Oh, and you can play the financial games too - even with a school that says they don't negotiate financial aid. For us the college search came down to the final 2 schools, The Prestigious Institute (TPI) and Better Fit College (BFC).
TPI was offering a slightly better aid package, so DD expressed to BFC that she likes them, but going to TPI would let her graduate with less debt. BFC, after reviewing TPI's aid package, upped DD's award. I suppose it technically wasn't a negotiation, but it sure felt kind of like one.
Best of luck,
--S.F.
We had a similar experience. We went back to smaller private school with better fit versus big state school offering large NM scholarship. We said we know that you can't match the price but can you do better. They came back with a substantial scholarship that made it possible for us to say "yes."
