LonelyFishbowl

I know that Franklin W Olin College of Engineering offers full tuition, room, and board to everyone who attends. Mind you, the undergrad size is approx 300 students.

midmo

^^^I don't think Olin has offered free room and board for several years now. Tuition is paid for, but not room and board unless the student demonstrates financial need. Correct?

LoPro

Negotiate? Good question customsman. Does anyone have past experience negotiating with schools regarding merit aid if the school you most wanted to go to had a lower offer than the others you were considering? Do you mention the other offers when you "negotiate"??

FatherOfACT36

For the couple that asked about comparing aid packages (scholarships, etc) from one school to the next. Yes, show them what you are getting from another school and ask them why the difference. Let them explain it. From there, start acting. Tell them how this may make the difference, you are disappointed, etc. You really have to think about it. Ask them if there is any way they can make up the difference.
The schools say they don't adjust but if they want you, they will.
There was a good article in Newsweek about this a few months ago.
Usually you compare similar schools. In the same conference, etc. You can't compare an Ivy League school and most state schools. From the start, you apply to schools just to use them as leverage. It may be too late now to do this.

lkf725

Yes, yes, yes! I wish we knew this when my son was applying to schools, as the one he really wanted to attend gave lousy financial aid and would only consider comparisons from a handful of other colleges. Had we known this, he would have applied to "peer colleges" even if he had no intention of attending them.

HImom

We were able to get a slightly improved merit award from the school our S wanted to attend by mentioning the other school he was also considering and their merit offer. (He still would have chosen the school he is attending, but we hoped they might give just a bit more & they did--helps pay for books, but merit money is always good.)
The other school we mentioned is one that some students do attend instead of the school he attends & both are in CA with good engineering programs.

LoPro

FatherOfACT36 & HImom-Thanks for the info. I am anticipating a situation where I may need to negotiate and the schools are similar but the merit offers may not be! Good to know that some schools choose to be flexible in light of a reasonable comparison.

amber12

Leveraging the offers

If I may phrase a question in regards to leveraging the offers a different way, is it almost expected or understood that prospective students will negotiate in this way?

HImom

The situation has to be approached delicately; I don't think schools are "surprised" that there is some attempt to bring information about other offers the student is considering but they don't like to be made to feel they are "bidding" for a student.
I was very honest with the schools S was chosing among and said that he really wanted to go to 1st choice school but honestly funding is something we have to consider & he was offered $$$ from the other school which he was also strongly considering. The student has to accept that the schools may not budget from their initial offers & if there is need-based money, they may juggle it around a bit.

joecollegedad

is the leverage conversation of the form, ' we really would like to go to your school, but we cannot swing it financially. It is costing us $X at peer college A. If you can make it $X, we'd go' ?

if it is like this, does this mean one should be prepared to go with the college RIGHT THERE if they agree to your terms?

In other words, you cannot do this conversation serially, from one college to another?

I know we can try to do anything we want to, but I am asking about probable outcomes in this 'game'.

In other words, FatherofACT or other leverage experts, please game out or sketch out ways of negotiating, dealing, leverging, conversing for us people naive to such gamemanship.

mythmom

It depends how important small differences in money are to you and how much the student wants to attend a particular school.

Over a large grant I wouldn't quibble for let's say, $2000.00 (when I was getting close to $30,000.) And I just told my girl to forget it and choose the school she wanted.

If the separation were substantial I would have negotiated (this happened for S). However, he decided he wanted to attend the school that offered more money and I did not go back to the other school, or any others, with competing offers because the one we received was quite substantial.

In other words, I would encourage the student to choose the school and then try to adjust the money, not to go round robin trying to up aid offers. JMO.

rlm919

It really depends on the school. Some actually have a form you fill out asking for a review and listing the other offers. Others will flat out refuse any discussion of the subject. And many in between. I would recommend going to each college's forum here that your kid is considering and asking about it.

caressemh

Cooper Union gives full tuition to all accepted students.

Of course, their acceptance rate is like 10% :P

giajale

I got a 10k merit scholarship per year from Grinnell....

lindz126

my s recvd 25k merit from brandeis -- waiting to hear if recvd full ride at Washington and Lee (johnson scholarship)--good luck to all