Data10:
socaldad2002:
One thing that is very important at most colleges (and another data point) but not listed above is the ability of the student to be full pay versus one than needs financial aid. For most colleges, this is going to be high on the list of data of what is important in the application, unfortunately.
Ability to pay was one of the questions they asked about in the NACAC survey. The surveyed colleges reported the following, making ability to pay the least influential of the 20 surveyed criteria. It’s certainly possible that the colleges were not being truthful, although the names of the colleges are not published, reducing the risk of negative repercussions for unpopular responses.
Ability to Pay
If ordered from most to least average influence, the survey order would be similar to the following:
Most to Least Reported Average Influence: NACAC Survey
Grades
Strength of Curriculum
SAT/ACT Scores
Essays
LORs
ECs
Demonstrated Interest
Class Rank
Work
First Gen
AP/IB Test Scores
High School Attended
State of Residence
Interview
Race/Ethnicity
Legacy
Gender
State Graduation Exam Scores
SAT II Scores
Ability to Pay
A comparison to UCB’s CDS survey. They both agreed that HS GPA, HS course rigor and standardized tests were the 3 most influential factors by far, in that order. They also both agreed that the next 2 most influential were essays and LORs. Among the top 8, the only one with a large difference appears to be demonstrated interest. NACAC had it above rank and well above interview. CDS had it below both rank and interview. There are many possible reasons for this difference, including things like the wording of the question and whether it includes applying ED, and different sampled colleges.
Most to Least Reported Average Influence: CDS Survey
HS GPA
HS Course Rigor
Standardized Tests
LORs
Essays
Class Rank
Character / Personal
ECs
Talent
Special Talent
Interview
Level of Interest
Volunteer Work
Work
Legacy
First Gen
Religion
Geographic Residence
Race
Colleges are big business. Are we really to believe that colleges don’t really care about that. Hog wash. Maybe the intitial adcom reviews don’t consider ability to pay but certainly when they build a class they absolutely take that into consideration. If colleges are using algorithms for other data, you can be rest assured that they will have x number of full pay students, year in and year out otherwise these colleges would be losing money every year.