How to Negotiate a Scholarship

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:

1. 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.
   
   
2. 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.
   
   
3. Be nice and polite. Don't demand. Try to appeal instead of threaten; it goes further.
   
   
4. 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.
   
   
5. 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!
   
   
6. 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.