UChicago Harris MPP - Negotiating Funding Process/Etiquette/Expectations?

[bartlebeedrill]

I think I'm just a little confused as to UChicago's intentions or expectations for negotiation system, given how formalized it is. There's a whole online form and even when I got the admissions call they even asked if I had received better offers from other schools. Is there an implicit understanding that if you request funding and receive it that you would accept that offer? Or is Chicago just gauging what we've heard from other schools?

 

 I know there's a lot of experienced folks on these forums, so please let me know if you have any insight on how to approach this responsibly.

Edited March 15, 2022 by bartlebeedrill
Removed details for privacy

[PolicyApplier]

1 hour ago, bartlebeedrill said:

I think I'm just a little confused as to UChicago's intentions or expectations for negotiation system, given how formalized it is. There's a whole online form and even when I got the admissions call they even asked if I had received better offers from other schools. Is there an implicit understanding that if you request funding and receive it that you would accept that offer? Or is Chicago just gauging what we've heard from other schools?

Anyway, I recognize that this is a very lucky situation to be in. But I know there's a lot of experienced folks on these forums, so please let me know if you have any insight on how to approach this responsibly.

Just based on timelines, I’d guess that you get to send them back your initial offers and they’ll send you what will be the final one based on the other offers you’ve received. That’s all intuition though and I can’t say for sure. I am interested to see what type of verbiage is used when submitting a request for more funding.

As far as obligations to accept their offer, I’m not sure they could do that. You could also technically back out until you go to classes and have just lost your initial deposit. I don’t think there’s a way for them to bind you to the offer one way or another.