<p>I was wondering if any parents have had experience with this with children who are in college at this point.</p>
<p>So far I've been waitlisted at two of my top choices, and I've chosen to place myself on the waitlist at both. I also have a hunch that I'll be waitlisted at one (or maybe even both) of the two schools I'm still waiting to hear from. However, I would not be able to attend any of these schools without significant financial aid.</p>
<p>Therefore, my question is this: if you do get taken off a waitlist, how likely are you to receive financial aid? Is everything depleted from most of these schools' accounts by the time they're through with the RD admits' needs?</p>
<p>It depends on the college. At many schools, aid is severely limited or even non-existent for students admitted from the waitlist. What that means, as a practical matter, is that at such schools – even if they’re need-blind in making pre-waitlist admissions decisions --a student with financial need is less likely to clear the waitlist than one whose family is able to pay full tuition. </p>
<p>It's a good idea to consult individual schools about their policies regarding financial aid for students accepted from the waitlist.</p>
<p>Is that really true? No wonder the wait lists are so long. The more students a school can get off a wait list the more money they will get up front. Mmmmm</p>
<p>It's not just money. Colleges use their wait lists to help them meet any admissions target they miss: overall #s, gender, geography, in-state, full-pay, you name it.</p>
<p>My S is on three wait lists and all three were his top choices. We are going to talk to his GC to see if there is anything she can do to help him out. Now, I am concerned if he actually gets past the wait list; we will not get the aid we need to pay for his education. Yikes!</p>
<p>Our kids GC said to let him know if there was a particular school kid REALLY wanted & would attend if GC tried to get kid off waitlist. Never asked about FAid in such a situation, but many schools make FAid more attractive to kids they REALLY want (more grants, fewer loans). I would think this would less likely with W/L kids.</p>
<p>If you’re planning to pay full tuition at a school where you’re waitlisted, do they already know this? If not, how do you tell them in a “formal” way?</p>
<p>If you didn’t submit a FAFSA and/or other FAid docs, they assume you are not seeking aid. If you did submit and no longer want/need aid, you can call the U & ask them what the procedure is to withdraw your FAFSA and/or other docs. You may wish to talk it over with your HS GC.</p>
<p>They find out in a formal way is by you writing to them. I wrote to the adcom a few years back to let them know even though my daughter had a full scholarship somewhere else, we were prepared to forego the scholarship and we were pepared to pay full fare for our D to go to their school.</p>
<p>Students that need aid shouldn’t necessary give up. This year maybe a bit differen than before, but in the previous years WL students still received FA. </p>
<p>WL should be opening up soon. On the UMich board, someone already got in from WL. I would contact the admission office, if you haven’t done so already to show interest. As HImom mentioned, if there is one you really want, now is time to show love.</p>
<p>Scenario:
I’m waitlisted at college B and accepted at college A, which is offering me a scholarship. I accept college A’s offer because I have to accept somewhere. But I write a letter to college B saying “I am accepting college A but if I get off this waitlist I will come to college B and give up college A’s scholarship.”
Now, assume that college A somehow finds out about this letter (don’t ask how). Can they take away my scholarship and admission?</p>
<p>Well I assume they usually don’t find out unless the two colleges are buddies or something. Didn’t know the gov’t could regulate private colleges that much (even if it could, the college could just make up an excuse for why they took away the offer)
maybe i’m just paranoid.</p>
<p>No, they can’t take it away because you haven’t done anything wrong. You need to be careful on how you want to word it with college B in order not to give a wrong impression.</p>
<p>We let them know by stating the scholarships my daughter was offered and that she turned them down to those who needed financial aid for school, which we do not. It served a few purposes - it said that she received merit-based scholarships (which is significant academically), that we are paying our own way ($ aspect), and that she has a good heart and is generous (my husband was not so happy about this part!). Perhaps it worked because she was accepted last week to her waitlist school.</p>
<p>The idea from a previous post that something couldn’t happen beause it would be “mean and unjust” is charmingly but disturbingly naive. One simultaneously wants to buy that person a teddy bear and try to sell them swamp land, excuse me , resort property in Florida.</p>
<p>I have watched my D get waitlisted or denied by all the top 25 schools to which she applied. Classmates with lower rank, fewer and lower quality EC’s, and lower SAT’s were accepted. We needed aid, they did not. “Need blindness” is a cruel lie. I am sorry I exposed my D to the “elite schools”. I was showing her something that she in reality, could not have even though it was presented by society as an attainable goal. I fear this will cause her to be discontented at our State U.</p>
<p>Meawhile the Wall Street financial wizards who crashed the world economy are paying their kid’s way at Ivies with taxpayer money from bonuses.</p>
<p>Don’t start with “taking taxpayer money for bonuses to pay for their kid’s college, which in some way denied your kid’s opportunity” here. Most people save up to pay for their kids to go to college, not pay as you go. Save it for the political forum.</p>