How to Negotiate More Scholarships

Hey, guys! It’s Eric at Solution Prep. And as we get closer to decision deadlines the number one question I’m getting from parents and students is how do I get a little more money out of the colleges I’m considering before I send in my deposit; because once you do, you’re agreeing to the terms and it’s much harder to change anything.

I do about a 2 and half hour workshop on this every year. I’m going to give you a little bit of the highlights of the questions I get a lot of, and that is: how do I get more gift aid?

So you have to understand first there are two departments that give it. First, is the admissions department; they give merit based scholarships based on things like the strength of your application, your great grades, your great essays, your great test scores, your great extracurricular activities, and basically how badly they want you at their school. Because if they think you’re going to improve their profile, you’re going to increase their GPA, increase their average test score, you’re going to yield, retain, graduate; they’re more likely to accept you, and more likely to compete for you. So if they need you more than you need them you may be able to get a little more give on that scholarship before committing.

So students want to make the call to the admissions office. And they want to have offers in hand; because if you have a better offer from a comparable college or the same financial offer from a “better college” — one that ranks more highly or that has a better ranked program for your major — then they are more likely to compete with that offer. And you can tell them look, this is my top choice college, but I’ve got this better offer from this other school; can you beat it — if it’s a better school. Can you match it — if it’s the same caliber school. Sometimes they will do it, sometimes they will not, and sometimes they will meet you in the middle, and sometimes there’s paperwork to fill out and you have to attach the offer from the other school, so it’s got to be a real offer. So students have to make that call. Consider doing that before you make any other moves.

Next, you want to talk about the financial aid office. They’re the ones who are giving the need-based aid, and some colleges are committed to meeting your need, and some colleges are not. But whatever money they’ve offered you, if you need more, parents can make that phone call and say here’s who our student has been accepted. You are our top choice college, we’re very excited, but we have a change of circumstance, or we have a hardship, or we just can’t afford this college unless we can get some more scholarship money, unless we can get some more need-based grants. Is there any way you could take a new look at our financials and reconsider. That’s going to be your chance to appeal the financial aid decision. So again, if you have a change of circumstance, if you have a hardship, now is the time to explain it. If your situation is the same and you just need more money, now is the time to ask for it because if they want you, if they need to get butts in the seats, if they need to increase their yield, they may give you more money; so ask.

Next, students can call the financial aid office after we’ve gone through the first two steps, and ask if there are other scholarships I can apply for. Some schools will say no, we have considered you based on the strength of your application. And others will say yes, go to this website, here are some things you can fill out, here are some essays you can write, here are some scholarships you can apply for.

Finally, step four. Parents can now call that admissions office and say bottom line, brass tacks, we want our student to go to your college, our student wants to go to your college, but if you can’t meet this offer from this other school, or you can’t at least give us the money that your net price calculator that you will, or give us the average scholarship that the majority of students are getting we read in you common data set, then we’re just going to have to go elsewhere and you know maybe you’re bluffing and maybe they call the bluff and say sorry we can’t but we hope you choose us but we understand if you can’t. Maybe they blink, and they give you more money.

You’re going to get more nos than yeses, but if you try all four of these: student calls admissions, parent calls financial aid, student calls financial aid, parent call admissions — in that order — there is a chance that you might get some money. And if you do, it could be thousands of dollars, especially if it’s a year times four, especially if you’re reducing the amount of money you’d be borrowing. So you’re also reducing the fees and the interest on that loan. You could save tens of thousands of dollars if you try.

But in order to get any money off the cost of college you need two things: one, you need a number that you’re asking for, and two, you need a reason that you’re asking for it. So before you make that phone call, make sure that you have both and if you have questions, call us at 732-556-8220. We are here to help.