This is a repost from Forbes.

Now you are prepared to negotiate the best price for college—see my previous blog—you need to start negotiating. A Forbes article a while back described good tips. Here are my four: you need Power, Logic, Language and Leverage.

1. POWER Be psychologically ready with a back up plan to exit and choose another school. The road to bargaining power is the well-marked path out the door. Being able to exit is the definition of bargaining power – one who has the least to lose by walking away from the agreement has the most bargaining power. Know your number – walk away from a number that is higher than that number; you have already determined what you can afford.

2. LOGIC Once you get the offer, write a letter that explains your argument to lower the price by increasing the aid. Follow up with a phone call or  person appointment with a financial aid officer. Keep track of everyone you talk to so that you can come back to any prior discussions. You have to make your case, be prepared to explain why what they think you can afford is not what you can. Explain other children’s needs, insecure job situation, debts, expectation of medical expenses. Gather up all the supporting materials you need to negotiate the price you can afford. Your negotiating party needs to have a reason to agree with you. Ask for a deadline extension. Since you are confident and prepared you will be nice, courteous, and hopeful. No one likes mean people, and pressure won’t help here. Trust me I am a New Yorker and I think I know when pressure and impatience works.

3. LEVERAGE Important leverage is negotiating college aid – not loans. Your leverage is any other offers your child has received. Come with research in hand on the total cost of attendance for all the schools your child has been admitted to, back up your claims with copies of offer letters.

4. LANGUAGE Know how college pricing works so you can speak their language and know their levers. Just like on an airplane, everyone pays a different price for a seat. Colleges can price discriminate by lowering or raising the need-based or merit-based aid. You will have to back up arguments for need-based aid with payslips, medical bills, the whole 9 yards.

Parents and students often make the mistake of thinking prestigious colleges are the most expensive. Smart students who come from families that have less than about $120,000 annual income and accepted by a prestigious school will likely face a very small price – Princeton, Stanford, Yale and Harvard pay for low income students they have accepted.