Negotiating Scholarships

To get things started I found one link. It is for law school, but I think the same principles apply:

https://www.top-law-schools.com/forums/v ... 22&t=79373

Conrad and the Stacy Blackman Team,
While I appreciate your response I COULD NOT DISAGREE WITH YOU MORE. As someone who is going through the admissions process right now I have found that 6 out of the 7 schools I was accepted to have increased their scholarship offers after some negotiating on my part. In fact, every school I spoke to was not surprised at all when I asked for scholarship increases (some even had a standard form that I had to fill out). I would like to encourage everyone to negotiate scholarships. Respectfully, I hope this isn't the advice you give to your clients....

- H Man

hman768 wrote:Conrad and the Stacy Blackman Team,
While I appreciate your response I COULD NOT DISAGREE WITH YOU MORE. As someone who is going through the admissions process right now I have found that 6 out of the 7 schools I was accepted to have increased their scholarship offers after some negotiating on my part. In fact, every school I spoke to was not surprised at all when I asked for scholarship increases (some even had a standard form that I had to fill out). I would like to encourage everyone to negotiate scholarships. Respectfully, I hope this isn't the advice you give to your clients....

- H Man

since you have the experience...do you mind sharing more details? are you trying to get certain schools to match what another offered you? or are you trying to get them all to increase?

You're right. That wasn't fair of me to not explain. I'm actually working on a much lengthier full debrief but here's a short version:
First, I think the instructions in the link I provided above are pretty much dead on. If you have a competing off then most schools will try to beat it. Perhaps only by a few thousand, but who would complain about saving that? I composed an email to each school and attached a copy of each scholarship offer I had as well as all acceptance letters to schools that were better but hadn't offered me scholarship. In 4 out of 5 cases they upped their offer. I only did this one round. I would imagine that it's possible to do it more than one round, but not as likely.
I think the thing to remember is that the admissions office is not going to reject you because you ask for more money. I was always very polite and respectful. Good luck! And I'll post my final debrief link here when I make it!

hman768 wrote:You're right. That wasn't fair of me to not explain. I'm actually working on a much lengthier full debrief but here's a short version:
First, I think the instructions in the link I provided above are pretty much dead on. If you have a competing off then most schools will try to beat it. Perhaps only by a few thousand, but who would complain about saving that? I composed an email to each school and attached a copy of each scholarship offer I had as well as all acceptance letters to schools that were better but hadn't offered me scholarship. In 4 out of 5 cases they upped their offer. I only did this one round. I would imagine that it's possible to do it more than one round, but not as likely.
I think the thing to remember is that the admissions office is not going to reject you because you ask for more money. I was always very polite and respectful. Good luck! And I'll post my final debrief link here when I make it!

thanks! congratulations on all your acceptances and scholarship offers...that's very impressive and i hope i'm fortunate enough to be in that situation.

i look forward to your full debrief...and best of luck!

I also think it's definitely doable to negotiate scholarships even with top schools. After being admitted, you want to make sure that you develop a relationship with your adcom contact and through that relationship, I think it's perfectly fair to talk to them about the schools you are considering and why financial aid is important to you. I was very candid about financial aid and I think this conversation definitely benefited me as I received significant financial aid from both top schools that I was talking with. If a school has admitted you, they strongly want you to be in their class and will take steps within reason to help you make a positive decision in their favor. Best of luck!

I just saw this blog post on mba Mission and thought of you--it doesn't really tell you anything new, but maybe you'll still find it of interest:
https://www.mbamission.com/blog/2011/03/ ... arships-2/

Any updates on how that's going for you? We'd love for you to share.

Ooh, and while I was trying to find this thread, I also found this:
https://educatedoutcomes.wordpress.com/2 ... the-offer/

Hey chynasdawl - you just got me motivated so I just posted what I've been writing for a while. It should be right under this thread.

Hi,

I only have 3 quotes for you:

"You never know until you ask"
"It's not what you ask, it's how you ask"
"You'll more likely regret the things you didn't do than the things that you did"

Ask away. What the worst can be?

Si Pham
CMU MISM Fall 2011
Please help my CMU dream: https://www.MyCMUDream.com

Just wanted to comment here:

School 1 offered me 50k in scholarship money
School 2 offered me 30k in scholarship money

I sent School 2 the offer letter from School 1 and they bumped their scholarship offer to 40k

I also wanted to add that every job I've had through college and after college I've negotiated the starting salary. 3 out of 4 employers bumped up their offers. Negotiating is common practice in business and it most certainly is in business school.

Yes. Please know that scholarships are negotiable. I was formerly the Associate Director of Admissions at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis and am happy to help.

What is your specific question?