<p>As I posted above, what do you have to lose by asking? We were initially offered zilch (which is what I expected from FASFPA – or whatever those letters are). I thought the decision did not take into account the amount of income left after our [high / California] housing costs were taken out of my [relatively high / California] salary. As it turned out, all I really needed to do was tell them about Harvard’s offer [see above] – which HAD taken that into account – but I had no qualms about asking for FA even before I knew about the matching policy. </p>