Can I ask for more money?

[cshal]

Hi all, 

I've found myself in a position for which I am very grateful, but which has also made me super super anxious. I've been accepted to two Master's programs, one in my home country at my undergrad institution (in Canada) and one at a top-tier school in the UK. My undergrad institution isn't super well-renowned, but the program is generally viewed as one of the best in the field in the country. Both schools have offered me funding, along the lines of this:

School A (Canada) - $30K for one year; tuition is $11K and cost of living relatively low

School B (UK) - $14K for one year; tuition is $30K and cost of living very high

In Canada and the US, it's pretty common (from what I gather) to straight up ask for more money for a grad program. I have no idea if this is acceptable or ever done in the UK, and would really, really appreciate any insight from anyone who has done this before (successfully or otherwise) or really anything along these lines.

 

TLDR: Can I negotiate my grad school funding offer from a top-tier UK university? 

Thanks all!!!

Edited March 9, 2017 by cshal

[TakeruK]

Will you attend the UK school if they cannot increase their offer to you? If the answer is no, then you basically have nothing to lose by asking for more. Let them know that you cannot afford to attend without more funding and see what happens. The worst that could happen is that they say no and you're in the same position as you are now.

If you might still consider the UK program then I think it's still worth asking but I understand that you don't want to commit a huge faux pas before accepting an offer. One safer way to ask is to ask if there are any other sources of funding that might be available for you to apply to, instead of just straight up asking for more money. But maybe someone with more experience with UK schools can provide guidance here.

That said, as almost all foreign students here will tell you, it's a lot harder to get a good funded offer as an international student, especially for a Masters program. Usually the best funded offer will come from your home country (don't forget all the costs to move to the UK too). Tuition as a foreign student, in any country, is often much higher! Also, foreign students are eligible for far fewer sources of funding (Canada actually has one of the better government programs to fund international students compared to the US and the UK). So even if the school wanted to offer more money, they might not have the means to do so.

[cshal]

Hi @TakeruK - thanks for the quick response! I am definitely in the second camp I would say. It would be a struggle but I would try to make it work. And like you said - if I asked it would definitely be in a really tactful, polite way. I was more thinking along the lines of thanking them for the offer, sharing that I was a bit anxious about the $ situation given a really appealing funding offer closer to home, and asking if there were any other scholarship/research positions/etc. etc. that they might know of. Because the UK school is definitely on the more prestigious side, I don't want to come in sounding like I think I deserve more money when I know that other applicants probably have pretty impressive profiles. Sigh.