Will a school process financial aid applications for second-year students that were admitted the previous year as full pay? I’m specifically considering a scenario where a student applies ED as a full pay student to increase her chances of admittance, paying the full tuition for her first year, and then applying for FA for her second year.
Paying full tuition will hurt a lot, but not kill us. We are on the edge of the financial aid “donut hole”.
Or should we submit the FA paperwork with the ED app and just hope for anything? Does asking for FA decrease chances of ED acceptance?
What school is it? Some won’t give financial aid in subsequent years if you played that game and didn’t apply for aid the first year. Is it a need-aware school?
If the school is need blind for admissions, your financial aid application status will NOT be known when your kiddo applies.
If you are a U.S. citizen, there are a hnadful of colleges only that put restrictions on subsequent applications for institutional aid. You would need to check the college websites to see. @Madison…only a handful.
If you are an international student, there are a LOT of colleges that will not allow you to apply for institutional need based aid in subsequent years if you don’t apply as an incoming freshman.
My opinion…if you need aid, apply for aid. The bump you get for applying ED is very small. And a lot of these colleges are need blind.
Which school? Being full pay would only help if the school is need aware (as opposed to need blind). Also, check the school’s requirements. I believe some make you wait two years to apply for FA if you went in as need blind.
Also…is this your second kiddo going to cllege? Your other threads have you submitting a FAFSA and Profile in February for a daughter.
What does this mean @mjrube94 ? You don’t go in as “need blind”. Need blind means the school does not consider your financial need when they consider your application for admission.
And really…there are only a handful of colleges that put restrictions on institutional,aid applications in subsequent years if you don’t apply as an incoming freshman…and are a U.S. citizen.
It’s international,students who face this issue at man colleges.
But back to my point…if you need the aid apply for the aid.
OK, thanks. I posted also under the CSS Profile “amount you are willing to pay” thread.
D1 applied to CMU last year and we put down $40K on that line. She was waitlisted and I am wondering if they decided that we couldn’t afford it, even though her waitlist letter said that we would be expected to pay full pay.
Can we just leave that line blank when we fill out D2’s CSS Profile?
@thumper1 Yes, I’m starting to worry about D2, though she is currently a junior in HS.
Your daughter did not get waitlisted because of that line on the Profile. Sorry…she didn’t.
From the CMU website:
This means the admissions folks did NOT see your answer to that question on the Profile.
Even for need aware schools, the admissions folks would know only your financial need…not every single line on the Profile.
Why would you leave the question blank? Just put in a realistic amount you CAN afford. There is no evidence that colleges actually USE the answer to this question to compute need based aid…and definitely don’t use it to decide admissions.
Some schools will not award financial aid if you don’t file as s freshman. Others might not give you the amount you may have been awarded as a freshman. Some schools once they award aid will basically keep to that number for all four years, other school recalculate each year and will vary the number more. So it varies from school to school and would need to be researched.
It sounds like if your D is awarded FA, it won’t be that much anyway. I would go ahead and file. I don’t think it will effect the outcome.
OK, thanks. I’d hate to think that answer has any effect on admission.
Your financial aid application info is used to determine your level of need based aid. A need aware school will consider your level of need when considering your application for admission. But the admissions folks do NOT read your Profile line by line. If need aware, admissions will be given your level of need…not every single answer you put on the Profile.
In the case of CMU, the school is need blind for admissions. This means the admissions folks didn’t know anything about your financial aid application. It was not the reason for a waitlist there.
Really…if you need aid, apply for aid.