BU CSS Profile?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Boston University
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HI GUYS :slight_smile:

So I have a few general questions to any current or former BU students about the CSS profile. Is the CSS profile helpful? Does asking for a lot of aid effect my admission by any chance? How is BU’s aid reputation overall?

Thanks :slight_smile: any replies would be much loved

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Highly advise you read this: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/education/edlife/finaid-pappano-t.html?_r=0

From 2009, but likely still accurate–it certainly elucidated for me the way aid worked when I was admitted in 2002. I was a full tuition kid, and know several others with full tuition+ aid (not quite full rides, but close), so I’ve always thought of BU as very generous. But realistically, they are only generous if they really want you to matriculate, ie: they don’t meet full need, but they CAN and DO throw money at applicants. So it means that their financial aid procedures are holistic–which can be good or bad. I was fascinated in that article by the student who was very low income but got very little aid, essentially making BU unaffordable. An upper middle-class applicant got about the same offer–one likely way more affordable to their family. Both applicants were given competitive offers based on their desirability, rather than their income situation. That’s good, IMO, for middle class & up applicants who are worried about aid; kind of sucky for lower class applicants who can’t possibly close the gap. That said, all the people I personally know from BU who got substantial aid were lower income, myself included.

It means the CSS profile is EXTREMELY important. As it says in the article, they really use it to weigh people’s financial situations against the student’s profile. But the most important thing is that when you go through the admissions process, that a human being flags your application as highly desirable. That will get you the best aid. BU gets a bad rap on here because they don’t automatically meet need, but personally I found them VERY generous (with me and friends), and I take solace in the fact that they approach aid in a holistic manner.