Scholarship Negotiation?

[seattlegirl]

The above posts are encouraging...

I'm in a similar boat.  But a question:  If you have full rides and half-tuition offers from schools that are significantly lower ranked than the school you are writing to, is it still worthwhile to mention these offers in your letter?

Thanks.

I did not mention every offer because I have applied to quite a few schools. I mentioned the significant offers that I received from schools ranked about the one that I wanted the scholarship from and the offers of full tuition from schools ranked lower.

[joesrevenge]

I am about to send in mine to UT. I got offered 60k by Emory and a full ride to Baylor so I hope that works. I am still waiting on UVA or Michigan. If I were to get accepted to either one of those schools (presumably without money), should I include that in my letter? Should I say what my offers are and also that I have been accepted to a better school (albeit without money)? Or only just include the actual scholarship offers?

[JeNeSaisLaw]

That sounds like a really bad idea to me. Just mention your scholarships actually received.

[ntiger]

I will definately try it out here soon.  If I have a t4 school with full tuition scholarship, do you think that would sway a lower t2 school (ranked 95) to offer some financial aid?  It can't hurt, and I will keep posted.

More importantly for me, I am on three stubborn waitlists.  Should I attach a full tuition scholarship award from a t4?  The waitlists are all t2's - 59, 76, and 100 rankings.  I know we've talked about negotiating financial aid, but could one negotiate admission as well?

Thanks.

[penni_rose]

I guess my perspective is different, because I only applied to 3 schools total, so I would mention both my other offers.

When doing this, my guess would be to wait for all of your offers and send the best ones. I know that Texas, for example, says on their website that they will consider ONE request from each student. You wouldn't want to have something big come in when you've already taken your only shot at them.

[SAM34]

I am currently negotiating a scholarship with St. John's.  I received a 2/3 scholarship from Hofstra (ranked 99) and I hope that St. John's (ranked 88) will come in with a similar offer.  The admissions contact given to me in my acceptance letter has been very helpful with my negotiation thus far. 

[UnbiasedObserver]

I negotiated a few times last cycle.  Essentially, I stated that I liked their school, but financial concerns were important.  Then I listed similar or higher-ranked schools, and what they had offered me.

Some schools didn't budge.  Others were very generous and offered me much more.  (One school went from offering me nothing to offering me $23,000/yr.; however, my case might be unusual.  My LSAT and GPA was fairly high compared to those schools' medians that decided to give me more money.) 

If you have any specific questions wrt scholarship negotiations, feel free to pm me. 

Good luck!

[normn3116]

Hello everyone,

First time poster.  For those that pulled this off, did you send an email or snail mail letter?  I sent an email to Illinois, noting that I received a 15,000 per year offer from Indiana-Bloomington.  Any thoughts, and is an IU scholarship enough to sway Illinois?  BTW, many thanks to JeNeSaisLaw, as I used that letter as a guide.

[UnbiasedObserver]

Hello everyone,

First time poster.  For those that pulled this off, did you send an email or snail mail letter?  I sent an email to Illinois, noting that I received a 15,000 per year offer from Indiana-Bloomington.  Any thoughts, and is an IU scholarship enough to sway Illinois?  BTW, many thanks to JeNeSaisLaw, as I used that letter as a guide.

I sent my letters via email. 

[normn3116]

And any thoughts on IU vs. Illinois?  U of I is 9 spots higher in the rankings, but at the same time, I saw people with very similar numbers to me (165, 3.45) get a little bit of money.  Also, how fast and in what manner (snail mail, call, email, etc.) did these schools get back to you?  Sorry for bombarding with questions, but these are the things I couldn't find in other forums.