asking a school to match another school's scholarship offer?

well i definitely do not want to ask them if i risk losing my admissions!

i'm thinking..... this has to be a common scenario for applicants. also, i was going to use the story of my failed business in 2006 to explain my situation and kindly ask to see if any assistance is available... i dunno man! Anderson is aware of my failed business and the financial stress that resulted bc i talked all about it in my optional essay.

what to do what to do?

Do you have in-state at Anderson ? If not, you can qualify for the second year. Not sure whether this helps..just wanted to draw your attention.

A former colleague of mine was in this exact position last spring - only she was hoping that Anderson would match her Fuqua scholarship offer. She basically called Anderson up and at great length explained how much she loved the school and really wanted to come to LA. But then she briefly explained how she was having a tough time financially justifying the decision. The adcom or whoever her contact was said they would get back to her. Five minutes later they called her back and matched the Duke scholarship which was about $20K. I'm not sure if that was a yearly figure or over two years. I'm also not sure if she just got lucky or if thats common practice.

yes most definitely. and that's exactly the reason why 20k from darden is not nearly enough. i can't get in-state my first year at anderson, but definitely the second year like you said. from a purely financial point of view, darden tuition - 20k scholarship will cost approx the same as anderson without a scholarship.

just wanted to somehow use this schol. as a bargaining tool. obviously, any assistance has an impact.

wow are you serious? and did she end up at anderson after all? this gives me hope and something to consider! thanks!

Yes, she's at Anderson now and loving it.

The guy I'm talking about was trying to get Stanford to "show him the money", and, yes, he was told by a Stanford alumn that he *might* get his offer withdrawn.

Anyway, glad to see ther's been clarification on Anderson's take on this issue.

I'd say don't go to Anderson for daring not to give you enough money!

It all depends on your negotiating skills.

If by any chance you tick off the wrong nerve, it could prove counter productive.

Since Anderson is your dream school, go ask Darden to increase the Schol.

It depends on:

- how much you think they want you. If you think that you can be easily substituted by another applicant, then no point asking. See how far you are above the "average" admitted student in terms of GMAT, wk exp, etc.

- how much you want to go to Anderson. If you can bear to leave the offer on the table, then go ahead and ask them to show you the money.

You are right to say that you need to ask in the right way. However, if you don't give them a significant consequence to consider (e.g. you would not come if they don't offer some money), they would have less incentives to show you the money. But if you are not one of their "must-get" students, then you must be prepared to go Fuqua.

Did you get any "password" email from UCLA ? They mentioned this as step 1 in their acceptance email.

they give you a login ID to the page where you can accept your admissions offer and pay the deposit. a short while later, they sent us a generic login for the admit website, which has very general information.

by the way... i called ucla admissions and explained my situation. they seemed very open to the idea and asked me to send them an email as a formal request, along with the scholarship info from darden, and that they'd get back to me by the end of the day.

we'll just have to wait and see... i'll keep you guys posted.

Can you check your "acceptance" email ? In the "Next Steps" section, it talks about some email which will be send out in a few weeks with a password .

Good luck with your UCLA efforts. Quite encouraging. I am planning to write a similar letter to Duke stating that I have in-state from Anderson.

Congrats! Looks like you definitely didn't hurt yourself by asking.

That's very cool. And congrats for you for going ahead with your request. Do tell us how it turns out! What did you say in your email?

they did not get back to me yesterday... oh well hopefully today.

i pretty much told them how i really want to go to ucla, but that financial considerations make this a difficult decision bc darden offered me a merit based scholarship. and i asked if they would consider a merit fellowship for a candidate in my situation....

so much for the "we'll get back to you by the end of the day"

hahahaha that was yesterday and i still haven't heard a thing... doesnt look like they're interested in matching... doh!