Negotiating Aid Package

[CellucciK]

Hello everyone, I recently was accepted to two of my top choice programs, Johns Hopkins SAIS and Columbia SIPA, and both came with some financial aid. I got $25k a year to Johns Hopkins and $36k a year to Columbia with the potential to get a $12k TA position the second year. I am waiting to hear back from several more universities but I was wondering what people think about trying to negotiate for a higher aid package at Johns Hopkins (slightly higher preference) given the aid I was given at Columbia? How does one go about negotiating this aid and when? Should I e-mail the financial aid department e-mail directly noting my scholarship at Columbia or should I just say that I received a higher aid offer from another school? Thanks for any help on this, completely new to this and I haven't seen many resources on how to best do this.

[Sigaba]

2 hours ago, CellucciK said:

Hello everyone, I recently was accepted to two of my top choice programs, Johns Hopkins SAIS and Columbia SIPA, and both came with some financial aid. I got $25k a year to Johns Hopkins and $36k a year to Columbia with the potential to get a $12k TA position the second year. I am waiting to hear back from several more universities but I was wondering what people think about trying to negotiate for a higher aid package at Johns Hopkins (slightly higher preference) given the aid I was given at Columbia? How does one go about negotiating this aid and when? Should I e-mail the financial aid department e-mail directly noting my scholarship at Columbia or should I just say that I received a higher aid offer from another school? Thanks for any help on this, completely new to this and I haven't seen many resources on how to best do this.

@CellucciK congratulations on receiving two offers from your top choices.

Previous threads that discuss the negotiation of financial aid packages are available here https://forum.thegradcafe.com/search/?q=negotiating

Edited January 3, 2020 by Sigaba

[CellucciK]

@Sigaba Thanks for the link, definitely useful information on the basics! I think that I have been able to answer many of my questions through this thread:

Hopefully that is helpful to others. If anyone has any input on my specific situation based on how the schools mentioned have handled funding in the past it would be much appreciated!

[graduate2020]

@CellucciK, congrats on your offers! I'm actually contemplating b/w SAIS & SIPA (haven't heard back from the latter yet). If I may ask, why do you prefer SAIS over SIPA? Just curious to know as I'm expecting an acceptance from SIPA (was accepted for spring 2020, but decided to reapply). Thanks!

[CellucciK]

SAIS is generally known in the field as the better school but they are both good. 

[Yass]

4 hours ago, graduate2020 said:

@CellucciK, congrats on your offers! I'm actually contemplating b/w SAIS & SIPA (haven't heard back from the latter yet). If I may ask, why do you prefer SAIS over SIPA? Just curious to know as I'm expecting an acceptance from SIPA (was accepted for spring 2020, but decided to reapply). Thanks!

I'm in a similar situation as I am already accepted by SAIS with good funding but waiting to hear back from SIPA. Why are these two your top choices since you got accepted into many other good schools. Particularly interested in your opinion about SAIS, SIPA and Harris. Congrats on getting accepted by so many great schools though!