blinksand_winks

Hi all! First off, congratulations to everyone who has been admitted and best of luck to those who have yet to hear back/been waitlisted. I am fortunate enough to have been admitted in two of my top choice (MA) programs and am wondering if anyone has any experience negotiating funding packages they have received upon admission. I'd appreciate any insight as to how I may best go about this, seeing as I had no idea this could be done until a few days ago when negotiation was mentioned in my acceptance letter. I have a couple concrete questions, but any anecdotal answers are appreciated! - Do I need to have dependents/extenuating circumstances, or just competing offers? Do I need a reason/other offer at all? As it stands, I will have to take out loans regardless of which offer I accept despite having no dependents/greatly extenuating circumstances. - One of my offers (X) is technically lower but on par with/greater than the other (Y) considering the cost of living in X city is much lower than in Y city. - What do people usually negotiate? I feel like negotiation can amount to anything between "Please give me more stipend money" and "Could I have another guaranteed TA-ship?" and I definitely don't want to come off as presumptuous. Obviously, I will find a way to phrase things much more professionally. Any help is appreciated, please let me know if you have answers to questions I haven't thought of!