<p>2forcollege - I was fortunate enough to attend 2 of Peter Van Buskirk's workshops when my daughter was applying to college, and I am probably one of his biggest fans. He simply lays it out straight, no bull -- and I'd credit sound advice that we got from him as being a big help in shaping college strategy. My d. got into colleges that were super-reaches for her, and yes - we do need financial aid. In fact, my d's first year at Barnard the need-based aid amounted to virtually a full-tuition scholarship --something over $30K in grant money. My d's ACT and SAT scores are in the bottom 25% for Barnard (and are also low for NYU, Chicago, & Berkeley, where she also got admitted)</p>
<p>I think Peter VB is truthful, but that the comment was not addressed to the well-funded, elite colleges that claim to be need-blind. I say "claim to be" because Peter also says that no college is truly need-blind, but an elite school like Barnard is not looking directly at whether or not there is a financial aid application on file. Rather, they use practices such as a strong component of ED admissions to ensure that they get a certain percentage of full paying students; colleges also tend to be need-aware in the spring if they go to wait lists. Need-aware at that point doesn't necessarily mean that they only take full payers off the wait list -- but it does mean that they check with the financial aid department about what's left in the budget before making a call. </p>
<p>Here's a more nuanced explanation (some from my own experience, a lot learned from Peter VB): All colleges have a financial aid budget and they want to give some of that money to students -- that money is there for a reason and they expect to spend it -- but they want to use it in a strategic manner that benefits their agenda. Harvard has a ton of money and their agenda (briefly summarized) is to get the best and the brightest to their school; field their athletic teams; and increase diversity with well-qualified and capable students -- money is never going to be an issue for them but the bar is set pretty high to get into the running. </p>
<p>Most of the "need-blind" schools are elite (extremely selective) colleges with strong endowments, so the same considerations apply, though the specific agenda of a given school may be different, and the slightly less elite can't be quite as choosy. One big part of a college's agenda is to select students who will come -- so a big part of the enrollment management process is to be aware of those "fit" factors that translate into likely attendance. But the bottom line is that your kid is either in the running for those schools, or not -- and applying for financial aid is not likely to be the deciding factor.</p>
<p>For colleges that are not need-blind, it is obviously a different story. The colleges are still trying to meet their own agenda, however -- so the question becomes, what does this student bring to our college? </p>
<p>I think the mistake people make is thinking that the college agenda is met by grades and SAT scores. After attending Peter VB's workshop, I knew that was the wrong analysis for my daughter -- I had to look in terms of what my daughters unique assets were-- and then do enough research about each college to get a sense of whether that was the sort of thing that would cause the college to sit up and take notice. </p>
<p>My d. was waitlisted at two colleges that should have been easier to get into than the ones that accepted her -- Brandeis & Boston U. BU was the big surprise, and I do think that financial aid considerations played a part there. BU does not meet full need and is fairly transparent about the way it leverages its aid, and I think that my d. fit into a category of student who they would not fully subsidize, and who looked unlikely to attend without a strong aid package. </p>
<p>The moral is: do your research. If you can't answer the question, "why should this college accept my kid over any other kid?" then chances aren't so great at the elites, and the best bet for financial aid are safeties or low-end matches. The place where a financial aid application is likely to be the tipping point is those "match" schools - the ones where it is about 50/50 your kid gets in. The problem is, it is not always so easy to figure out which school is the "match" vs reach or safety -- since, as noted, its not just about SAT scores.</p>