<p>Will my daughter have a better chance of getting acceptance if we check off that we don't need financial aid? I know there are need blind schools, but with the economy the way it is, I expect that many schools these days are not. (Skidmore?) I know from experience with D1 that we won't qualify anyway. With sacrifices we can manage to pay the tuition without help, though a merit scholarship would be wonderful. Do we have to request financial aid and submit the FAFSA to be considered for merit aid?</p>
<p>You will need to check the policies on the awarding of merit aid. Some schools require financial aid applications for the awarding of merit aid (my kids’ colleges both required this for incoming freshmen). Some don’t. </p>
<p>If you won’t qualify for need based aid anyway…I can’t see any reason why you wouldn’t check the box. If the school is need aware, they will see you don’t qualify for need based aid anyway.</p>
<p>At some schools, reportedly, there is an edge if you are a full pay student. Personally, I think this is overrated. If your child isn’t a competitive student for admissions to a school, not needing financial aid isn’t going to get them accepted. If the school is need blind, it won’t matter.</p>
<p>I think it depends on how competitive your student is. Skidmore is not need-blind. This is from its webpage: </p>
<p>[Skidmore</a> College: Prospective Freshmen FAQ](<a href=“http://cms.skidmore.edu/financialaid/freshmen_faq.cfm]Skidmore”>http://cms.skidmore.edu/financialaid/freshmen_faq.cfm)</p>
<p>"Is Skidmore College need-blind? … When all institutional grant resources have been committed, the admissions committee will offer admission to some candidates but place them on a financial aid waiting list. In the final round of the selection process, the committee may also find it necessary to waitlist or deny a small number of candidates on the basis of unmet financial need. </p>
<p>Will applying for financial aid hurt my chances for admission?
Skidmore College provides need-based financial aid to most admitted students who demonstrate need, but the admission process is not need-blind for a small percentage of applicants." </p>
<p>So they are openly saying that for more marginal students, need may be the determining factor. They are also saying that they maintain a financial aid waitlist. (I am not sure how that works.) That said, Skidmore offered one of my kids a fantastic package (and we have a lot of need), notified kid months early and wanted kiddo to fly up and visit. We really like this school but if I were in your position, I would try to weigh how strong a candidate your daughter is. Academically, it was probably a safety for my kid (SATs in top 20%, URM, unusually strong schedule and very good extracurriculars) but kiddo and I really liked this school.</p>
<p>*I know from experience with D1 that we won’t qualify anyway. With sacrifices we can manage to pay the tuition without help, though a merit scholarship would be wonderful. Do we have to request financial aid and submit the FAFSA to be considered for merit aid? *</p>
<p>Many schools do not require FAFSA for merit consideration. However, for the schools that do, you can still check the “no FA consideration box” and submit a FAFSA for scholarships (if necessary).</p>
<p>Look at each school’s website. Those will let you know if a FAFSA is needed for scholarship consideration.</p>
<p>Neither of my kids had to ever submit a FAFSA for scholarship consideration. </p>
<p>BTW…if you want merit scholarships, then your D needs to apply to schools that give them where her stats put her in the top 5%-10% of the freshman class.</p>
<p>“Will my daughter have a better chance of getting acceptance if we check off that we don’t need financial aid?”</p>
<p>At schools that are need-aware and your daughter is ranked near the cut-off point of the number of acceptances (though there is no way of knowing this), probably yes.</p>
<p>“I know from experience with D1 that we won’t qualify anyway.”</p>
<p>If you were near the threshold of receiving aid with D1 and D1 is still in school, it is possible that D2 could receive substantial aid.</p>
<p>
Skidmore would know an applicant’s actual need when deciding. Thus, having a small amount of need wouldn’t hurt you much, if at all, especially when you consider that the first $5,000-$8,000 would probably be met with loans which don’t dig in to Skidmore’s fin aid budget.</p>
<p>Someone had a good point that if the school does the calculation and decides that we don’t need aid, then that’s about the same as not asking for it in the first place. I’m guessing D2 will be on the cusp for being accepted at Skidmore since D1 was wait listed and they have about the same stats. Then D1 went on to get a large merit scholarship at a better (in my opinion) school. Go figure.</p>
<p>I am wondering about this also. From the online estimates we have done, we will have an EFC too high to qualify for aid, but there is no guarantee that I am calculating it correctly. For some schools we have to do the FAFSA for scholarship consideration, so we WILL be doing the aid forms. Therefore it seems like we should check the “will you be applying for FA?” box. Just somewhat concerned as to how that affects merit scholarship chances.</p>
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<p>No way of knowing…different year…different applicant pool. Your D2 might be competing with a less or more competitive applicant pool when she applies.</p>
<p>You know…if you need financial aid, check the box. If you absolutely don’t then don’t if you don’t want to.</p>
<p>we will have an EFC too high to qualify for aid, but there is no guarantee that I am calculating it correctly.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, your family has rentals. It’s very likely that even if your numbers are off a bit, your EFC will still be too high. We have rentals and we don’t qualify for any aid. Seriously, it really doesn’t take much income/assets to not qualify for (free) aid at most schools - especially at schools that don’t meet need. </p>
<p>Even with a smallish “need,” most schools will attempt to fill it with federal loans, work study, and then if needed, gap the rest. Most schools are not going to give a student a $10k need grant just because the student has $10k in need (unless it’s a no loan, 100% need met elite school - which there are few)</p>
<p>*For some schools we have to do the FAFSA for scholarship consideration, so we WILL be doing the aid forms. Therefore it seems like we should check the “will you be applying for FA?” box. Just somewhat concerned as to how that affects merit scholarship chances. *</p>
<p>If you’re submitting a FAFSA for merit consideration or just for a student loan then you do NOT have to indicate that you’re applying for FA. </p>
<p>What is your concern about how that affects merit scholarships? Are you concerned that if you have a high EFC you won’t get merit?</p>
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<p>You MUST check the schools to see if this is accurate for YOUR kiddos’ schools. OUR kiddo’s school told us the OPPOSITE. Since they were awarding THEIR money, they wanted to know if a student was applying for financial aid and told us specifically to check the YES box. This was for MERIT AID ONLY. We didn’t qualify for need based aid at all.</p>
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I don’t know, mom2. Someone suggested on another thread that the “merit committee” might say “well they are applying for FA, so they probably have need and will get money over there, so we don’t need to give them merit $”. </p>
<p>OTOH, if you say you are NOT applying for FA, they might say “well they have enough $ to pay full freight, so we don’t have to give them any merit $ either”. Trying to psych the people making these decisions is ridiculous. I just don’t want to do something that will reduce DS chances somehow.</p>
<p>Don’t try to “psych the people”. If you need financial aid, check the YES box for applying for it. If you are ABSOLUTELY SURE you don’t need financial aid and are willing to be a full pay (barring a merit award that might come your way)…then check NO. </p>
<p>But remember…if you check that NO box, the school will likely NOT consider you for institutional aid after your acceptance should you need it. If you think you might NEED some aid, check the yes box. It will do your child no good to get accepted to a college where attendance isn’t possible without aid.</p>
<p>over the past year or so there have been some articles (NY Times) that mentioned that a few schools have actually come forward to say that they can no longer afford to be need blind. I believe Reed was one school that was mentioned, perhaps Swarthmore as well. I never really believed that any school is need blind despite what they say. The school needs to tightly control how much money they will give out each year and financial aid plays into that number in a big way. These corporations don’t have to reveal there formulae and calculations so they don’t, despite accepting federal funding. The reason why some parents and students use an ED strategy is because the school has you locked in and can offer you little or no aid and you will attend regardless so students without financial need have the advantage of apply ED because implicitly the school knows you don’t need very much aid if you are willing to apply ED. I wish there was more transparency but seems like we’re just stuck playing their game.</p>
<p>My daughter’s school was need blind for admissions. She was ACCEPTED presumably without a review of her finances.</p>
<p>HOWEVER, once she was accepted, the school was under NO OBLIGATION to meet her full need as it’s a school that doesn’t do so. In fact, they have an “enrollment manager” whose job is to balance accepted students with finances. So…after they accepted my kiddo (she was accepted EA…her finaid package followed about a month later)…the school then evaluated how much money they felt they were willing to give her. Many schools do this…accept…but then when it’s time to dole out the money, they have some “criteria” for doling out those funds.</p>
<p>This is not the case as much with schools that guarantee to meet full need AND are need blind for admissions…but truthfully there aren’t all that many schools in that pool of schools.</p>
<p>** Originally Posted by mom2collegekids**
What is your concern about how that affects merit scholarships? Are you concerned that if you have a high EFC you won’t get merit?</p>
<p>**
Originally Posted by Sylvan** </p>
<p>I don’t know, mom2. Someone suggested on another thread that the “merit committee” might say “well they are applying for FA, so they probably have need and will get money over there, so we don’t need to give them merit $”.</p>
<p>OTOH, if you say you are NOT applying for FA, they might say “well they have enough $ to pay full freight, so we don’t have to give them any merit $ either”. Trying to psych the people making these decisions is ridiculous. I just don’t want to do something that will reduce DS chances somehow. </p>
<p>Actually, it probably is the other way around. Schools don’t have enough FA, so they like to give merit so that the FA funds can be used elsewhere.</p>
<p>“Actually, it probably is the other way around. Schools don’t have enough FA, so they like to give merit so that the FA funds can be used elsewhere.”</p>
<p>I agree with this. My kid’s school DOES meet full need but won’t give continuing kids their packages until they’ve filled out a questionnaire for merit because many of these funds are restricted. (So there are questions like, "Have you ever lived in x,y or z counties in random state?) </p>
<p>I really think you need to figure out how much need you are likely to come up with on the calculators so you can determine if you will get much more than a loan. You should also call the school and ask questions-- including whether checking off no aid the first year prevents you from ever getting aid.</p>
<p>“… a few schools have actually come forward to say that they can no longer afford to be need blind. I believe Reed was one school that was mentioned …”</p>
<p>Reed was mentioned, but not because it could no longer be need blind (Reed has never been need-blind and meet-full-need, and doesn’t give merit money); the mention was because the economy-induced falling endowment reduced the number of students who could be offered financial aid, thus increasing the number of full-pay students.</p>
<p>“I never really believed that any school is need blind despite what they say.”</p>
<p>There are very few schools that are need blind and meet full need. NYU, e.g., is need blind, but gaps horribly in many cases.</p>
<p>“The school needs to tightly control how much money they will give out each year and financial aid plays into that number in a big way. These corporations don’t have to reveal there formulae and calculations so they don’t, despite accepting federal funding. The reason why some parents and students use an ED strategy is because the school has you locked in and can offer you little or no aid and you will attend regardless so students without financial need have the advantage of apply ED because implicitly the school knows you don’t need very much aid if you are willing to apply ED. I wish there was more transparency but seems like we’re just stuck playing their game.”</p>
<p>Wow, so cynical! Plenty of students apply ED needing FA. Schools that offer top students FA at ED time really want these students, and are thus willing to take a financial “loss” on them. Schools also want to lock in some full-pay students at ED time; it indeed helps with enrollment management.</p>
<p>Why does any school require a FAFSA to be eligible for merit aid? The two would seem to be totally unrelated.</p>
<p>The cynic in me says it is just a way for them to get the parents’ financial info, which will immediately be turned over to the fund-raising people.</p>
<p>The super-cynic in me thinks maybe for some schools, merit aid is really FA for the upper middle class, and if you have too much money, you are not going to get merit aid.</p>
<p>Maybe there is some logical explanation, though.</p>
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<p>I asked…and this is what I was told. Some of these schools want to know if a student qualifies for any of the federal entitlement programs (Pell, Seog, ACG). If a student qualifies for this federally funded money, the school will reduce their institutional award by that amount…thus saving institutional money for other students. </p>
<p>It makes sense to me. If a student is entitled to a full Pell grant, that is $5200 less instititional aid that a school would need to offer that student.</p>