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<p>Until it isn’t. Just sayin’…</p>
<p>Most of those tippy top schools ARE need blind for admissions. Six are need blind AND meet full need for all accepted students.</p>
<p>If you are talking about those top,schools…the question is…can you pay the $60,000 plus that it will cost for you to attend?</p>
<p>Are you planning to apply for need based aid in subsequent years? If so, the money those relatives pay on your behalf will be considere when you complete,the financial aid applications.</p>
<p>If your relatives do plan to fund college, get the money deposited up front into a 529 so it will be there when you need it. Otherwise…don’t count on it.</p>
<p>@bomerr, no one says that all pools of applicants are treated equally. The schools certainly do not say that. They don’t say that the star QB that the football coach is hankering for is in the same pool as a kid with high stats but brings nothing else to the table. </p>
<p>All the need-blind schools say is that financial need is not (by itself) a factor in admissions.</p>
<p>To the OP: How much money are we talking about, here? $25K/4 years=$100K? Would they pay $100K (say)for a 2% increase in your odds of admission to certain schools? What about a 0% increase? Ask them that question. </p>
<p>Yes, they can see how you answered the Financial Aid question on the Common App. Even without that they would know if you are applying for FA. When you fill out the FAFSA you have to fill in college names to send your financial information to. I believe the normal number is 10 schools. Since schools “create” your financial aid package for attending their institution, they see the info from FAFSA…including the order you list the schools from #1 to #10, and which other schools are getting your FAFSA info. so put your top pick in slot #1. If a school is in slot #10 on the FAFSA, they may assume they are lower on your priority list. Yes they do see all this. </p>
<p>As maddy states, the admissions office can see if you are going to apply for fin aid from the question on the app. Most schools are need blind and they don’t take that into consideration when they accept students. Most schools simply gap. From what I gather from a number of school counselors, admissions employees and tell tale books about admissions, admissions is usually a whole separate entity from financial aid at need blind schools. They do not see the FAFSA which goes to the fin aid office which is separate from admissions. The FAFSA does list your schools if you use the same FAFSA to for up to 10 colleges. It’s a pain in the neck, but you can also submit each one separately. We have all seen students ask for fin aid, get accepted and get declined even, and other situations with many of these schools that it’s pretty clear that they do not mix fin aid and admissions.</p>
<p>But for those schools that are need aware, and some who are super focused on yield, they may look at the info. Augustana college admits that it does. Some schools have fin aid and admissions in the same office with the staff doing double duty. Some schools outright say they are need aware, though many do not. THey simply do not say they are need blind in admissions. Some schools have lied about it (GWU). </p>
<p>If your parents are truly so afraid to endanger your chances of acceptance by having you apply for aid and would rather take the chance of trusting some relative to cover your tuition, the quarter million dollars that a lot of the private schools cost, that 's up to them. I don’t suggest this. I suggest at least apply to half of your schools with fin aid and the other half without and see if it makes a difference in results, for one thing. </p>
<p>Frankly, in some cases, having need is a beneficial tip. That you aren’t some silver spoon kid with everything paid for. That is what Michele Hernandez pretty much says in her book “A is for Admissions”. You are judged in the context of the advantages that you have had including economic ones.</p>
<p>And don’t be silly about Emory. A school with an endowment that size would not lie about being need-blind if they aren’t. Check the size of endowments to see if a school can afford to be need-blind and meet full need.</p>
<p>1) Schools are honest about being need-blind. At ground level, the officer reading your app will not take need directly into account and in many cases will have no confirmed documentation of your need status. If anything, he/she may indirectly take need into account by noting your accomplishments in spite if your lack of a ‘silver spoon’ background, thereby increasing your chances of admissions holding all else equal.</p>
<p>2) Schools are dishonest about being need-blind. At eye-in-the-sky level, administrators at the highest level have (by design) handed down institutional goals to the admissions office that essentially guarantee a given percentage of the admit pool will end up bring full pay. They have mountains of data showing which factors are highly correlated with income, and use said data to set up a system that pins down a specific full pay percentage without asking officers on the ground to take need into account.</p>
<p>Both 1 and 2 are true. Whether this is good/bad or honest/dishonest depends on the perspective each of us chooses to take. The argument turns to semantics at this point IMO.</p>
<p>Boy, if I had to assign risk to:
Not being admitted to a college because they know I’m applying for financial aid, or/
Counting on a distant relative coming up with over $200K in cash (for a high school kid they may or may not even know, or may not even particularly like)</p>
<p>I’d go with the financial aid application.</p>
<p>Why would a distant relative pay for your college education? If you are telling me that this relative has put aside 100K in a 529 account for you, and your parents hope to ask for more- well, you’ve got some evidence the relative will play ball (and has the assets to do so). If you are telling me that this relative has named you in his or her will and would consider the tuition an advance payment of your inheritance- hey, what great luck for you.</p>
<p>But a random relative is a better bet than the financial aid system at a reputable college???</p>
<p>Sheesh.</p>