<p>I've read on a couple of threads that kids believe that retracting their FA application may get them in after a rejection or waitlist. IT WILL NOT. While it may help slightly if you're waitlisted, you must remember these schools could fill themselves several times over with full paying candidates.</p>
<p>Important lesson: If FA is not essential to you, do NOT apply for it initially.</p>
<p>Congratulations, kirmum, on becoming a member of the 1,000 post club!</p>
<p>A few points: I don't think ANYTHING will get someone in after a rejection. If you believe that your aid request is what got you rejected then the final advice makes sense: why did you apply for it in the first place if you didn't need it?</p>
<p>That's a logical lapse borne of desperation. It applies to anything you might propose to do that would bolster your application. Sending in additional recommendations, writing new essays, etc. The decision has been made. You get to take your best shot when you originally send in your application. Don't hold back. Don't do things you think hurt your chances.</p>
<p>But, as for the waitlist candidates, I disagree with the advice that withdrawing the FA request won't help.</p>
<p>Now, to be sure, I don't think withdrawing the aid request will convert the decision to an acceptance. But, as a practical matter, withdrawing your FA request makes sense. Here's why:</p>
<p>A waitlisted applicant should assume that the aid budget has been spent for the coming year so that if s/he is accepted off the waitlist there will be no FA forthcoming. Time and again the advice here is to contact the school to let them know that you are unequivocally committed to attending that school so that they can call you -- should spaces open up -- in order to feel confident that their yield numbers won't go further down the tube. I think that's sound advice. </p>
<p>Well, if the school thinks your commitment is contingent on receiving aid that they don't have available...guess who they're NOT going to call.</p>
<p>So, yes, you DO need to withdraw FA if you want to be unequivocal about attending a school off of the wait list. If you don't withdraw the FA you're basically saying, "I'm 100% likely to attend on the 0.003% chance you have FA for me if you accept me." If you do the math (literally)...you'll see that that's not much of a commitment, is it?</p>
<p>You may still get an offer off the wait list if you don't withdraw your request, but 1) don't expect any FA; and 2) understand that your odds are going to be a little longer for an opportunity with already incredibly long odds.</p>
<p>The final lesson, kirmum, is a philosophical matter but it's a non sequitur in this context. You're assuming that the FA request led to the wait list decision or played some role in it. Or you're at least channeling the anxiety of the wait listed students who think their FA request will affect their ultimate outcome. </p>
<p>True or not, the "important lesson" doesn't logically follow from the preceding statements in your post. I happen to think "essential" is a very subjective term. It presumes that BS itself is "essential" when, for many, it is not. But if someone finds themselves on the wait list, they may be able to forego that first year of aid by tapping into resources that they wouldn't have considered earlier. They can apply the following years when the pot is replenished. Dropping a FA request for one year to make a "guarantee of matriculation" off a wait list is hardly a lesson to wait listed applicants that they shouldn't have made the request in the first place.</p>
<p>Please be aware: some schools will not entertain an application for financial aid after the first year, or do so only in extraordinary circumstances (like the death of a parent). If it were a widespread practice of students paying full fees for the first year and then dipping into the financial aid budget for three remaining years, the schools would be in turmoil. They have to know which students need support from the beginning so they can plan accordingly and offer aid to deserving incoming students. We were told point blank that if a student who received aid did not matriculate, that aid would be redistributed to students on the wait list. If no aid was returned to the 'pool', no offers would be made to students needing aid. </p>
<p>I happen to believe financial aid does play a part in schools' decisions to waitlist students. I also realize it's hard for students to accept this, or to believe that their parents can't just manufacture the money somehow. I agree with D'yer that b.s. is not essential for all students. Any family that can retract their request for aid when their child is wait listed must not have needed the aid and took a chance when they applied.</p>
<p>That's an EXCELLENT point about potentially cutting off FA for future years. </p>
<p>This is something you'll obviously want to clarify before matriculating. But having submitted a request for FA this year, saying that you can swing it without funds this year may not waive your right to seek the aid you're qualified for the next few years. </p>
<p>I would have the school's FA director elaborate on that point only AFTER you get that elusive acceptance letter -- in the event you've dropped your FA request this year and need it in future years. </p>
<p>Obviously if you can't drop the FA for the one year, you can't drop it for all four years...so, in that case, don't drop your FA request. </p>
<p>OTOH, if you CAN drop it for one year and absolutely need it for the other years...you have to think about the chance you're taking if you drop the request in hopes that it will help move you up the proverbial ladder. In that situation you might want to get the answer up front as to whether you can continue to apply for aid in future years after not receiving it this year. </p>
<p>To that end you may NOT want to say "I withdraw my FA application." Instead you might consider noting that "My 'guarantee of matriculation' is firm even if there is no aid this year to meet my financial aid request." Arguably that keeps your options open as to future years because you haven't withdrawn your request.</p>
<p>Of course be advised that the school will have an expectation that sources you relied upon this coming year -- rich relatives, etc. -- will be reported by you as funding sources for future years.</p>
<p>If you are waitlisted or rejected and then you tell the school you are going to withdraw the FA request, don't you think it tells the school that maybe you were not really needing the FA in the first place and were dishonest in requesting it or at least some of it? I would think about how it looks to the admissions/FA office if you do that.</p>
<p>They could look at it that way. On the other hand, some parents don't really have $20-35K per year of what they consider to be disposable income. It may be allocated for retirement or other truly important things, especially if the parents are older. They could opt not to fund their retirement accounts, or they could take out a home equity loan, or do whatever to pay for their child's tuition and fees. In this sort of situation, the parents might rightly choose to apply for financial aid in the hopes that they would not have to jeopardize their own financial future to pay for their child's education. But, if push came to shove, they might do so, if there was no aid.</p>
<p>In the forms you filled out in order to apply for FA, you would have had to state your retirement savings, assets, etc., so they know what you have already. That is why I think it would be very damaging to your credibility if you change that. It is obviously a personal choice, but I think if you asked a third party what they thought, someone who wasn't directly affected by your waitlisted or rejected status, they would probably tell you the same thing I am saying. At this point, on March 12th, it is very, very difficult to separate your emotions from what the right thing is to do for you and your family. I honestly don't think anything at this point is going to change with any waitlisted applicants because now you have to wait until all the people who were accepted decide whether they are going to accept or decline. It may not seem like many people who have FA are going to decline, but without going into any detail, I know several who are going to do that because of being accepted to several schools with FA from all of them. So, again, in my humble opinion, it may not be the best time to make a decision when your emotions are so close to the surface. Again, I think you may want to ask some third parties and then see what their opinion is on the subject and whether you should offer to retract FA from the equation. It is no one's business as to what you do, but by posting to this board or any board, it just seems like you and anyone else is asking for other people's opinions. I hope I have been helpful.</p>
<p>Having submitted FA for my S, I also expect to donate to the school he chooses to attend. Would that show them I was dishonest about asking for and taking FA? Of course not. Not all money is equal. As long as it's all disclosed and there's an informed decision made by the school, there's no dishonesty. </p>
<p>And even if some admission officer were to think, "Hey! How come you're only telling us now that you'd pay full freight?" I still doubt that the admissions people will see the applicants themselves as being shifty.</p>
<p>I applied for FA and it obviously didn't discriminate me. I will be giving them a ton more money in gifts when they help me get a great job where I can donate to them!! (that is, when I'm a productive adult)</p>
<p>hpflrent,</p>
<p>I actually don't remember listing retirement account balances (not that I have a lot) on the SSS FA application. I do remember filling in how much I contributed to a 401k account, but not its current balance.</p>
<p>And since retirement account balances are technically not liquid (without tax penalty), they are generally not considered for FA calculations either for BS or for university FA.</p>
<p>Of course, on your W2, it states how much your contributed to your 401k (or other tax-deferred retirement accounts), so of course the schools are going to know. Your W2 also reveals whether or not you are in a pension plan (but not whether you are vested), so if you have high contributions to your 401k but no pension, it is something that should be explained as it is a legitimate reason to have very high financial need.</p>
<p>I actually have been trying to stay out of this discussion (unsuccessfully). I think if you have a good explanation of why you are now able to afford more (grandma has been recently diagnosed with terminal cancer and we anticipate an inheritance), withdrawing a FA request won't hurt you at all and MAY help.</p>
<p>As to getting in off a waiting list WITH financial aid, I would think that after declined offers moneys are known, the first priority would be to fill specific needs that were turned down by full-pay applicants. Finding those people is much harder after everyone else has had first cut at them. It took one of the schools my D turned down until June to find another goalie as their wait-listed goalies all found other options. And I believe they needed her FA offer to attract that replacement.</p>
<p>So as much as there may be FA moneys returned, it will definitely take longer if you are waiting on it.</p>
<p>In the final analysis, having now gone thru the boarding school application experience for the first time, Financial Aid remains among the most confusing
of issues:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The large endowment schools (i.e. Exeter) highly recommended that we apply for F/A. We heard this message three times from Exeter, stating that they would probably be able to help most students. On the other hand, some of the richest people in the world attempt to send their children there. </p></li>
<li><p>The smaller boarding schools directly linked F/A to a "more competitive" acceptance pool suggesting that a student would only be accepted with F/A if there was a spot for them in both the school and the (limited) F/A availability.</p></li>
<li><p>A third category of schools that we considered explicitly stated that F/A requests would be considered independently after acceptance decisions
and would have no bearing on the latter. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>..... so</p>
<p>If you were WL'd by a school where you applied for F/A (as we were) .... you
should have been aware of the school policy when you read the application.
From what I read here .. and believe to be true, it is too late to help now I'm afraid .... </p>
<p>In our case, typical mid to upper mid class family with two kids and one income ... the risk/reward was troublesome. Not poor. Not rich. Don't have $30K hanging around for a rainy day ... College payments in the future, constant worry about future employment in corporate America. I'm sure we are typical of many parents making this decision. It was worth a shot.</p>
<p>Schoolsearcher - I think we were in much the same position as you when d. applied last year, with one in private college already. As much as it was a disappointment that it didn't work out for us, I have many, many times been grateful we didn't have to come up with our portion of the tuition as d. stayed in our public school. It has enabled her to pursue other opportunitities that would have been out of the question and we surely would have taken on home equity debt and raided from retirement. That would have left me feeling insecure about the future.</p>
<p>On the other hand, when d. starts her college search next year, we can tell her she can attend any college she's admitted to. It's four years, not seven (she applied for 10th grade b.s.). </p>
<p>I don't know if the archives go back far enough, but there was a poster named Jamimom who used to post here who told about a friend whose daughter was admitted off the b.s. waitlist (at Choate, I think) because she withdrew her financial aid request. It was fine until it came time to do college applications and her choices were limited because the family had b.s. debt. No doubt a wonderful education, but it's nice to have educational choices show an upward trend, not so nice to have them peak in high school. </p>
<p>You're quite right that the financial aid policies are clearly spelled out on the websites or on applications. I think what we read on this board is a lot of wishful thinking on the part of the students who aren't as aware as their parents. And I don't think any school removes someone from the waitlist until the reply date - it wouldn't make sense. They can afford to be underenrolled and go to the wait list to fill spots, but would be in trouble if they overenrolled and didn't have the space.</p>
<p>The less competitive the school, the more likely not needing aid will get you off the waitlist. It really just 1-15 schools where it won't matter much. While FA accepted kids do choose other schools, this is accounted for in yield projections. Some years they are off, but not many.</p>
<p>And as for it being a matter of bigger schools and smaller schools, that is just wrong. Some of the smaller schools (top tier) are the small ones. Year after year I've seen kids get better packages from SPS and Hotchkiss than A and E.</p>
<p>One of my brother's friends has three packages in hand from top schools that are wildly different. The best offer is not his first choice. I'm interested to see if the other school will match..</p>
<p>Suze -- You just had another trojan appear on your post above.</p>
<p>Before withdrawing application for FA probably should confirm tuition and fees number for next year also to make sure you can swing it. Perhaps not surprisingly the numbers I am seeing so far seem up materially from last year.</p>