Leveraging Midwest LAC merit aid on the East Coast?

Palidad · 02-28-2006, 05:01 PM

Our S (last of two) received generous merit-based discounts of $15k and $14k from two midwest LACs. How best to go about seeing if two somewhat other eastern LACs will throw a financial bone to us (we have an older D at a full tariff LAC).

One of the eastern targets offered a straight admission...the other is pending. No way can we qualify for true financial aid, whiuch I guess is just good news. we just would prefer not to pay $80k for two years and another $40k for two more.

Email to Finance office with copies of the letters following by mail? Wait for the final acceptance (My! Aren't WE optimistic!?!?).

Thanks for your thoughts in advance.

northeastmom · 02-28-2006, 05:44 PM

Palidad, I asked this question not too long ago, but it was about negotiating with a school that offered no merit aid, since we have offers from other schools. They are on the same coast, similar sat midranges, and some offers are from schools with the same sticker price. The answer I got was that you really cannot negotiate (ever use that word, by the way)merit aid, only finacial aid. I am giving up on the idea, unless I read differently on your this thread.

Palidad · 03-02-2006, 09:20 AM

bump this puppy...see if we can get some fresh eyes tio review this...

northeastmom · 03-02-2006, 09:58 AM

BTW, I meant to say never use the word negotiate, at least so I have repetitively been told.

scottaa · 03-02-2006, 10:02 AM

Some schools will negotiate, some schools won't. But as northeastmom said, don't ever use the word negotiate. FAO's don't like that word. The proper term is "appeal".

We routinely prepare letters for situations such as yours. I recommend you write a letter to the schools summarizing the awards from the other schools. Put it in a table under the following headers: School Name; "Cost of Attendance"; "Free Money rcvd" (grants & scholarships); "Self-help rcvd" (work-study & loans); and "Out-of-pocket Cost" (COA - Free - Self-help = OOP cost).

A statement such as "Is there any opportunity to increase your award so it may be closer in line with the other schools?" Is a fairly dimplomatic way of saying give me more money. If your student wants to be at one of the east coast schools rather than midwest, you might include something about his desire is to be at your school, but it's hard to pass up this much money.

You might also include copies of the award letters, but don't send the copies without a letter such as described.

northeastmom · 03-02-2006, 10:13 AM

scottaa, Would you send this to the financial aid office, or to admissions, or elsewhere? Would direct it one place if it were a fafsa only school, and another place if it were a css profile school? Would you suggest faxing for quicker response? Lastly, I assume you would need to wait until the whole financial aid offer were presented from another school, so they could see the OOP cost. Just curious, if these merit scholarships are based on merit how well would this work for someone qualifying for no or minimal financial aid? I mean they could not increase the financial aid offer by thousands, if you just do not qualify. They could not give more merit, or suddenly offer a merit award, if you did not qualify (perhaps a little more wiggle room here). Scottaa, please let us know from your experience what happens. If anyone else has any experience regarding this, please share it with us.

scottaa · 03-02-2006, 10:27 AM

As to whom to send it to... the financial aid office in 90% of cases. The office normally assigns student cases to specific officers. That's who will normally appear at the bottom on any correspondence. Send it to them. If you cannot identify who the FAO is, then send it to the director. Always send it to a specific name or it runs a much higher risk of being round filed.

Timing... the later in the year it gets, the more critical timing becomes. It's probably ok to send it by mail (you might want to send it 2nd day or priority for tracking purposes) at this time. 3 to 4 weeks from now, faxing would be recommended for most cases.

The official financial award letter is preferable to any preliminary award letters. But for those families who did not go throught the complete financial aid process (GASP! Shame on you!), a preliminary scholarship award letter may be all you have.

Whether it is need-based or merit-based, the same factors come into play. In a nutshell, how attractive are you to the school. If your student is in the top 25% of the incoming freshman class, you've got leverage. If the student in the bottome 25%, you don't have leverage and should not expect much.

There are so many factors that go into this. I just put up a new audio workshop on one of my websites, www.cfstrategies.com . If you have 60 minutes, it may be worth your while.

And no body complain about me soliciting. This is the first time in over 300 posts I've mentioned my websites. But I think the audio workshop is pretty darn helpful.

northeastmom · 03-02-2006, 03:59 PM

Thank you for being so helpful.

scottaa · 03-02-2006, 05:17 PM

My apologies if I sound testy.

northeastmom · 03-02-2006, 05:51 PM

Oh, I don't think you sound testy. Without being long winded, you got right down to the heart of the matter about what needs to get done, if one wants to appeal. It is much appreciated. I have not had time to view your video. Things are so hectic here right now.

FresnoMom · 03-02-2006, 06:39 PM

Scottaa

Thanks for the info......very helpful.

When you write the letter to the schools summarizing the awards from the other schools......is it OK to list merit/need based awards from a state school?

My son has not received an official financial award letter yet, but it appears that he may have an almost full ride at one of the UCs in California.

Thanks

scottaa · 03-02-2006, 09:54 PM

I think it is perfectly reasonable to list all sources of money from the schools. It is all a factor in the decision making process.

FresnoMom · 03-02-2006, 10:11 PM

scottaa

you are a gem! thanks so much :-)

northeastmom · 03-11-2006, 07:04 AM

scottaa,

When you appeal, do you find appeals successful when you are talking about free money being financial aid, or merit aid, or a little of both types of aid?

As a parent the bottom line is the bottom line, regardless of what the free money is labeled, and regardless of the sticker price.

I am asking regarding similar schools in terms of the student stats. They may have different sticker prices (wonder how this plays out too).

scottaa · 03-13-2006, 10:38 AM

Just as you said... the bottom line is the bottom line. The colleges use the money at their disposal whether it be need or merit to attract the students to their school that they desire.

If the colleges use need & merit to attract students, then you should use need & merit to negotiate.

As to the free vs. self-help, generally the a school with more free money will give you more leverage over a school with more self-help. You can sometimes use one school's abundance of free money to change a self-help laden package from a first choice school.