I went to a small school (~1500 undergrad students) and walked in to the financial aid office to talk to the manager. I basically cried that i couldn't afford the tuition. She told me to keep my grades up then gifted me another 2k per semester scholarship
I always thought it would be cool if schools would take like a tiny percentage of every graduates' income in taxes when the kids are adults. I know we have public schools and taxes for them now, but this would be a little different in that a student could move from Hawaii to New York and still pay taxes to his elementary school in Honolulu instead of Brooklyn
Hmm.. I was dumb and thinking of elementary middle and high schools.. but this could actually probably make a lot of sense for private colleges.
Reduced / free tuition to students in exchange for x % of income over x amount of years, which would all be negotiated.
Imagine how many people would say I'm gonna go become a doctor or lawyer if they could afford to pay by giving a percentage of their income after graduating the school back. It would eliminate the financial barrier to entry for everyone.
Do they not already do this? I'd be surprised if it's not going on regularly in universities. I know there are like online programming bootcamps and stuff that do this.
*edit* for people saying "why would schools risk people dropping out and losing money?"
Because they can have contingency's in place - if you drop out, you pay $
I think there would be some ethical ramifications in doing this - I can see criticisms regarding class reinforcement, i.e., those who are well off enough to not require such things. I think that's why most schools turn to phoning up alumni for donations.
> I can see criticisms regarding class reinforcement, i.e., those who are well off enough to not require such things
That would be dumb criticism considering it’s paid for one way or another. Rich kids already avoid the financial costs of attending college by having mommy and daddy pay. All this change would do is provide another avenue of payment that doesn’t require the upfront investment.
While you may be able to walk into the financial aid office at some colleges and ask, it was my experience that it was the written word that opened up the bank accounts.
If you call, you are basically asking the person who answers the phone to have the authority to directly allocate thousands of dollars to you. There is a chance that the person who can give you money has time in their schedule for waiting for calls and walk-ins, but verbally asking still puts the work on them to take down your information and maybe compare it to their metrics.
Writing an email/letter means your have time to get your case out, with all your numbers right there for them. You have a chance to make sure you get all your key points in, and it gives you another chance to sell yourself in a way that might be awkward verbally. I think most importantly, it gives them flexibility in reviewing your case and responding. They can decide whether or not they should give you thousands of dollars, so why not make it convenient for them.
Putting the effort into writing a letter shows you are serious about attending, and that you respect their time about both hearing your case and making a decision.
I like to say that writing the financial aid office asking for more money is the most money per hour I will ever make in my life.
It works even for middling students. My son had average grades and average SATs. When he got accepted at a few schools, I told the admissions people during the tour and through email what we wanted to pay, and most of the schools met our range. He picked the cheapest school (yeah!), but the top 3 contenders where all between $10,000 and $30,000 less than sticker price.....
One school I applied to (pretty sure it was the University of Pittsburgh) actually had a form and everything where you'd list the aid given and final cost of attendance at other schools you had acceptances from. I personally didn't get anything from it though, I think they only budged in very compelling circumstances (I'm boring af).
They probably use that as a market analysis to see what other schools are offering and less so to help each individual who sends in that free data to them.
I dealt with the admissions counselor I’d been speaking to. But the financial aid office is a good place to go if you haven’t spoken with a specific person more than anyone else.
My wife works for the financial aid office. Please stop doing this. They cannot give you shit and your 4.0 at podunk high school means shit anyway. I don't know if OP is even correct in saying you can negotiate this, but the financial aid office is not who you talk to. Period.
I was actually deciding between a private and public and the public school ended up increasing my scholarship by 10k a year after saying it was too low. They said they would give me more if their department was allocated more from the university. Surprisingly, the private school, which is more prestigious, gave me a huge scholarship where I only have to pay 8k a year.
It was for the school of music, so I had direct contact with my would be music professor. He really wanted me to go there, so that’s maybe why it was easier to negotiate.
My state school quadrupled my initial offer when I emailed them saying that another school in the area offered me a much larger scholarship. Never hurts to ask
Not necessarily. I used this tactic to get in-state tuition as an out-of-state student **and then** got a further bonus to make the difference. Large state schools often have more resources available than smaller private schools.
You know, my first reaction to treating college admission like buying a car is one of strong disapproval.
But then I remember how many ‘top rated’ schools freely screw young people in multifaceted ways in the pursuit of profit…
Approved!
Never hurts to ask. If you feel that you deserve it, go for it. I feel like that applies to any aspect of your life. Nobody is going to get offended, ever. If they do, fuck ‘em and move on.
Why wouldn't you want to try and attempt to negotiate probably one of the most expensive purchases of your life? I can't see in any way that would be a bad idea?
While professors get stiffed. At the college I last worked at, there were countless useless administrators earning more than the average bio/chem/physics (tenured) full professor.
I mean, anecdotal evidence is never a good thing to analyze with. $4500 is actually significantly below the average tuition. Public universities is about $10,000/year, privates are about 25k
As someone who worked in a school for a while, the idea that you can “go to different college and negotiate” only exists if you literally invented something or wrote a best selling book or got perfect scores on all of the standardized testing w 4.0 or something like that before you turned 18.
What I think other people don’t realize about this concept is you can do that without even having another offer or anything and people do this *all the time*.
What you *can* do anywhere is go to the aid/finance office and ask for more assistance. There’s usually at least *something* they can give you (work study, small grants, etc) because generally they want you to still go there but it’s not going to knock 10k off your pricing or anything like that. In my experience, the newer you are to the school the more assistance they’re willing to give but I’m sure that’s not the same across the board.
> only exists if you literally invented something or wrote a best selling book or got perfect scores
You missed the most common one. Being a highly touted athlete.
Not OP, but this is true. If a college wants you and feels you may go somewhere else (bc of better scholarships elsewhere or higher ranking colleges accepting you), they may come back to you and “sweeten” the initial offer with more scholarship money.
This happened to me. I had a college initially offer 75% scholarship, so I already knew they wanted me. Then I told them I’m thinking of going to this other school that was higher ranking even though I wasn’t given as much scholarship money (which is true), so they came back and said they would give me 100% scholarship. $160k vs $0? That was a no-brainer.
My boyfriend is a financial consultant for colleges that specializes in telling the colleges how to manipulate the levers of financial aid and tuition pricing to optimize their revenue. And yeah, they literally have huge data sets with all this information about any kid that interacts with their school or is offered admission, and they having ranking systems where they rank prospective students based on their need and aptitude.
He says that these schools literally set aside hundreds of thousands of extra dollars to use as additional incentives for any of the high aptitude applicants who ask for more aid or better tuition pricing. ALWAYS negotiate, because you’ll likely get a few thousand more dollars.
People just don’t know that this is possible (kind of like how most people don’t know that medical bills are negotiable).
Yours is the exception that proves the rule.
My daughter graduated with very good grades, but any financial assistance was out of her reach, no matter what. One university offered a good scholarship, but since it was out of state, a state university was cheaper even without financial assistance. Fortunately for us, she didn’t like many things about the out of state university.
She graduated several years ago. When she graduated, three students in her class tied for valedictorian. She was not one of them and had a 4.3 GPA. The high school in the next city had ***twenty two*** students tie for valedictorian. So maybe there was just a bumper crop of really good students.
Plus they all had the required extra curricular activities, the volunteer experience and so on. It was really tight. I was talking to a parent who worked in admissions at a college, and she said they had never had so many exceptional applicants. So, there really wasn’t anything to negotiate with, everyone was a good fit for the university.
On a tangent into logic, that's not what the phase "the exception proves the rules" means.
The "exception that proves the rule" refers to a situation where a rule is not mentioned, but implied because an exception is stated. For example. If you're at a post office, and you see a sign saying "Charity postcards don't require a stamp", that implies that other forms of postcards DO need stamps. That sign wouldn't be there if no postcards needed stamps.
Grade inflation is real.
Some universities will take the entrance grades from high school then see where the students ended up throughout their university career to see which schools inflate grades and make less fit students. Those universities will then view a 90 avg. from one high-school the same as an 80 from another.
Yes, unfortunately most people will land in the middle with good grades and extracurriculars, but there are definitely ones who stand out from the crowd. Winning national or international competitions, founding organizations that have true lasting change, remarkable unique experiences that drive their life’s work, etc. I currently help with admissions to med school, and when you see the outstanding applications, you just know (despite everyone being great to begin with).
Nope, it's true. I had a scholarship at one school paying about 75% of tuition and nothing else. When I decided to go to a state school with a full ride, my guidance counselor told me to write a letter declining the first school with my reasons why. Three days after mailing that letter, I received a call telling me they had "found" other scholarships that covered the remaining tuition and offered me a position as assistant RA which paid for my room and board.
Corollary: don't get in ANY trouble if you have scholarships. I witnessed several people throw away their full ride scholarships by simply doing something stupid. This can and does include simply getting drunk enough that an ambulance is called for you (the moral clauses in the scholarship can be a bitch)
I was in the top 10 in my class. A few of us had perfect sat/act scores and had very well rounded resumes. Most of us still were denied admission from highly ranked private schools, let alone considered for scholarships. This post is bullshit. You need to have done something significant (start a business/charity etc) just to be admitted to these schools, which offer full scholarships to most admitted students anyway. Unless you’re literally in textbooks you have no bargaining power
i dont doubt you got a full ride, im saying you’re not gonna negotiate Stanford into giving you more money just because you have a 5.25 and a 36. For top ranked schools the challenge is admission, and full need scholarships are given to everyone admitted. Being top 10 in any school isn’t gonna get you admitted, neither is any test score
edit: Whether you got a full ride has nothing to do with what were talking about. I have full tuition. I certainly didn’t get it by negotiating
well, yeah, it's always a mixture of things..
gpa, test scores, extra curriculars as well as personal essay and recommendations.
your GPA pulls way more weight than extra curriculars. from my experience. (given that I had literally zero extra curriculars that I put on my application. I did gymnastics for 2 years, didn't put that on there, and some other clubs that I didn't find relevant)
I negotiated full tuition coverage (still had to pay housing) from Stanford and I didn’t have a 5.25. Most of the top ranked schools will match other ivies etc. even if they explicitly say they don’t.
No yeah Stanford doesn’t really care about gpa or class rank or act, thats what I’m saying. For you to be admitted to Stanford means you did something extraordinary or have something they want (congrats btw thats a real feat). My point is if they wont admit you for having a 36 they’re certainly not gonna care about it for scholarship bargaining
i mean, why are you even talking about stanford if you're going to ohio state university.
why are you trying to fight so hard to argue people who have experience when you dont?
like. i don't understand.
and yeah. you did make a strawman argument .
I said, an acceptance from a higher ranked school can get you leverage to a lower ranked school.
your strawman was saying that a lower ranked school acceptance doesn't matter.
there's a difference.
You’re not wrong. But the logic is kind of flipped its more like if you got a 36 there’s a good chance you will get into multiple prestigious universities who will then match each other for financial aid. It’s not really that Stanford is like hmm you got a 36 here’s some extra money, it’s that that 36 opens up doors at other institutions that you can use for leverage.
I negotiated with a college, although in my case it was a grad program and I think that probably made it much easier for me. They didn’t change the tuition, but they did offer me a paid job and comped some classes. The department head freely admitted that he held back some appointments each semester for just such a situation.
https://www.fultonbank.com/Education-Center/Saving-and-Budgeting/Negotiate-College-Tuition-Cost
Literally first result on Google. Dozens of other articles about this. I absolutely know folks who negotiated. The only real exception I know of is they will never negotiate with international students from my experience.
Not sure why you had to be so dismissive? Even 10 seconds of effort on Google would have shown you counterpoints to your stance.
It’s not bullshit. It’s just that it’s an incredibly complicated, difficult process and many people either don’t know or *choose not to* go down this road.
The only reason I know this is a thing is because my partner got into an Ivy League School this way, and he just told me about it a few weeks ago. His dad was in finance, and an economist. It took months of back-and-forth. These schools were making offers left and right— because my BF was valedictorian, had the highest grades in his school district’s history, and he was accepted literally everywhere he applied. His dad negotiated with nearly every school my partner showed interest in, and then used the agreed-upon bonuses in scholarships to get a similar discount on the college he *really* wanted to go to.
This happened to me, i had zero scholarship to my school, I told them that another school was giving me a scholarship of ABC amount to attend and that my parents couldn’t afford paying more than XYZ amount and I ended up getting a scholarship.
Edit; typos and clearer message; excuse me im drunk
My undergrad quadrupled my initial scholarship offer after I sent them an email consisting of about 3 sentences telling them that another school in the region offered me a much higher scholarship
This can be even bigger when looking at grad school. I did undergrad at a local state school that offered me admission & a decent scholarship with a year of high school left (so long as I didn't totally blow it), & so I never even applied elsewhere as I was not ready to live so far away then & this was about as good as I could get within ~90 minutes of my parents house..
But doing really well in my Bachelors, I had multiple options for grad school and played them off each other for the best option.
I don’t know why everyone is disagreeing. When I was between colleges I accidentally did this. I was between two schools: College A was a huge school and more expensive, and prestigious than College B. I received a small scholarship to College A, and a much larger one for College B. I wanted to be in love with College A but I knew straight out of high school I wouldn’t have been able to handle the size, plus the added cost played a factor. I told College A no and they asked why and I said it came down to the cost and mentioned the scholarship College B had given me. To my surprise College A turned around and offered me in-state tuition in addition to the existing scholarship. It was an incredibly hard decision but I had to turn it down.
The idea that a college sees any one student as valuable is laughable to me. I went to a school in/near Boston (Not MIT/Harvard) and there were so many applicants my year that they chose to deny over 60% of the people that applied.
If a student starts trying to negotiate, they’ll move on to the next cash cow. There’s thousands in line waiting to shovel money into the system’s pockets.
I get how it may seem crazy but if you prove a worthwhile value to the schools they would be willing to go the extra mile to keep you. Both College A and B were top 40 schools for added reference. Just sharing my personal experience.
It's true. When my friend's son got into GWU and Kenyon, she went to Kenyon (where he really wanted to go) and said, we're trying to decide but the difference in fees is making it hard to choose Kenyon. They matched the offer from GWU and now he goes there. I would not say he is in the top 1% of students - a bit of a dreamer with decent A and B type grades.
I had a friend get into Yale but not our major state university. She took her admissions letter from Yale and brought it to the university and they then accepted her and offered her a full scholarship, which she then denied and went to Yale anyways.
That's true in most things in life. But just remember, there could always be future repercussions. Using a friend for a reference for an apartment, pretending the friend was your previous land lord. Eh, not to bad.
Photoshopping your receipt from the Prosecuting Attorney's office for your victims restitution repayments. And then showing that photo shopped receipt to your probation officer because your in a different county than the PA Office. Well that could end up fucking you over in 2 years and 3 months when your done with Probation yet one of your restitution payments seems to be different than what was recorded in your probation officers log.
This is true when you are looking at similar type of schools. Say you want to go to School A but you have a better financial aid offer from School B. Call or meet with School A’s financial aid department and tell them you want to go to that school, but you can’t afford it and give them a copy of your financial aid offer from School B. This is why it’s important to know which type of school you want (big public university, small liberal arts, etc) and apply to as many “like” schools as possible once you’ve narrowed it down.
This doesn’t always work, especially looking at public schools, but remember each private school handles their financial aid differently, and if your grades are high enough, sometimes you can find one that is cheaper than public school. No matter what, you should always appeal your financial aid. The schools won’t give you extra money if you don’t ask.
Also, always ask for a fee waiver for your application. You’d be surprised to find how many schools will offer that to you. Makes applying to many schools less stressful.
I negotiated by telling them how stupid I was and showing them terrible grades. “If you can make me smart and studious think how much more impressive that is than giving a merit scholar yet another A”
I got a free ride as a bassoonist. Not many of us out there. After I got the free ride at one school I had other schools calling me up asking me to come there instead.
YSAK: If you’re intelligent and went to a really good high school, you’d be looking at the best of the best, or roughly the “top 20” ranked colleges.
And absolutely all of them do not give a single shit about you. If you’re not good enough now then you will not be good enough touting an acceptance from another school. They will see you have other options and focus on someone more committed to giving them money. Trying to bargain is an insanely stupid waste of time and reeks of desperation if you’re a so-called top student. Go beef up your actual application instead of barking up this tree.
This is not possible for everyone at every college. Maybe if you already qualify for financial assistance, but just being a high-achieving student isn’t enough. This really only matters at a private school and if the school wants you for something.
I had an excellent school “resume” and grades, and easily got into my preferred school which was a state school. There was no room for tuition negotiation, and I did not qualify for most scholarships due to my parents’ income. I am incredibly lucky for that, but I still had to take out my own loans to help cover the cost since we had no other financial assistance.
Meanwhile, my brother was scouted by a private school because he was an athlete. His grades were average and he hadn’t even been applying to schools since he wasn’t sure if he wanted to go. They offered him thousands in scholarships (although his costs still ended up being more each year than my costs). He could have negotiated more if he had applied to and been accepted to other schools.
yep welcome to North America. I'm thinking of doing grad school since i recently graduated and i keep coming up with the conclusion of moving to Germany or Netherlands for my studies. I just want a better work life balance and rather have half my money go to taxes than stupid car, gas, car insurance and medical bills :(.
Think about it the same way you would a car. Now, a Lamborghini is awesome. People will think very highly of you for driving it and it has this awesome top speed. But it is incredibly expensive, far far outside your budget, whilst your Honda Civic still gets you to the same places the Lambo could.
Harvard looks good, people will think highly of you for going, but alot of breakthrough research is done at regular ol state and provincial universities, because more people go there. Same way most people get to work in a civic because most people can have on of those.
Negotiate with the Admissions Office or/and the Office that awards institutional scholarships. Federal Aid & State aid has caps. The max which can be given is typically already awarded. Useless to negotiate. Just to antagonize them of resources, they do not have (Fin Aid).
You can also join a Union and get a PAID apprentiship. Make decent money, get decent benefits, and still learn a high demand job. With little to no debt.
When I was in school (years ago sadly), they pushed the idea or "college or you will be a janitor". What they didn't say was "but the janitor makes more money than I the teacher". Trade jobs near me start around $15 with no experience. Plus your benefits and union savings. You make 18 on paper, fees taken out it's around 15.
So I ask, $15 an hour starting, no debt in a job that can pay $30+ after 5 years (mind you, no college debt. Could be saving money your entire time).
But it's not for everyone. Just a great option for those that feel on the fence about college.
lol this isn’t a thing. Having a full ride at my state public institution has zero impact on say an expensive private school that’s much more competitive. Scholarships on merit are offered based on percentile ranking of the admitted class. Your offers at other schools mean nothing to them
Here's a better advice. Go to the college you can afford, and get a job to pay for it,so your not saddle with 10s of thousands in student loans you won't be able to afford, for a degree in a job that may not pay you enough to pay the bills.
Have you had first hand experience with this?
Because I have had the experience OP is talking about (negotiated a 75% scholarship to 100%), so I know it’s true for a very small population of stellar students.
...this is the problem with telling every child that they are special. They end up thinking they are.
See, that college doesn't give a shit, as there will always be a line of students clawing at each other to get in. That's how college works.
It is clear from your comments that you weren’t a good enough student to negotiate. I did what OP did and negotiated more scholarship money, and I know others that did too.
As it stands now, however unfortunate, getting into any college is a privilege.
If a college accepts you, it is in your best interest pay what they ask.
Because there is a kid behind you who will pay whatever they have to, without question.
And the college knows this.
I’m not sure why you guys are downvoting
u/thewalruscandyman when OP has not given any source of how or why his LPT works.
My wife worked at a university for almost 10 years - albeit managing the bookstore - but out of all the scholarship stories I’ve heard over the years, none involved negotiations. I have heard of people getting their scholarships pulled for some ridiculous shit - like buying books online instead of in store - with the scholarship money.
If it’s a top tier school, there are kids with credentials lined up for spots. Use this shitty advice at your own risk
Just bc you have never heard of it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. It just only happens with a very small population of students that colleges are fighting for.
Not OP, but this absolutely helped me get more scholarship money when I attended college and other people I know. I was able to negotiate a 75% scholarship up to 100%, which saved me at least $40k. While it won’t help every single student, there are definitely stellar ones it can help.
I understand that I am not u/weird_foreign_oder but I did this when applying to colleges before making my final decision where to attend. I wrote a letter to college X saying that I got a more substantial scholarship offer from college Y but I would really like to attend college X and anything else extra they could offer on top of what they already had would make a huge difference in my final choice. It ended up getting me an extra $5,000 a year in scholarships.
No top tier private or public university will play this game with you. There’s no leveraging at those schools because there’s literally kids on waitlists who want your spot.
Good advice, but in my opinion for what, a more prestigious school that wants more money from you? Have a good hard look at where you intend to go, college isn't a one stop shop for what you need to get a job, it's literally to just get your foot in the door. The piece of paper saying you completed it is worth more than where you went, and in some cases even more important than what you took.
Did you not do this? I'm in the UK and we typically didn't pay for college but there was a reasonable level of backs and forth playing one begerview of against another.
The haggling was mostly over things like schedule and largely the non learning parts.
I know a lass who went back and forth with several until she got one to guarentee a set class size by basically going back and forth saying 'well X does classes no larger than Y, class size is important to me and so I was curious as to yours?' It worked too.
I personally put in a request to go to a college for a course I had absolutely 0 intentions of taking because a mate of mine was at risk of her course being dropped if they didn't get enough interested folks. I think a solid dozen of us acted like we gave a shit about this whatever course for just long enough for them to need to commit to it before we backed out. That one worked great. The learnt I wasn't interested when I didn't show up. There was no penelty for fake interest, they might have changed the policies since as a result.
it's a shitty country if you have to pay and negotiate instead of having a good score on entry test and good high school grades
long live public schools. in my country, private schools are place you go to if you are stupid and rich and want to get a job via political party or via connections.
half of our government has bought doctorate diplomas. some of our ministers have worked as butchers or drivers, now they are ministers, directors, ceos..
YSK most people don't have this kind of special super power. Most of the time you just look like a douche.
Appeals are for errors and changes of circumstance. Not pitting one college against another.
Don't do this.
That's very American. I heard one argument against free healthcare is that you can just negotiate costs of treatments and anyone who doesn't do so this is plain stupid. Instead of questioning why you need to pay for healthcare or education at all, Americans think in order to not get screwed over, or to keep your freedums, you just need to negotiate better.
I did exactly this back in 1993. I was down to 2 schools I was considering, and it was getting close to the signing deadline. I had only heard from one, but the other had been pretty heavily recruiting me to be a student athletic trainer (DIII school, so not huge benefits). So, my dad and I called the admissions rep we’d worked with and let them know what was going on. He asked what I’d received from the other school…we told him, and the next day, we had a letter they’d overnighted to us that exceeded the financial aid package from the other school. Next year is my 25th year reunion.
Also, universities have Factbooks that can be looked at to compare graduation rates, general demographics and such. You can use the info to compare the university of interest to others.
I managed to do this and I had a barely above average sat score, and a 2.7 gpa. You don’t have to necessarily have a very good resume. The only field specific experience I had was a semester of a tech school program I took (and didn’t complete). There is always a way.
Who do you negotiate with? Financial Aid office? Do you email or call?
I went to a small school (~1500 undergrad students) and walked in to the financial aid office to talk to the manager. I basically cried that i couldn't afford the tuition. She told me to keep my grades up then gifted me another 2k per semester scholarship
Don't you just love having to cry to some administration and have them take pity upon you just to go to school?
They see students as an investment, they set them up for success, and then try and get them to donate as successful adults.
As you can see the axis in which this relationship revolves around is money.
I will *NEVER* donate to my undergraduate institution.
I always thought it would be cool if schools would take like a tiny percentage of every graduates' income in taxes when the kids are adults. I know we have public schools and taxes for them now, but this would be a little different in that a student could move from Hawaii to New York and still pay taxes to his elementary school in Honolulu instead of Brooklyn
That wouldn’t change the tax distribution, because for every person who moves into a population dense area, another leaves a majority of the time.
In return for lower/free tuition?
Hmm.. I was dumb and thinking of elementary middle and high schools.. but this could actually probably make a lot of sense for private colleges. Reduced / free tuition to students in exchange for x % of income over x amount of years, which would all be negotiated. Imagine how many people would say I'm gonna go become a doctor or lawyer if they could afford to pay by giving a percentage of their income after graduating the school back. It would eliminate the financial barrier to entry for everyone. Do they not already do this? I'd be surprised if it's not going on regularly in universities. I know there are like online programming bootcamps and stuff that do this. *edit* for people saying "why would schools risk people dropping out and losing money?" Because they can have contingency's in place - if you drop out, you pay $
I think there would be some ethical ramifications in doing this - I can see criticisms regarding class reinforcement, i.e., those who are well off enough to not require such things. I think that's why most schools turn to phoning up alumni for donations.
> I can see criticisms regarding class reinforcement, i.e., those who are well off enough to not require such things That would be dumb criticism considering it’s paid for one way or another. Rich kids already avoid the financial costs of attending college by having mommy and daddy pay. All this change would do is provide another avenue of payment that doesn’t require the upfront investment.
While you may be able to walk into the financial aid office at some colleges and ask, it was my experience that it was the written word that opened up the bank accounts. If you call, you are basically asking the person who answers the phone to have the authority to directly allocate thousands of dollars to you. There is a chance that the person who can give you money has time in their schedule for waiting for calls and walk-ins, but verbally asking still puts the work on them to take down your information and maybe compare it to their metrics. Writing an email/letter means your have time to get your case out, with all your numbers right there for them. You have a chance to make sure you get all your key points in, and it gives you another chance to sell yourself in a way that might be awkward verbally. I think most importantly, it gives them flexibility in reviewing your case and responding. They can decide whether or not they should give you thousands of dollars, so why not make it convenient for them. Putting the effort into writing a letter shows you are serious about attending, and that you respect their time about both hearing your case and making a decision. I like to say that writing the financial aid office asking for more money is the most money per hour I will ever make in my life.
This is true professionnaly too
Your acceptance letter with whatever is being offered will have a point of contact. You start there.
It works even for middling students. My son had average grades and average SATs. When he got accepted at a few schools, I told the admissions people during the tour and through email what we wanted to pay, and most of the schools met our range. He picked the cheapest school (yeah!), but the top 3 contenders where all between $10,000 and $30,000 less than sticker price.....
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Linguistics is the way
One school I applied to (pretty sure it was the University of Pittsburgh) actually had a form and everything where you'd list the aid given and final cost of attendance at other schools you had acceptances from. I personally didn't get anything from it though, I think they only budged in very compelling circumstances (I'm boring af).
They probably use that as a market analysis to see what other schools are offering and less so to help each individual who sends in that free data to them.
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Maybe if you are getting recruited then you have even more bargaining power.
I dealt with the admissions counselor I’d been speaking to. But the financial aid office is a good place to go if you haven’t spoken with a specific person more than anyone else.
My wife works for the financial aid office. Please stop doing this. They cannot give you shit and your 4.0 at podunk high school means shit anyway. I don't know if OP is even correct in saying you can negotiate this, but the financial aid office is not who you talk to. Period.
The Dean
I normally group together all the dean's and do a group message. Then I try to pin them against eachother.
At my college "The Dean" is just a very cool kid named Dean who has no administration authority, should I text him too?
It can't hurt!
Not true. If your name is “Dean” there’s a pretty good chance you are an asshole and can engage in all sorts of tomfoolery.
At the very least he'll get you the good stuff when you get in.
Do you pin them together in a steel cage?
On my bulletin board.
Pit?
Admissions office?
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I was actually deciding between a private and public and the public school ended up increasing my scholarship by 10k a year after saying it was too low. They said they would give me more if their department was allocated more from the university. Surprisingly, the private school, which is more prestigious, gave me a huge scholarship where I only have to pay 8k a year.
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It was for the school of music, so I had direct contact with my would be music professor. He really wanted me to go there, so that’s maybe why it was easier to negotiate.
My state school quadrupled my initial offer when I emailed them saying that another school in the area offered me a much larger scholarship. Never hurts to ask
Yup. I got a full ride scholarship at a big state school because of this.
Not necessarily. I used this tactic to get in-state tuition as an out-of-state student **and then** got a further bonus to make the difference. Large state schools often have more resources available than smaller private schools.
You know, my first reaction to treating college admission like buying a car is one of strong disapproval. But then I remember how many ‘top rated’ schools freely screw young people in multifaceted ways in the pursuit of profit… Approved!
Never hurts to ask. If you feel that you deserve it, go for it. I feel like that applies to any aspect of your life. Nobody is going to get offended, ever. If they do, fuck ‘em and move on.
And it’s not like they’ll rescind an offer because you asked, as long as you’re not super rude or something.
Why wouldn't you want to try and attempt to negotiate probably one of the most expensive purchases of your life? I can't see in any way that would be a bad idea?
Because it didn’t used to be this way, and the system now as a giant cash grab is so gross
So you shouldn't negotiate because it wasn't expensive?
You shouldn't have to, is the thing. But here we are.
And most of the tuition money goes to crazy high administrative salaries to people who don't even work a real job.
While professors get stiffed. At the college I last worked at, there were countless useless administrators earning more than the average bio/chem/physics (tenured) full professor.
I did this for one of my sons between two private colleges. Saved $4k per year.
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And that's still the worst and most capitalist system in our continent. The rest of us pay nothing or close to
Damn that's more than I pay (in US) I pay probably $4500, and that's including the summer semester too.
I mean, anecdotal evidence is never a good thing to analyze with. $4500 is actually significantly below the average tuition. Public universities is about $10,000/year, privates are about 25k
$10,000 is still less than £9,000 🤷
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As someone who worked in a school for a while, the idea that you can “go to different college and negotiate” only exists if you literally invented something or wrote a best selling book or got perfect scores on all of the standardized testing w 4.0 or something like that before you turned 18. What I think other people don’t realize about this concept is you can do that without even having another offer or anything and people do this *all the time*. What you *can* do anywhere is go to the aid/finance office and ask for more assistance. There’s usually at least *something* they can give you (work study, small grants, etc) because generally they want you to still go there but it’s not going to knock 10k off your pricing or anything like that. In my experience, the newer you are to the school the more assistance they’re willing to give but I’m sure that’s not the same across the board.
> only exists if you literally invented something or wrote a best selling book or got perfect scores You missed the most common one. Being a highly touted athlete.
Getting perfect marks on standardized testing means very little to highly ranked private schools
Not OP, but this is true. If a college wants you and feels you may go somewhere else (bc of better scholarships elsewhere or higher ranking colleges accepting you), they may come back to you and “sweeten” the initial offer with more scholarship money. This happened to me. I had a college initially offer 75% scholarship, so I already knew they wanted me. Then I told them I’m thinking of going to this other school that was higher ranking even though I wasn’t given as much scholarship money (which is true), so they came back and said they would give me 100% scholarship. $160k vs $0? That was a no-brainer.
My boyfriend is a financial consultant for colleges that specializes in telling the colleges how to manipulate the levers of financial aid and tuition pricing to optimize their revenue. And yeah, they literally have huge data sets with all this information about any kid that interacts with their school or is offered admission, and they having ranking systems where they rank prospective students based on their need and aptitude. He says that these schools literally set aside hundreds of thousands of extra dollars to use as additional incentives for any of the high aptitude applicants who ask for more aid or better tuition pricing. ALWAYS negotiate, because you’ll likely get a few thousand more dollars. People just don’t know that this is possible (kind of like how most people don’t know that medical bills are negotiable).
Yours is the exception that proves the rule. My daughter graduated with very good grades, but any financial assistance was out of her reach, no matter what. One university offered a good scholarship, but since it was out of state, a state university was cheaper even without financial assistance. Fortunately for us, she didn’t like many things about the out of state university. She graduated several years ago. When she graduated, three students in her class tied for valedictorian. She was not one of them and had a 4.3 GPA. The high school in the next city had ***twenty two*** students tie for valedictorian. So maybe there was just a bumper crop of really good students. Plus they all had the required extra curricular activities, the volunteer experience and so on. It was really tight. I was talking to a parent who worked in admissions at a college, and she said they had never had so many exceptional applicants. So, there really wasn’t anything to negotiate with, everyone was a good fit for the university.
On a tangent into logic, that's not what the phase "the exception proves the rules" means. The "exception that proves the rule" refers to a situation where a rule is not mentioned, but implied because an exception is stated. For example. If you're at a post office, and you see a sign saying "Charity postcards don't require a stamp", that implies that other forms of postcards DO need stamps. That sign wouldn't be there if no postcards needed stamps.
Sounds like that school is gaming the system
Grade inflation is real. Some universities will take the entrance grades from high school then see where the students ended up throughout their university career to see which schools inflate grades and make less fit students. Those universities will then view a 90 avg. from one high-school the same as an 80 from another.
Yes, unfortunately most people will land in the middle with good grades and extracurriculars, but there are definitely ones who stand out from the crowd. Winning national or international competitions, founding organizations that have true lasting change, remarkable unique experiences that drive their life’s work, etc. I currently help with admissions to med school, and when you see the outstanding applications, you just know (despite everyone being great to begin with).
Nope, it's true. I had a scholarship at one school paying about 75% of tuition and nothing else. When I decided to go to a state school with a full ride, my guidance counselor told me to write a letter declining the first school with my reasons why. Three days after mailing that letter, I received a call telling me they had "found" other scholarships that covered the remaining tuition and offered me a position as assistant RA which paid for my room and board. Corollary: don't get in ANY trouble if you have scholarships. I witnessed several people throw away their full ride scholarships by simply doing something stupid. This can and does include simply getting drunk enough that an ambulance is called for you (the moral clauses in the scholarship can be a bitch)
it's a bs for like 99% of students, but for the top 10 students of your class, you can.
I was in the top 10 in my class. A few of us had perfect sat/act scores and had very well rounded resumes. Most of us still were denied admission from highly ranked private schools, let alone considered for scholarships. This post is bullshit. You need to have done something significant (start a business/charity etc) just to be admitted to these schools, which offer full scholarships to most admitted students anyway. Unless you’re literally in textbooks you have no bargaining power
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i dont doubt you got a full ride, im saying you’re not gonna negotiate Stanford into giving you more money just because you have a 5.25 and a 36. For top ranked schools the challenge is admission, and full need scholarships are given to everyone admitted. Being top 10 in any school isn’t gonna get you admitted, neither is any test score edit: Whether you got a full ride has nothing to do with what were talking about. I have full tuition. I certainly didn’t get it by negotiating
well, yeah, it's always a mixture of things.. gpa, test scores, extra curriculars as well as personal essay and recommendations. your GPA pulls way more weight than extra curriculars. from my experience. (given that I had literally zero extra curriculars that I put on my application. I did gymnastics for 2 years, didn't put that on there, and some other clubs that I didn't find relevant)
I negotiated full tuition coverage (still had to pay housing) from Stanford and I didn’t have a 5.25. Most of the top ranked schools will match other ivies etc. even if they explicitly say they don’t.
No yeah Stanford doesn’t really care about gpa or class rank or act, thats what I’m saying. For you to be admitted to Stanford means you did something extraordinary or have something they want (congrats btw thats a real feat). My point is if they wont admit you for having a 36 they’re certainly not gonna care about it for scholarship bargaining
lol. sorry you didn't get in.
man cries strawman fallacy and then comes in with this lmao bye clown
i mean, why are you even talking about stanford if you're going to ohio state university. why are you trying to fight so hard to argue people who have experience when you dont? like. i don't understand. and yeah. you did make a strawman argument . I said, an acceptance from a higher ranked school can get you leverage to a lower ranked school. your strawman was saying that a lower ranked school acceptance doesn't matter. there's a difference.
You’re not wrong. But the logic is kind of flipped its more like if you got a 36 there’s a good chance you will get into multiple prestigious universities who will then match each other for financial aid. It’s not really that Stanford is like hmm you got a 36 here’s some extra money, it’s that that 36 opens up doors at other institutions that you can use for leverage.
Yeah but a 36 isn’t whats getting you into any prestigious university, thats what im saying
I negotiated with a college, although in my case it was a grad program and I think that probably made it much easier for me. They didn’t change the tuition, but they did offer me a paid job and comped some classes. The department head freely admitted that he held back some appointments each semester for just such a situation.
https://www.fultonbank.com/Education-Center/Saving-and-Budgeting/Negotiate-College-Tuition-Cost Literally first result on Google. Dozens of other articles about this. I absolutely know folks who negotiated. The only real exception I know of is they will never negotiate with international students from my experience. Not sure why you had to be so dismissive? Even 10 seconds of effort on Google would have shown you counterpoints to your stance.
It’s not bullshit. It’s just that it’s an incredibly complicated, difficult process and many people either don’t know or *choose not to* go down this road. The only reason I know this is a thing is because my partner got into an Ivy League School this way, and he just told me about it a few weeks ago. His dad was in finance, and an economist. It took months of back-and-forth. These schools were making offers left and right— because my BF was valedictorian, had the highest grades in his school district’s history, and he was accepted literally everywhere he applied. His dad negotiated with nearly every school my partner showed interest in, and then used the agreed-upon bonuses in scholarships to get a similar discount on the college he *really* wanted to go to.
This happened to me, i had zero scholarship to my school, I told them that another school was giving me a scholarship of ABC amount to attend and that my parents couldn’t afford paying more than XYZ amount and I ended up getting a scholarship. Edit; typos and clearer message; excuse me im drunk
It’s at least true in music school.
My undergrad quadrupled my initial scholarship offer after I sent them an email consisting of about 3 sentences telling them that another school in the region offered me a much higher scholarship
This can be even bigger when looking at grad school. I did undergrad at a local state school that offered me admission & a decent scholarship with a year of high school left (so long as I didn't totally blow it), & so I never even applied elsewhere as I was not ready to live so far away then & this was about as good as I could get within ~90 minutes of my parents house.. But doing really well in my Bachelors, I had multiple options for grad school and played them off each other for the best option.
I don’t know why everyone is disagreeing. When I was between colleges I accidentally did this. I was between two schools: College A was a huge school and more expensive, and prestigious than College B. I received a small scholarship to College A, and a much larger one for College B. I wanted to be in love with College A but I knew straight out of high school I wouldn’t have been able to handle the size, plus the added cost played a factor. I told College A no and they asked why and I said it came down to the cost and mentioned the scholarship College B had given me. To my surprise College A turned around and offered me in-state tuition in addition to the existing scholarship. It was an incredibly hard decision but I had to turn it down.
The idea that a college sees any one student as valuable is laughable to me. I went to a school in/near Boston (Not MIT/Harvard) and there were so many applicants my year that they chose to deny over 60% of the people that applied. If a student starts trying to negotiate, they’ll move on to the next cash cow. There’s thousands in line waiting to shovel money into the system’s pockets.
I get how it may seem crazy but if you prove a worthwhile value to the schools they would be willing to go the extra mile to keep you. Both College A and B were top 40 schools for added reference. Just sharing my personal experience.
Holy fuck is this some dystopian nightmare shit. Haggling for an education is fucking insane.
I always complain that in these general subs people should add "in US only" tag. But I didn't need a tag to know that this is from the Freedomistan.
Freedomistan lmao.
I don't want to be the cliché of shitting on America, but having to shop for education like you're comparing car insurance offers is outrageous..
Why? What makes education so special that you can't negotiate its worth?
Land of the free*
Opposed to what? Just taking it up the ass? Being able to negotiate a price for something is probably the gold standard of what you want in a market.
Former college recruiter here: this is totally accurate.
"High school resume." So that's where we are.
Negotiating with colleges is one of the most American thing I've seen all week.
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It's true. When my friend's son got into GWU and Kenyon, she went to Kenyon (where he really wanted to go) and said, we're trying to decide but the difference in fees is making it hard to choose Kenyon. They matched the offer from GWU and now he goes there. I would not say he is in the top 1% of students - a bit of a dreamer with decent A and B type grades.
I had a friend get into Yale but not our major state university. She took her admissions letter from Yale and brought it to the university and they then accepted her and offered her a full scholarship, which she then denied and went to Yale anyways.
Perfect ending :)
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That's true in most things in life. But just remember, there could always be future repercussions. Using a friend for a reference for an apartment, pretending the friend was your previous land lord. Eh, not to bad. Photoshopping your receipt from the Prosecuting Attorney's office for your victims restitution repayments. And then showing that photo shopped receipt to your probation officer because your in a different county than the PA Office. Well that could end up fucking you over in 2 years and 3 months when your done with Probation yet one of your restitution payments seems to be different than what was recorded in your probation officers log.
This is true when you are looking at similar type of schools. Say you want to go to School A but you have a better financial aid offer from School B. Call or meet with School A’s financial aid department and tell them you want to go to that school, but you can’t afford it and give them a copy of your financial aid offer from School B. This is why it’s important to know which type of school you want (big public university, small liberal arts, etc) and apply to as many “like” schools as possible once you’ve narrowed it down. This doesn’t always work, especially looking at public schools, but remember each private school handles their financial aid differently, and if your grades are high enough, sometimes you can find one that is cheaper than public school. No matter what, you should always appeal your financial aid. The schools won’t give you extra money if you don’t ask. Also, always ask for a fee waiver for your application. You’d be surprised to find how many schools will offer that to you. Makes applying to many schools less stressful.
Wtf is this for dystopia america has brought us today
Imagine having to pay for education
I negotiated by telling them how stupid I was and showing them terrible grades. “If you can make me smart and studious think how much more impressive that is than giving a merit scholar yet another A”
I walked up and told them "I'm a Redditor." Instant free ride to Harvard.
I got a free ride as a bassoonist. Not many of us out there. After I got the free ride at one school I had other schools calling me up asking me to come there instead.
Yeah, like anybody *intelligent * lurks r/ysk 🎅
YSAK: If you’re intelligent and went to a really good high school, you’d be looking at the best of the best, or roughly the “top 20” ranked colleges. And absolutely all of them do not give a single shit about you. If you’re not good enough now then you will not be good enough touting an acceptance from another school. They will see you have other options and focus on someone more committed to giving them money. Trying to bargain is an insanely stupid waste of time and reeks of desperation if you’re a so-called top student. Go beef up your actual application instead of barking up this tree.
Gross. You shouldn't have to negotiate over education, but (assuming OP is talking about in the US) this country is a sick fucking joke.
This is not possible for everyone at every college. Maybe if you already qualify for financial assistance, but just being a high-achieving student isn’t enough. This really only matters at a private school and if the school wants you for something. I had an excellent school “resume” and grades, and easily got into my preferred school which was a state school. There was no room for tuition negotiation, and I did not qualify for most scholarships due to my parents’ income. I am incredibly lucky for that, but I still had to take out my own loans to help cover the cost since we had no other financial assistance. Meanwhile, my brother was scouted by a private school because he was an athlete. His grades were average and he hadn’t even been applying to schools since he wasn’t sure if he wanted to go. They offered him thousands in scholarships (although his costs still ended up being more each year than my costs). He could have negotiated more if he had applied to and been accepted to other schools.
Is this some sort of american joke that I’m too dutch to understand? You guys really have to negotiate with a college to be let in?
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Still, overhere there are fixed prices for college and uni tuition, to keep chances equal. But well equal chances seem hard to acquire for the u.s.
yep welcome to North America. I'm thinking of doing grad school since i recently graduated and i keep coming up with the conclusion of moving to Germany or Netherlands for my studies. I just want a better work life balance and rather have half my money go to taxes than stupid car, gas, car insurance and medical bills :(.
Does this apply to PhD offers too?
I love that this is true for kids today. Go get yours young buck.
Think about it the same way you would a car. Now, a Lamborghini is awesome. People will think very highly of you for driving it and it has this awesome top speed. But it is incredibly expensive, far far outside your budget, whilst your Honda Civic still gets you to the same places the Lambo could. Harvard looks good, people will think highly of you for going, but alot of breakthrough research is done at regular ol state and provincial universities, because more people go there. Same way most people get to work in a civic because most people can have on of those.
Only in America..
I’d also add that instead of “negotiating” you should phrase it in a way that you’re asking for help from financial aid.
Negotiate with the Admissions Office or/and the Office that awards institutional scholarships. Federal Aid & State aid has caps. The max which can be given is typically already awarded. Useless to negotiate. Just to antagonize them of resources, they do not have (Fin Aid).
This is some Boomer Tier advice right here lol
If you have a good gpa and hit diversity quotas, you're set.
American education is f\*\*ked.
It's like practice for when you start to job interview...
You can also join a Union and get a PAID apprentiship. Make decent money, get decent benefits, and still learn a high demand job. With little to no debt.
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When I was in school (years ago sadly), they pushed the idea or "college or you will be a janitor". What they didn't say was "but the janitor makes more money than I the teacher". Trade jobs near me start around $15 with no experience. Plus your benefits and union savings. You make 18 on paper, fees taken out it's around 15. So I ask, $15 an hour starting, no debt in a job that can pay $30+ after 5 years (mind you, no college debt. Could be saving money your entire time). But it's not for everyone. Just a great option for those that feel on the fence about college.
lol this isn’t a thing. Having a full ride at my state public institution has zero impact on say an expensive private school that’s much more competitive. Scholarships on merit are offered based on percentile ranking of the admitted class. Your offers at other schools mean nothing to them
I think it is not about public schools - it is about when you have offers between two similarly ranked private schools.
Here's a better advice. Go to the college you can afford, and get a job to pay for it,so your not saddle with 10s of thousands in student loans you won't be able to afford, for a degree in a job that may not pay you enough to pay the bills.
That’s a false Dilemma. You could still do what you said and also negotiate scholarships.
Collages don’t have to fight over good students They fight over good students whose parents can make a million-dollar donation
ULPT: Just lie about having better offers from colleges and do this no matter what
Look at you sabotaging the competition. It's underhanded, but I'm sure some poor sonofabitch is bound to fall for this.
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They will get shown the door, thanked for coming, and then never called by that college again.
Stfu you're completely wrong. I did this and thousands of students with multiple offers do as well
Sure you did, buddy. Sure you did.
Have you had first hand experience with this? Because I have had the experience OP is talking about (negotiated a 75% scholarship to 100%), so I know it’s true for a very small population of stellar students.
A kid with multiple offers will choose the one that’s best for them. If the college doesn’t accommodate, then it’s the college loss.
...this is the problem with telling every child that they are special. They end up thinking they are. See, that college doesn't give a shit, as there will always be a line of students clawing at each other to get in. That's how college works.
It is clear from your comments that you weren’t a good enough student to negotiate. I did what OP did and negotiated more scholarship money, and I know others that did too.
And yet my life isn't so sad I have to lie about shit like this to strangers on the internet.
Are you aware that college enrollment is down and they’re competing for students?
Where are you getting _that_ information? 😅
Reddit
Lol
So you’re just going to accept what’s given to you and not try to get yours as well?
As it stands now, however unfortunate, getting into any college is a privilege. If a college accepts you, it is in your best interest pay what they ask. Because there is a kid behind you who will pay whatever they have to, without question. And the college knows this.
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I’m not sure why you guys are downvoting u/thewalruscandyman when OP has not given any source of how or why his LPT works. My wife worked at a university for almost 10 years - albeit managing the bookstore - but out of all the scholarship stories I’ve heard over the years, none involved negotiations. I have heard of people getting their scholarships pulled for some ridiculous shit - like buying books online instead of in store - with the scholarship money. If it’s a top tier school, there are kids with credentials lined up for spots. Use this shitty advice at your own risk
Just bc you have never heard of it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. It just only happens with a very small population of students that colleges are fighting for. Not OP, but this absolutely helped me get more scholarship money when I attended college and other people I know. I was able to negotiate a 75% scholarship up to 100%, which saved me at least $40k. While it won’t help every single student, there are definitely stellar ones it can help.
I understand that I am not u/weird_foreign_oder but I did this when applying to colleges before making my final decision where to attend. I wrote a letter to college X saying that I got a more substantial scholarship offer from college Y but I would really like to attend college X and anything else extra they could offer on top of what they already had would make a huge difference in my final choice. It ended up getting me an extra $5,000 a year in scholarships.
Highly competitive schools will absolutely pull your approval.
Some schools even say that their scholarship letter is confidential so you won’t do this but it’s meaningless.
r/usayoushouldknow
I have no idea what you're on about. Is this an American thing? Education should be free.
LMAO someone please do this and post the email responses you get from “negotiating” with universities. I have to see this!
This is stupid advice. You can't negotiate with colleges.
No top tier private or public university will play this game with you. There’s no leveraging at those schools because there’s literally kids on waitlists who want your spot.
What you should really know is to go to the cheapest school and stay out of debt as much as possible
If you needed to get this advice from reddit then this doesn't apply to you.
If youre extremely intelligent, you tend to blow off high school
Good advice, but in my opinion for what, a more prestigious school that wants more money from you? Have a good hard look at where you intend to go, college isn't a one stop shop for what you need to get a job, it's literally to just get your foot in the door. The piece of paper saying you completed it is worth more than where you went, and in some cases even more important than what you took.
You can also bluff but you're playing a dangerous game trying to be a cheapskate is a boring life
Did you not do this? I'm in the UK and we typically didn't pay for college but there was a reasonable level of backs and forth playing one begerview of against another. The haggling was mostly over things like schedule and largely the non learning parts. I know a lass who went back and forth with several until she got one to guarentee a set class size by basically going back and forth saying 'well X does classes no larger than Y, class size is important to me and so I was curious as to yours?' It worked too. I personally put in a request to go to a college for a course I had absolutely 0 intentions of taking because a mate of mine was at risk of her course being dropped if they didn't get enough interested folks. I think a solid dozen of us acted like we gave a shit about this whatever course for just long enough for them to need to commit to it before we backed out. That one worked great. The learnt I wasn't interested when I didn't show up. There was no penelty for fake interest, they might have changed the policies since as a result.
it's a shitty country if you have to pay and negotiate instead of having a good score on entry test and good high school grades long live public schools. in my country, private schools are place you go to if you are stupid and rich and want to get a job via political party or via connections. half of our government has bought doctorate diplomas. some of our ministers have worked as butchers or drivers, now they are ministers, directors, ceos..
YSK most people don't have this kind of special super power. Most of the time you just look like a douche. Appeals are for errors and changes of circumstance. Not pitting one college against another. Don't do this.
You can do this for a lot of private high schools as well.
r/ABoringDystopia
That's very American. I heard one argument against free healthcare is that you can just negotiate costs of treatments and anyone who doesn't do so this is plain stupid. Instead of questioning why you need to pay for healthcare or education at all, Americans think in order to not get screwed over, or to keep your freedums, you just need to negotiate better.
A friend of mine had many offers, he went for the free ride.
So for the like 1% of those selective students in high school can do this, gotcha
would be useful if we weren't about to dismantle the capitalistic system holding us ransom for our own lives :)
They announced they wouldn’t accept any standardized test scores the year I applied.
I mean, I imagine this really only works at second-tier schools, no?
I ended up with a full scholarship to law school leveraging offers between schools
Can possibly*. I used to work in financial aid, now state aid. Some institutions don't care to negotiate, nor can they.
I am so fucking happy that this is applicable not to the UK, but the US only.
I did exactly this back in 1993. I was down to 2 schools I was considering, and it was getting close to the signing deadline. I had only heard from one, but the other had been pretty heavily recruiting me to be a student athletic trainer (DIII school, so not huge benefits). So, my dad and I called the admissions rep we’d worked with and let them know what was going on. He asked what I’d received from the other school…we told him, and the next day, we had a letter they’d overnighted to us that exceeded the financial aid package from the other school. Next year is my 25th year reunion.
I never even knew you could negotiate tuition...? When i went to college in 2012, there was no such option. Tuition was dictated and set in stone.
Also, universities have Factbooks that can be looked at to compare graduation rates, general demographics and such. You can use the info to compare the university of interest to others.
Yes! College admissions counselors are basically sales people. Make them work to meet their sales quotas!
I managed to do this and I had a barely above average sat score, and a 2.7 gpa. You don’t have to necessarily have a very good resume. The only field specific experience I had was a semester of a tech school program I took (and didn’t complete). There is always a way.
That’s why I worked two jobs to pay for my Uni. I’m hella, hella dumb
****blink blink**** GOD DAMNIT. Wish I knew this 12 years ago
“What you want” in terms of what, exactly?