Negotiating Scholarship money

Has anybody here negotiated scholarship money between two schools? I will go to the better school , but want to see if I can get more $$$ Any ideas?

Has anybody here negotiated scholarship money between two schools?
I will go to the better school , but want to see if I can get more $$$

Any ideas?

Well - i have no experience with this. I have only one admit :)

But then the best thing u can do is to say "Listen school A. I have so much free money from school B. As an international applicant/admit, this is a huge amount of money for me and the free money reduces my debt significantly. I am not comparing school A with school B, and even if i do that, i dont find any clear winners between these two schools. This option from school B is particularly attractive for me. I am curious if you guys in school A can offer me ANY free money."

You shud, at no point of time, give the impression that u r saying "hey school A, i will come to you ONLY if i get so much free money from u. If not, i will be going to school B".

This is a tricky game - so play it safe 😃

Has anybody here negotiated scholarship money between two schools?
I will go to the better school , but want to see if I can get more $$$

Any ideas?


Whatever you do, just do it politely and carefully. Be very diplomatic. Also, from what i know, lower rung schools can cave in but schools such as Duke, NYU, and Cornell wont even give a damn. Direct co-relation between demand and supply. I dont have idea on the other top schools. But no harm in trying.

Good Luck! and i would refrain from naming the other school. The adcoms are pretty connected and i would just not tell the school that you are negotiating with about the name of the other school. But, like i said earlier, your pitch should be more about why *money* is your factor in deciding. Explain it politely and it would work-out just fine.

From what i know after speaking to alums from almost all top-15 schools, repaying the loan is a darn big thing and it takes a pretty long time. People come from India (who have never been to US) thinking about greener pastures and then reality hits them real hard irrespective of which school they attend.

Good luck with your decision and PM me, i might be knowing some people in the schools you are enrolling or having a tough time negotiating.

I can talk about my experience. After I received my scholarship decision from HEC, I was not satisfied with the scholarship amount( i guess no one is 😉 ). I spoke with the alum who interviewed me and he told me to negotiate. I tried but it did not work. :(
May be the thing that worked against me was that I did not have another admit and they knew it.
I don't think there is any harm in trying it if you can put your point across politely. It would definitely help your cause if you have another admit and you can let the adcom know about it.

Edit> I've split this thread into two.

If you discussing the original topic,tips, successes and failures(God Forbid!) continue right here.

If you discussing re-payment and all that jazz continue below

http://www.pagalguy.com/discussions/us-mba-loan-and-re-payment-worth-it-a-discussion-25020338

Would love to make this a sticky since quite a few have this dilemma. DO pour in views related to the Thread Topic

i kinda tried this with rotman. during the interview this year they asked me how would i arrange the money this year(i had an admit last year which i rejected saying that i couldnt arrange the kind of money). so i told them that i was hoping for some schol from them this year, besides ive researched some options fr loans etc. i then added that i also have a free ride from iowa, and that i would think of that option. i added that i didnt think that school(iowa) was so great because of the location.. and that i would definitely try my level best to get into rotman.

but lets see whether they got my msg... still havent hrd frm rotman. mebbe they decided that i was being too much of a studboy and decided to ding me altogether!!

Guys , thanks all for your inputs.
I'm sure its tricky and some schools mention in the offer that it is non-negotiable.
Will update you if it works.

Hey guys why dont you invite Mr. Senapati in the discussion.
I remember he has more than one scholarship offers...
( one from Stanford, and one from Wharton ) He chose to go to Stanford...

I dont know whether he is frequent visitor of the forums these days so better you guys ping him; he would certainly put some valuable post here 😃

This is how I tried to negotiate:
I have got admits from 2 colleges A and B. B is not reputed college, offered me 75% scholarship. I mailed B saying that I need 100% scholarship to get my visa easily, with my present financial situation I cannot support my education as well as living expenses. I have an admit from college A(a very reputed,highly ranked college) but I will not be attending as I am very much interested and eager to attend in B due to some XYZ reasons!
B has obliged and I have 100% scholarship from B! 😃

May we know which colleges are A and B?

Some of the schools I know have this in their admission packet:

"The scholarships offers can be reconsidered if there is a significant improvement in the test scores and the admitted student has a promotion at workplace to share with the Scholarship committee in writing."

Hmmm now.... Any thoughts on retaking GMAT post admit? :neutral: Crazy... but a gamble... what say folks?

Hi All,

With ref to this discussion, what if you dont have a schol at all. I am really upbeat about this particular school but no scholarhsip offer from them. How should i take it up, I cant mess it up I believe , now that I have an admit.
Any pointers will help?

Best,
Hansy