negotiate scholarship

Question

so i have a high-quality dilemma: 30K from school B, and nothing from school A - is it possible to ask school B to increase its scholarship with offer from school A? Both schools are top 10, and school B has a slightly(very very slightly and even debatable) higher rank. What do you guys think? or should I wait until I am sure that I will definitely go to school B to do this negotiation?

CobraKai · Answer

School B is offering you money and has a "slighty" higher rank than School A...why should they offer you more money? A mere admit elsewhere? It'd be a different story if school "A" was offering more than school B and and you wanted school B to come up on their offer because you really want to attend.

Personally, I don't think you have much grounds for negotiation: $30K from a top 10 school is pretty good. Schools have a yield % for a reason, they know a fair amount of their offers won't be accepted. Sounds like school "B" would rather chalk you up in that category and find someone else who would be thrilled with a $30K scholarship instead of pouring more money into your offer.

tony1899 · Answer

Sorry typo here: i meant, school "A", the one that didn't give me anything is a bit higher in ranking...i think if school B is willing to bump up my scholarship it may make me easier to pick school B over school A.......after all the difference in ranking among top 10 is always not that clear anyway

machichi · Answer

Why are you hiding which schools you're choosing between? If you're talking about Kellogg, well they are pretty limited in scholarships. But if you're talking about Darden, they love giving money to people they love. It may help if you are more specific.

Simple answer: you can ask for anything you want, just do it respectfully. No "um, yeah, you're gonna need to step it up with the money because you're not  that  cute."

CobraKai · Answer

I still stand by my comments. Usually you need another scholarship offer to increase an offer.

Let's say school "A" is Sloan and School "B" is Columbia. If you said "Thank you Columbia, I like your $30K offer, but I also got into Sloan, and if you sweeten the deal with more money, I'll come to your school."

Columbia: "Enjoy Boston. This is why we have a waitlist."

You'll have to excuse my snarkiness, but you have to look at it from the School's point of view: You're one of many admitted applicants, roughly 30-50% of which won't matriculate at the school. They plan for this. Being admitted to one of these schools is an accomplishment in itself, and getting a $30K scholarship is icing on the cake. I just don't think you have any leverage here. You can try, but don't be disappointed if there's not more $$ coming your way.

slugabedd · Answer

How about I giving you $10k, you go to school B and negotiate with school A to take me instead.

Best of luck.

cheetarah1980 · Answer

I agree with CobraKai. You can't negotiate for more money with an admit alone. I was able to negotiate a higher fellowship at a school last year but I did it with a fellowship offer from another. You don't have much of a leg to stand on otherwise.

triumph · Answer

Interesting case... if school A is ranked higher i think you can respectfully negotiate the $ with school B. Please let us know how it went!

negotiate scholarship

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