 1203, 1218, 1 L.Ed.2d 1311 (1957)). This constitutionally protected sphere of activity does not extend to determining how much to charge students for educational services"
 
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