echolikebells Posted March 7, 2012 Posted March 7, 2012 I'm sorry if this is a completely ridiculous question, but I'm a little lost here. I've seen people talk about using offers from one school to negotiate with a school you'd rather go to, but got less funding for. I think I have a pretty good feel for how you go about doing that, but who do you contact? Like if I have an offer for financial aid from School A and I'd rather go to School B, I'm going to approach someone at School B and tell them I really would love to go there but since I have a funding offer of X amount at School A, I'm not going to be able to attend unless there is some avenue to proceed down to get more funding at School B. But who is the someone I approach? The school I need to negotiate is a huge chain of institutions, starting with the program, then department, then college, then graduate school, then university, and everyone has different contacts.
electrochoc Posted March 8, 2012 Posted March 8, 2012 Who has been your point of contact there? If you have a POI, then you could approach them tactfully. If not, I'd go through the department head. Though again the key word is tactfully, if you don't have a lot of sway it might actually hurt you. But the POI is usually the way to begin.
TMP Posted March 8, 2012 Posted March 8, 2012 Your POI. Most POIs have a good idea of funding packages at their peer institutions. So simply name that you have a generous offer of X years from University Z and the POI's program is truly your top choice. Is there a way that a better offer can be made? Something along those lines. Keep it simple.
DeeLovely79 Posted March 8, 2012 Posted March 8, 2012 You should contact the person who has the most to lose if you decide not to attend your program. This would normally be your potential adviser. If you haven't been in contact with this person or matched to one then you should talk to the director of the doctoral program (this should be the person who informed you of your acceptance). I think going to the department chair would be go over someone's head.
echolikebells Posted March 10, 2012 Author Posted March 10, 2012 Thank you to all three of you for your help! I really appreciate it.
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