discussing financial aid

[cyborges]

if you'd like to appeal for some financial aid reevaluation THROUGH your department(sweetening the deal, say), who do you talk to? The Director of Graduate Studies? Or through the person most likely to go to bat for you? It seems I don't have any one-on-one meetings during my visiting day, but I'm weighing two offers and could be convinced to decide if I had a bit more funding.

apologies if this has been answered elsewhere. if so, could someone post a link?

[cyborges]

ok, now that i've come to my senses, i've managed to find the insane "begging" thread. unfortunately, it is so massive and catty that I couldn't actually glean any information from it. Is there anyone out there who wonders how you should go about getting a bit more funding?

Someone in the other thread mentioned that leveraging a deal would come across as ungrateful and would change the perception of the candidate. I wonder if this is true -- shouldn't a school want the people who they accepted first to attend? Obviously, being tactful is essential. What do other people think?

[jasper.milvain]

In my experience, simply telling a grad chair that another school was outbidding hers was enough to get me multiple thousands of dollars added to my offer. She knew that grad students don't like talking about money, so she asked me outright for the details of my other offer. I think it's expected. Be tactful, but at least try.