Negotiating a scholarship?

Its worth a shot, at most they will say no dice and you get what you get. Just say they are your top choice but the full scholarship is very enticing and since you are poor it may be a deciding factor. Your chances of succeeding are obviously much better if they are peer schools...if one is a top 10 school and the other is barely on the rankings then its probably not going to work.

I'm still a few years off from applying! I'm finishing up my undergrad this semester and working for 2-3 years in between.

My original plan was to apply to Wisconsin alone, specifically their real estate program which I believe is #3 behind Wharton and Haas. However I'm getting more and more interested in HBS for general management so if I do well enough on the GMAT in ~5 weeks (which is looking promising) I'll be applying to UW and HBS as my only two schools

Hey, girl10021.

I was in your boat last year. All schools run their scholarships a bit differently. I think I remember hearing about one guy last year who simply called the school and an hour later had another $10k or something like that.

And then there's the other experience: you essentially have to write another essay. The AdComs might say that an MBA is a major financial investment for everyone, so they can't consider financial need. Instead, you have to convince them that you are even cooler than they originally thought.

AAu

At other schools, such as HBS and Stanford, scholarships are need-based. You submit your financial information (assets, liabilities, salaries history) and they determine how much you'll get.

L.

Hey - thanks for the responses. Yup, they are roughly peers, both top 15 schools that don't do need-based scholarships. I figure a call or e-mail can't hurt. Like others have said, in the end it really isn't the best choice to go to the lower-ranked less-of-a-fit school over a scholarship anyways.

good discussion, and I'm sure some of the GMATClubbers will need to know this also. I will link this to the knowledge vault.

Very helpful discussion, finding me in these shoes now.

So river, you said, you would mention it to the other school, but it should be a peer school. That implies that you actually name the school you got the scholarship from, correct?

I would be careful with that - you don't want them to think you're playing the two schools off each other.

so did anyone try this last year, using one school to get scholarship at another?

I want to get this back up to the top. Anyone got an answer to kryzak? Has anyone done this? What was the result?

Sorry all, its been awhile since I've posted here, but with the wedding and honeymoon its been a hectic couple of months to start this year. I thought I'd pipe up here because I have some recent experience with this, in my own way. I have already been lucky enough to be awarded a good scholarship to Emory, but looking at my financial situation after the wedding extravaganza, I figured it couldn't hurt to ask if there were any additional funds available. I called a contact in admissions, let them know that I had "other opportunities" that were better financially. I let them know they were definitely my top choice, but asked if there was anything that could be done to help with the financial burden. I was required to send an e-mail reiterating what I had said in the phone conversation. My case was then reviewed by adcom and I received an additional $6K. Not a ton, but for nothing really changing in my application status, that was very welcome. And, it proves to me again that Emory is where I belong. If the school really wants you, I think they will at least make the effort to try to increase your scholarship if any funds are available.

So, basically, I did not name any other schools, or competing offers, I just let them know that the financial aspect was important in my decision making process.

wow, nice emoryhopeful! Thank you for the story! kudos!

good stuff.

they must really want you. but I think UE and E schools are not that easily pushed towards handing out more money.

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