Almost everyone tries to negotiate their scholarships. The success rate is fairly low and I would say schools more often than not seem to adjust things on their own, including sometimes admitting applicants from WL with a scholarship - that was a shocker to me, but it happens. I would start by saying that probably 95% of attempts to negotiate fail (that's my unofficial stats but it is hard to have the exact numbers since people who do negotiate and succeed are often under a request not to disclose their new fortune from adcom so the failure rate may actually be lower, around 90 or 85%). Successful Negotiation Stories: 1. Fuqua Successful negotiation 2. Sample successful letter sent to Stern 3. Tepper R2, 2019, Female applicant 4. Sample Letter sent to Owen for Scholarship negotiation 5. Older thread from female applicant, negotiated likely with Booth The Best Ways to Negotiate a Scholarship.. Welcome other folks thoughts, esp if you were successful: Thank you letter to the adcom - this works best if you have an adcom member you have befriended or interacted on a number of occasions who was kind of your champion, though I kind of feel it works best in a 2-stage approach. Send a pure thank you note first right after the admit. Then a week or two later, follow up that you have been working on financing and have a gap/need. Leveraging another offer , esp if this is a competing school (e.g. Ross/Fuqua/Stern) and send a nice message asking if there is anything you could do to improve your candidacy for consideration of any other financial aid opportunities such as named scholarships, fellowships, Teaching Assistanships. Some folks feel that unless you have another offer you can't really negotiate efficiently. Be nice and polite . Don't demand. Try to appeal instead of threaten; it goes further. Be specific - don't ask for money but ask for a specific amount. I feel this is a lot easier for the school to digest if you have an exact amount (along with why) you are seeking. E.g. I am able to borrow 100,000 but I am still short $25,000/year and not able to have that portion financed. I also think you can ask for amounts per year, which makes the figure smaller and that's how adcom seems to think/function anyway. Ask indirectly if possible . Instead of going directly to the Director of financial aid, perhaps ask the AdCom person you befriended (if you have) to see if they can check for you. This only works if you have a relationship but I am a believer that this is one of the most effective ways to secure a scholarship and increase your chances! Decision extension = scholarship? One user reported asking AdCom to delay their decision (deposit) date which obviously would be for waiting on another school's admit decision which signals to the school that they are not the first choice, and instead they received a scholarship offer back. To their surprise . Sometimes you can ask for money without asking for it I guess. Scholarship Tips: How to evaluate Multiple Offers - Summary of a Chat with Admissions Consultant A tip from an Alum - Negotiate Shamelessly https://gmatclub.com/forum/negotiate-a- ... 55712.html https://gmatclub.com/forum/negotiate-sc ... 46241.html https://www.amerasiaconsulting.com/blog ... -the-offer https://gmatclub.com/forum/negotiating- ... 14390.html P.S. This often comes up - is there any downside to asking/negotiating? The fast and long answers are: No. You have an admit offer and I have never heard of anyone face any consequences for asking/confirming/clarifying their financial aid position. New at GMAT Club - $10,000 MBA Scholarship Sponsored by Juno Scholarship Application is open Learn more

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How to Negotiate a Scholarship

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02 Apr 2020, 08:21

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Wow!
Thankyou bb for the advice.
I was able to negotiate my scholarship by asking indirectly,
Give it a shot, who knows.. it might work for you as well.

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Wow!
Thankyou bb for the advice.
I was able to negotiate my scholarship by asking indirectly,
Give it a shot, who knows.. it might work for you as well.

Thanks so much for sharing! That's great (this method also worked for me back in my day!)

For reference, this is bullet #5 on the list. The reality is that AdCom outreach members try to bring students to school. Their job is to recruit you and they actually do take personal interest in applicants and they root for you so if you are a committed person, they will be able to help behind the scenes to help "their" applicant get through and perhaps shift some of the funds sitting around for a rainy day towards an applicant who would be a worthy addition to the program and also someone they have been talking and working with, so as much as you can, network and maintain your relationship with the AdCom outreach team, no matter how junior they may be.

Quote:

Ask indirectly if possible. Instead of going directly to the Director of financial aid, perhaps ask the AdCom person you befriended (if you have) to see if they can check for you. This only works if you have a relationship but I am a believer that it works better if you have someone else doing the bidding for you.

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06 Apr 2020, 08:14

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indeed some programs are more willing to entertain scholarship negotiations than others. from my personal experience I believe that big universities are easier to persuade and get a successful negotiation than smaller universities.

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Thankyou BB, for the Negotiations Tips !

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1) If you don't ask, the answer is no.

2) The admissions office is to put together the best class possible. They thought the class would be best if you were a part of it. Most schools have loads and loads of money. Asking them for additional financial aid so they can keep their commitment to the board of directors of the school to deliver the best class possible is you actually helping the school ... and you help them by being honest about your financial situation.

3) Asking is good practice for asking your prospect to hire you ... to get a job, or a promotion or raise at you job ... etc ...

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27 Apr 2020, 09:22

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It's almost 2020 and at this time, I feel almost everyone tries to negotiate their scholarships. The success rate is fairly low and I would say schools more often than not seem to adjust things on their own, including sometimes admitting applicants from WL with a scholarship - that was a shocker to me but it happens.

I would start by saying that probably 95% of attempts to negotiate fail (that's my unofficial stats but it is hard to have the exact numbers since people who do negotiate and succeed are often under a request not to disclose their new fortune from adcom so the failure rate may actually be lower, around 90 or 85%).

Successful Negotiation Stories:
1. Fuqua Successful negotiation
2. Sample successful letter sent to Stern
3. Tepper R2, 2019, Female applicant
4. Sample Letter sent to Owen for Scholarship negotiation
5. Older thread from female applicant, negotiated likely with Booth

The Best Ways to Negotiate a Scholarship..
Welcome other folks thoughts, esp if you were successful:

Thank you letter to the adcom - this works best if you have an adcom member you have befriended or interacted on a number of occasions who was kind of your champion, though I kind of feel it works best in a 2-stage approach. Send a pure thank you note first right after the admit. Then a week or two later, follow up that you have been working on financing and have a gap/need.
Leveraging another offer, esp if this is a competing school (e.g. Ross/Fuqua/Stern) and send a nice message asking if there is anything you could do to improve your candidacy for consideration of any other financial aid opportunities such as named scholarships, fellowships, Teaching Assistanships. Some folks feel that unless you have another offer you can't really negotiate efficiently.
Be nice and polite. Don't demand. Try to appeal instead of threaten; it goes further.
Be specific - don't ask for money but ask for a specific amount. I feel this is a lot easier for the school to digest if you have an exact amount (along with why) you are seeking. E.g. I am able to borrow 100,000 but I am still short $25,000/year and not able to have that portion financed. I also think you can ask for amounts per year, which makes the figure smaller and that's how adcom seems to think/function anyway.
Ask indirectly if possible. Instead of going directly to the Director of financial aid, perhaps ask the AdCom person you befriended (if you have) to see if they can check for you. This only works if you have a relationship but I am a believer that it works better if you have someone else doing the bidding for you.
Decision extension = scholarship? One user reported asking AdCom to delay their decision (deposit) date which obviously would be for waiting on another school's admit decision which signals to the school that they are not the first choice, and instead they received a scholarship offer back. To their surprise. Sometimes you can ask for money without asking for it I guess.

Scholarship Tips:
How to evaluate Multiple Offers - Summary of a Chat with Admissions Consultant
A tip from an Alum - Negotiate Shamelessly

https://gmatclub.com/forum/negotiate-a- ... 55712.html
https://gmatclub.com/forum/negotiate-sc ... 46241.html
https://www.amerasiaconsulting.com/blog ... -the-offer
https://gmatclub.com/forum/negotiating- ... 14390.html

P.S. This often comes up - is there any downside to asking/negotiating? The fast and long answers are: No. You have an admit offer and I have never heard of anyone face any consequences for asking/confirming/clarifying their financial aid position.

Hi bb and everyone !
First of all, thanks for this amazing post.
I am trying to use the points discussed here to negotiate with UConn(Unfortunately No Scholarship ) while receiving $$$ from Babson.
I already wrote a thank you email and followed it up with a feedback to improve my chances of landing up with an aid or GA. However it was politely denied.
Now the issue is , I have 3 days left to confirm on the UConn offer and I have received the 1st denial on any scholarship consideration today.
I haven't disclosed to the UConn team about Babson scholarship yet , however with 3 days remaining , would you recommend following up with another email mentioning directly about Babson offer within hours of 1st denial mail or shall I hold for a day or two ?
Appreciate your views and feedback.

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18 May 2020, 12:18

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Is there any point in trying to negotiate a scholarship after paying deposits? I've deposited at a T15 ($0) and a T30 ($full), and already turned down a second T15 ($20k). And how can I use the COVID impact of likely causing the fall semester to be online to my advantage, if at all? Thanks!

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18 May 2020, 12:30

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Tactic101

You can try though I believe that it may not work in your favor with you having already put down a deposit.

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18 May 2020, 12:36

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Tactic101

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Definitely would try. Not unheard of with 2 deposits. Rare and circumstantial to say the least. All depends though on how much the one school you are pulling away from values you and if you are ok with actually losing your spot if they don’t give you a scholarship. Let’s call it a game of chicken in short

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18 May 2020, 12:40

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singhkniraj

Thank you letter to the adcom - this works best if you have an adcom member you have befriended or interacted on a number of occasions who was kind of your champion, though I kind of feel it works best in a 2-stage approach. Send a pure thank you note first right after the admit. Then a week or two later, follow up that you have been working on financing and have a gap/need.
Leveraging another offer, esp if this is a competing school (e.g. Ross/Fuqua/Stern) and send a nice message asking if there is anything you could do to improve your candidacy for consideration of any other financial aid opportunities such as named scholarships, fellowships, Teaching Assistanships. Some folks feel that unless you have another offer you can't really negotiate efficiently.
Be nice and polite. Don't demand. Try to appeal instead of threaten; it goes further.
Be specific - don't ask for money but ask for a specific amount. I feel this is a lot easier for the school to digest if you have an exact amount (along with why) you are seeking. E.g. I am able to borrow 100,000 but I am still short $25,000/year and not able to have that portion financed. I also think you can ask for amounts per year, which makes the figure smaller and that's how adcom seems to think/function anyway.
Ask indirectly if possible. Instead of going directly to the Director of financial aid, perhaps ask the AdCom person you befriended (if you have) to see if they can check for you. This only works if you have a relationship but I am a believer that it works better if you have someone else doing the bidding for you.
Decision extension = scholarship? One user reported asking AdCom to delay their decision (deposit) date which obviously would be for waiting on another school's admit decision which signals to the school that they are not the first choice, and instead they received a scholarship offer back. To their surprise. Sometimes you can ask for money without asking for it I guess.

Scholarship Tips:
How to evaluate Multiple Offers - Summary of a Chat with Admissions Consultant
A tip from an Alum - Negotiate Shamelessly

Definitely worth pushing but If they are taking that long your prospects aren’t great. However In a Covid environment schools should be hurting

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I have been admitted to a B School in US with scholarship and in the offer letter uploaded on the application portal, there is a link to an admission deferral from. I have an admit with a higher scholarship amount from a very similarly ranked school.

I want to know if I submit the admission deferral form, as I want to defer the admission to the subsequent term, will I lose any leverage while negotiating scholarship with the B School. Like, first I submit the deferral form and then negotiate scholarship.

In this context, is submitting deferral form equivalent to submitting the enrollment form. Since the deferral form link will be deactivated if I submit the enrollment form for Fall 2020.

Kindly advise-Urgent!

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Let's say you have two schools offering equally ranked PT MBA programs: School A and School B. School A has a $60K COA, which includes a $20K scholarship. I haven't received School B's decision, but School B currently sits at $153K COA. I could extend the deposit deadline, but it currently sits on March 3rd. I'll get the decision for School B approximately a week afterward. I know that I'm doubtful (as in a 1% chance generously) to get a School B scholarship to match that COA.

However, I could get a larger scholarship than the $20K. Would that matter? Could I use that for negotiation? Or would the fact that their COA is already lower hinder those prospects and make it pointless?

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Hi. I am sorry, it is really hard to follow the whole School A and school B storyline and the hypothetical. there is no way to tell how school will respond. The answers are different for different individuals and diff backgrounds.

Also, the schools usually do not extend deposit deadlines. I’m not sure if this is a unique situation but usually they require you to make a decision by a certain date.

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Ok, then let me phrase it in this way. Will a school be willing to negotiate a scholarship if I get a higher scholarship from somewhere else if the first school is already a lower COA?

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Ok, then let me phrase it in this way. Will a school be willing to negotiate a scholarship if I get a higher scholarship from somewhere else if the first school is already a lower COA?

Duh. If you are going to say you got a $20K scholarship at Fuqua which is $70K and you are trying to get a matching scholarship at UNC as instate resident which is at $50K to start with, then yes, you are betting on a sinking ship and it probably won't sail too far

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Being honest and upfront is the best approach:

I told Stanford GSB about my MIT Sloan admit and asked if any scholarship is available. The response was all scholarships are need-based only.
I told MIT Sloan about my Stanford GSB admit, and promptly received an increased scholarship award as well as alumni contact to talk regarding my decision-making process.

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Thanks for sharing, bb! I applied for Wharton and GSB but only got into Wharton with some $. I'm not too hyped about the fellowship package. Does it worth negotiating since I only have one offer? I've heard Wharton is hard to negotiate with (and their website does say that they won't reconsider fellowship decisions). If I still want to try my change, how would you suggest going about it?

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hyt2101

Sorry I missed the message.

The negotiation and scholarship evaluation process is different for different programs or rather tiers of programs. Some wheel and deal and others are a lot more buttoned up and secretive about it. Many require people to maintain confidentiality for obvious reasons if they are awarded more financial aid.

I think there is not a whole lot of negotiation you can do with Stanford since most/all? of their need is Need-based vs. Wharton that does provide scholarships. This is the tough part of HBS/GSB - need-based aid only. (They do have a decent number of fellowships however, dedicated to various needs and provided by some of the alums but not sure if you would qualify for any of those at this point in time. It may be worth asking in general).

Another approach I can see is requesting financial aid due to need and going that route but your finances have to support that story and then you can mention that while you won't be happy going to Wharton, having that aid from them is the only way you can see attending.

P.S. Congrats on your admits by the way!
-BB

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04 Jun 2022, 05:09

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Hi everyone,
I need your words of wisdom.
I have an acceptance letter but with no scholarship. The acceptance is from one of the Top 10 US business schools so I want to be conscious while negotiating for the scholarship. I'm an international student so I don't have much time in hand and have to give a non-refundable deposit in the next one week. I don't have any other offer in hand. Can you advise how should I negotiate the scholarship?

Any advice is highly appreciated.

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You can beg profusely 🤷‍♂️😂
Why do you need a scholarship? You didn’t quite provide that explanation…

It’s very late in the season and unless somebody backs out who received previously a scholarship, I’m not sure there are funds available even if they wanted to give you one. Also the fact that you don’t have other admits or scholarships it’s not helping since the school knows you’re not providing them so therefore you don’t have them.

Obviously it doesn’t hurt to ask. I think your best approach and strategy would be to start working on financing and looking for A specific amount that perhaps you are short by and that you need to help you attend. For example, may be prodigy only finances 75% of the cost and you have another 10 but you’re short about 15%. You are more likely to get some help if you have a specific amount with a specific purpose rather than just asking for free money.

PS. You should be extremely happy that you have this admit.

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