nextgen2010

No to my appeal as well. Would love to hear from anyone else who appealed, especially those whose appeal was approved. The more data points the better!

Two questions regarding SIPA's financial aid award appeal process, for anyone who wants to chime in. On the financial aid appeal page, they ask you to indicate the "additional amount of funding you are requesting, per year." What do people think about this? Is it best to throw out a huge number, at or approaching a full ride? Or should I just indicate that I want them to fund me to the point that the cost of attendance matches the COA for a competing institution I've also received funding at? Or something in the middle? They also ask you "what your financial plan is if your need is not met?," letting you check boxes including "student loans," "assistance from family," "use current savings and/or earnings," "further attempts to find a sponsor and/or external funding," "reapply in future with more savings and an attempt to receive more funding," and "I will not be able to enroll without more funding." I am leaning towards choosing that last option, as presumably it puts me in the strongest negotiating position. My only concern would be if they get back to me and say "well if that's the case, we take back your admission/existing scholarship in order to give it to someone else." Is there any other downside to just selecting the "I will not be able to enroll without more funding." option and none of the others?

Bumping this! Have the same question.

Are there any issues with putting down a deposit at multiple schools? Or is it standard practice to do so? Because alongside putting down the deposit its kind of like signing a contract in a way, no? I remember that when applying to college you could only apply Early Decision to one school and backing out I'm pretty sure would caused some kind of repercussions. Just wondering if this situation is at all comparable.

Can anyone who has successfully negotiated an increased offer speak to when in the process they made their request? For example, in my position, I have multiple offers, some better than others, but all from great schools (SIPA, SAIS, Fletcher, etc.), any of which I think I'd jump at if they offered me a full ride (my best offer is 2/3 tuition at this point). My current plan is to visit all the schools during their admitted students' days over the next few weeks, and then after I really have a feel for which programs/places I truly prefer among my 5 options, reach out to the top 1-2 and ask for more funding. My parents think this is the right approach, as it will allow me to more honestly tell the schools that after visiting that they are my top options. The idea is that once the schools know that they are truly my top option, with funding as the only obstacle, they might be more generous/open to granting me more funding. On the other hand, I could reach out right now to all of them asking for more funding, to match the 2/3 offer, but not necessarily indicating to them they are my top choice (I could also tell all of them they are my top choice but at first glance, that would seem a bit disingenuous. Although it is true to the extent that if any of the programs offered my a full ride they would immediately become my top choice.). The reason to do this would be if I thought that the schools might have a smaller pool of funding to draw from if I make my request in 3 weeks compared to making the request now. Any thoughts?