Click here to go to the NEW College Discussion Forum

We were discussing our son's applications to a couple LAC's he is considering. We were discussing whether there is any financial aid advantage to applying several similar LAC's. In case he was accepted to several, but was offered different financial aid packages, might we be able to leverage more financial aid from his college of preference? I don't imagine financial aid officers would appreciate this being done in a heavy handed way but if it were presented in a "politically correct manner", is this done often/acceptable?

By Morgantruce (Morgantruce) on Tuesday, January 06, 2004 - 08:30 am: Edit

It is done every day. I'm not sure if politcal correctness helps, but tact and good manners will go a long way.

By Vadad (Vadad) on Tuesday, January 06, 2004 - 09:11 am: Edit

Something like this seems to get an answer other than "we don't negotiate:"

"School X offers 100% of need, just like you do. Yet when it evaluated our numbers, it came up with a figure $X higher (or a larger grant portion of the mix or whatever). Could you please take another look at your calculations and see if you may have missed something? S loves your school, and would come if we can make it work out financially."

If receptive, they'll usually ask you to fax over the other school's offer.