How to ask for more money

[shellyeah]

Hey everyone,

I've heard of some folks bargaining with a school to increase their scholarship. I received a $12,000 scholarship at NYU, my school of choice. I was hoping to talk about increasing that a bit due to my very low-income status.

Do you any of you have experience with this? If so, who is it that I talk to? Is an in-person ask better than a telephone or emailed ask?

Thanks

Edited March 23, 2010 by shellyeah

[bhdavis1978]

Hey everyone,

I've heard of some folks bargaining with a school to increase their scholarship. I received a $12,000 scholarship at NYU, my school of choice. I was hoping to talk about increasing that a bit due to my very low-income status.

Do you any of you have experience with this? If so, who is it that I talk to? Is an in-person ask better than a telephone or emailed ask?

Thanks

Hi Shellyeah,

I've never tried to bargain for extra scholarship money, but in my experience it's always better to go talk in person for anything. It's much easier to say "no" to an e-mail than to a persons face. Plus, going in person shows initiative. E-mail or call whomever you have to and schedule an appointment (always better to schedule an appointment rather than just showing up).

I'd say it depends partially on exactly who is giving you the money. Is it the University as a whole, or is it an externally funded scholarship? If so, you might be able to convince your department to give you some money, since you're bringing money into the department with you (i.e. maybe they can cover some of your tuition, etc). But , as I said, I've never attempted to do something like this, so ymmv.