I went ahead and asked Yale, Harvard and Princeton - Yale asked me to please send in my offers from Princeton and Harvard and they will be reviewed by the dean, Harvards response was pretty much a cold no.... I have not yet heard back from Princeton but I sent them the email a bit after I sent Yale and Harvard the question. 

The schools quote insane sticker prices for the education and then encourage students to accept by offering subsidized loans, grants and other gimmicks that soften the pain and may disquise the true cost of the education.  This all reminds me of the tech bubble, housing bubble, etc.  Funny money games.  Winos getting home loans on the theory that housing prices can never come down.  Taking on any significant amount of debt for an architecture degree is just not advisable.  Doctors doing it have rational expectations of a high income to pay it off.  Architecture is a different kind of profession.

http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2016/03/22/2016-2018_is_looking_a_lot_like_2007-2008_to_me_102074.html

@Median I've heard that the GSD financial office tends to do that... Have you heard about financial aid from Yale? I haven't heard from them yet... Which school are you thinking about choosing? 

@honolulu yale send their financial offers on friday. If you did not get one means they lost your application probably. I sent them and email and told me that this thing happened. Send them an email asap. I tried to ask for more money from columbia but they answered with a cold no.

Does anyone know if it's better to call or email the office of financial aid to discuss financial aid leveraging? I have an email with an offer from another school I'd like to get Yale to match, and am wondering if it's better to call and tell them I can send that or just send it off right away and let them decide? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks! 

@international_applicant

- Thank you, I just emailed them. Hope to hear back soon.. You used Yale as a leverage with columbia? 

@geometric_oddity 

- I would also like hear advice regarding your question. 

I pretty much used all my acceptances (harvard, yale, berkeley, ucla) as leverage with columbia but still nothing. It is ok. If it wasnt for this i would propably would not be able to rule out any uni

@honolulu_ I had a friend that was able to leverage some additional incentives from Yale (ability to choose studio professors) but nothing more. This was also last year - it seems like they're having more technical difficulties this year. My offer from Yale was the lowest out of all of my offers. I am curious about your "full ride grant" from Princeton though - is it actually a full ride or a grant? My understanding is that they only offer scholarships, fellowships, or stipends. My offer from them specifically said that they don't offer full rides - it was about 80-85% of full tuition (they list tuition as about $49k)

@redlined

-I see.., You're right. Princeton offered a fellowship that would cover 95% of the tuition. I considered to be pretty much a full ride considering that they offered it to extend over the course of three years. GSD's financial offer is only for the first year. I'm wondering how much aid  I would get during my second and third year there.. 

Full ride for Princeton? But you are considering GSD?

Oh man, if I were you I would go to Princeton without no hesitation.

Princeton is definitely better school than GSD. Every architecture students know that.

$120,000 vs $30,000?

Princeton vs GSD?

but you are considering GSD?

Are you crazy dude?

^ without no hesitation? Lmao. We know who you are. 

@honolulu_ That same friend also received an increase from the GSD but it was very last minute - like the day of the decision (so April 15th this year). They didn't ask for it - my guess is it just happened because they were one of GSD's top applicants and had waited until the end to make the decision. Even then, my friend still chose MIT. 

I would recommend speaking with Keith Gnoza at GSD. I was directed to him with my financial questions and he was extremely helpful. In short, they say that it is very unlikely for that grant to change if your finances don't change much while in school. Obviously, they can't guarantee financial grants. Any scholarships though are guaranteed for every year.

And again, I'm going to assume that by 95% you mean closer to 80-85% unless Princeton is falsifying their offers... 

Best of luck in your decision making process!

is shanghai girl the latest iteration of that dude who is trying to get off the GSD waitlist by telling everyone else to take offers from princeton/columbia/yale etc?

@Dangermouse apparently so. It is way too obvious since his way of writing is basically the same in every post. Seriously I don't understand his fixation with GSD, we are here to offer helpful advice and then people decide themselves what they want to do. 

@AstridCam , @Dangermouse 

Hey dudes, what are you talking about?

You guys think a person who selects MIT or Princeton rather than GSD is all a person you think?

Lmao.

Ridiculous fellows.

And also I am giving people advice that the actual ranking of M.Arch school is

Princeton>MIT>GSD=Yale

Okay?

@shanghaigirl nope, just too obvious. This is just a heads up for all those fellows out there who are reading this and might be influenced by deceiving rankings and comments. 

@AstridCam I would hope that people aren't too influenced about graduate school decisions by comments from anonymous individuals on an internet forum haha

I highly doubt that @honolulu_ will choose Princeton over GSD (or vice versa) simply because @shanghaigirl's dude-licious comments