Bargaining for scholarships

Question

Have any of you ever used a scholarship offer from one school to negotiate a scholarship from another? Is such a thing even possible? How did you go about doing it?

In my case, the schools are close rankings wise, and the scholarship offer I received is too big to turn down unless I get a comparable offer. The other school has not announced scholarships yet.

woggy987 · Answer

did you get a big scholarship from Stern and you're trying to get CBS to match? did CBS offer any money at all?

i have heard that it's possible, but case-by-case basis

cheetarah1980 · Answer

I think it really depends on how the school you're trying to negotiate with sees its competitor. For many URM candidates CBS has to compete with Stern offering Consortium fellowships. Many people have failed to get more $$ out of CBS using the Consortium fellowship as leverage because CBS sees itself as being worth the cost. You might get CBS to come off a couple more $ if you have an offer from Stern, but don't expect it to be even close to a match.

threestripes · Answer

I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try. It's not Stern vs. CBS, but I do have a buddy who applied to Columbia and NYU for their LLM programs last year. While he was waiting for Columbia to get back to him, NYU offered him a sizable scholarship. And so, when he still hadn't heard from Columbia a few days before the NYU deposit deadline, he called Columbia to let them know about his situation. They matched NYU's offer a couple of days later.

pearljam · Answer

Thanks very much to everyone for the advice. I'm not under the illusion that a bidding war is going to break out for me. I'm thrilled that I was even admitted to these schools. I just want to make sure that if I broach the topic, I'm doing it as politely and professionally as possible. I never contemplated being in this situation, and I wasn't sure if it was even appropriate to try to negotiate. CBS hasn't even made scholarship offers yet, and I don't want to ruin my chance at an offer from them because I came off as rude or entitled.

threestripes · Answer

Of course I forgot to say it when I first posted here, but big congrats to you for getting both schools to accept you! I'm sure that if you do it in a very polite way, they wouldn't take it against you for trying. Besides, it's not like they could just rescind their offer if you asked them about it.

Bargaining for scholarships

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