Please, sir, may I have more?

[numbereight]

I'm sorry if this has been covered before, but do any of you have suggestions for how to ask for more funding from your school?

my situation:

recently accepted to PhD program at private school that typically doesn't offer much funding to students

35K year tuition

10K scholarship in the works

2-8K grant possible

so ~15K in funding is good, but I am still on the verge of saying no because in sum, it's a bad financial decision and i will consider alternative options. If they don't offer ~15K in funding then i will certainly have to ask for more money or decline the offer. There are other funding opportunities available on campus, but i wont know about them until i actually get there, long after i've decided to accept/decline.

they are very interested in me and I have an excellent record of producing research, so i think i have a leg to stand on.

any ideas are most appreciated.

[rising_star]

You can always politely ask if you can get more money...