Can you barter with colleges?

[Anonymous]

With rolling admissions, DC has officially been accepted to her first choice school! However, it's still about 5-8 thousand dollars over budget, which would have to be taken out in loans. No chance of need-based aid, so we're thinking that with her scholarship notification, the price is set. Can we call of the office of fin aid and say we need X to make your school a reality, what can you do?

Sorry if this is a dumb question. First timer here and I know how much DC loves the school, so we want to make it happen for her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With rolling admissions, DC has officially been accepted to her first choice school! However, it's still about 5-8 thousand dollars over budget, which would have to be taken out in loans. No chance of need-based aid, so we're thinking that with her scholarship notification, the price is set. Can we call of the office of fin aid and say we need X to make your school a reality, what can you do?

Sorry if this is a dumb question. First timer here and I know how much DC loves the school, so we want to make it happen for her.

I read an article on this very topic about a year ago, wish I could remember where I saw it. But the overall point of the article was yes, you can. It takes finesse, though.

[Anonymous]

Bartering only works when you are in demand. If not, the the school has no reason to take a cut rate for you when there are 1000 other kids behind yours willing to pay. Now, if the school you're looking at had fewer students enroll/commit than it intended, there would be reason to barter (supply and demand).

99% of the time, however, I don't think you can barter.

[Anonymous]

OP - are you talking about Pitt?

Pitt will reconsider/consider your request if your DC has received more from the "same level" as Pitt schools. Otherwise, it won't work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - are you talking about Pitt?

Pitt will reconsider/consider your request if your DC has received more from the "same level" as Pitt schools. Otherwise, it won't work.

No, not Pitt. That is on her list though and she got accepted, but ya, probably a tad pricey. They gave her nada.

[Anonymous]

It's probably negotiating rather than bartering. Bartering would imply you were offering an in kind exchange. Does she have other better offers in hand already? That puts you in a better position. If not then it's not clear what you are negotiating against.

[Anonymous]

Ask. You got nothing to lose.

[Anonymous]

I've heard cases - if receiving a better financial aid package at a comparable school - of faxing the financial aid award letter and a school (private) matches it. Haven't heard it re: a public. Haven't heard of a public matching another's scholarship/or merit aid.

Unfortunately, full pay should always be anticipated with any break in tuition (scholarship/merit aid) as a sweetener. Op, I know this is so frustrating. Unfortunately, you also have to consider:
-that costs will rise and scholarship may not keep pace.
-if the scholarship is gpa dependent, the gpa may not be met in the future. And it may not be entirely the student's fault. As parents we have no information re: grade distribution in various
classes. The college does, we don't. Your student shouldn't have the stress of needing to keep a certain gpa to continue at that university. IMO
-seems like everything ends up costing more than anticipated.

[Anonymous]

As long as you do it politely, you definitely have nothing to lose. Depending on the school, they may come back with additional merit funds. I had one young lady offered an on-campus job with a stipend (not work-study) in a situation like this. I've found that it works better at smaller liberal arts/private colleges.

I'd also encourage your DD to look into applying to as many smaller outside scholarships as possible! It's incredible to me how many students don't apply to scholarships in the $1000 range, bc it doesn't seem to make a difference- but can really add up or at least make a dent.

(Former college counselor)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As long as you do it politely, you definitely have nothing to lose. Depending on the school, they may come back with additional merit funds. I had one young lady offered an on-campus job with a stipend (not work-study) in a situation like this. I've found that it works better at smaller liberal arts/private colleges.

I'd also encourage your DD to look into applying to as many smaller outside scholarships as possible! It's incredible to me how many students don't apply to scholarships in the $1000 range, bc it doesn't seem to make a difference- but can really add up or at least make a dent.

(Former college counselor)

Thanks for your insight. I'm a new poster. We are hoping for need-based as well as merit aid as we're a single parent family. So far my DD has heard back from six of her eight schools, and has been accepted by five of them. Two SLACs have offered fairly substantial merit aid, one $6,000 more a year than the other. Is this the time to try to negotiate with the school with lower aid or should we wait until the spring when aid packages are finalized?

[Anonymous]

Here's an NYT story about families appealing their packages...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/05/your-money/paying-for-college/for-many-families-college-financial-aid-packages-are-worth-an-appeal.html?_r=0

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As long as you do it politely, you definitely have nothing to lose. Depending on the school, they may come back with additional merit funds. I had one young lady offered an on-campus job with a stipend (not work-study) in a situation like this. I've found that it works better at smaller liberal arts/private colleges.

I'd also encourage your DD to look into applying to as many smaller outside scholarships as possible! It's incredible to me how many students don't apply to scholarships in the $1000 range, bc it doesn't seem to make a difference- but can really add up or at least make a dent.

(Former college counselor)

Back in the day, I got smaller outside scholarships (Rotary, you name it) and they lowered my merit for each one (new income) and we had to take out an emergency loan.

[Anonymous]

We are lucky to make enough as a family where we could afford to send DS to practically any school she wanted.

Still, it did come up between Hubby and me sometimes about the money situation and DD's school choice early on in the process. Don't think we would have bartered if it came to that, but would have taken out loans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are lucky to make enough as a family where we could afford to send DS to practically any school she wanted.

Still, it did come up between Hubby and me sometimes about the money situation and DD's school choice early on in the process. Don't think we would have bartered if it came to that, but would have taken out loans.

Totally obnoxious humble brag with no relation to the OP's question. Why did you post, PP? Are you feeling smug, since you don't need $$ to send your snowflake to college. That's nice, but irrelevant to the OPs question.

[Anonymous]

I heard from a parent that his friend's daughter was offered a package at her second choice SLAC (merit aid), and went to her first choice SLAC and asked if they could match the package. They did, and his friend's DD went to that school. This was in the midwest, two fairly competitive schools.

Our guidance counselor said you can negotiate with schools, but your child has to be in demand. I would wait until you get more acceptances, OP, and then go in and ask for more $$ with an acceptance letter with a higher $$ offer attached to it. Otherwise, the first school has no incentive to give you any more $$.

Best of luck, OP. It's tough these days for those of us in the doughnut hole -- not eligible for FA, but can't pay those high tuition bills colleges charge, especially privates and OOS publics.