I’ve recently been seeing that many colleges will pick a potential student who can pay full tuition over a virtually identical candidate who needs aid.
My top choice is Boston college and I hear their “need blind” which I suppose wont affect my situation.
Honestly I guess my family could afford first year tuition and then possibly we could apply for financial aid but I’d hate to put that burden on my family. My mom though says I shouldn’t put that we need financial aid because she is willing to put any slight advantage for me to get into my dream colleges.
To be honest I’m not even sure I’d qualify for financial aid. My other siblings have already long gone graduated from college, although one is still paying off student loans.
Our income is about 65,000 a year. Although we do have a good amount in savings.
Honestly does applying for financial aid decrease chances of admissions? What should I do?
Unless your parents have something like $250,000 saved in a college fund for you, you absolutely will need to apply for financial aid!
Most colleges and universities in the country are need-blind for admissions. The few that are need-sensitive will come up with a good financial aid package for a student that they really want, but will choose a student who needs less aid over a student who needs more aid when both students are equally interesting to them. If you would be rejected because you needed too much aid, you would never even know that that was the reason. You might have been very very close to being rejected by that place anyway.
So stop worrying about this. Apply for financial aid. See where you are admitted and whether or not your aid packages are affordable. Any place that wouldn’t want you because you needed more aid than they could offer is a place you don’t want to be at.
What exact scenario? You sound completely clueless.
$65,000 over 4 years is $16,000 per year. You need about $50,000 in aid PER YEAR.
You are overthinking this “slight advantage” of applying without asking for aid. Boston College is very selective, and if you have terrific stats you might get in but you might not.
With many schools if you do not apply for financial aid for freshman year you do not qualify for future years. That makes sense for the school. Otherwise they could end up with a thousand students who take your proposed approach. Where would they come up with sufficient aid for 1000 students who throw themselves at the financial aid office? Schools have to budget their financial aid expenses like any other expense. They do that with the freshman classes, assuming there will be a certain number with change in circumstance ( death or disability or job loss of a parent) but not a whole lot.
Dream colleges are often exactly that- something that is possible only in a dream. Wonderful if it could work out but not something to pin all your hopes on. Apply and ask for aid. Apply to other schools that you can afford and assume you will end up at one of them. Seek schools with generous financial aid and guaranteed merit if you qualify.
We are a full-pay family, but for each school on my Ds’ lists, I called the FA office to ask if they would be eligible for institutional (i.e. awarded by the school) FA in subsequent years if they did not apply for aid for their freshman year. I did not find one school that said they would not award aid. OP, your list may be different, or you may find what I found–that schools will grant aid in future years.
That said, I agree that you should apply for aid regardless. Getting admitted and then not being able to afford to attend subsequent years would be an awful situation.
First and foremost let me just say something here, take it as you will. I was talking to an Ivy league admissions officer and they expressed to me their frustration at how many spots are already taken by Full pay candidates. They heard it as soon as they said it, then tried to backtrack and say it wasn’t all that important and then backtracked again and said that finances were not considered at all. Take that as you will. In my perception, Need blind is not a legitimate policy when your common app opens with “will you be applying for aid?”. For me personally, I have reason to believe that full pay is an advantage however full pay is something that is BEYOND out of reach for me.
Having said that, whether or not finances are counted is irrelevant if you cannot afford it. Your parents mean well, and they probably won’t tell you this but they are likely attempting to leverage their life savings on your education. If you think that it is worth the small advantage then do it. This is a decision for you and your family but ask that your parents be completely honest with you. Honestly, I would spend a much smaller portion of that money on getting prepared to apply!
Truthfully though, if your parents have those kind of assets in holding for your education, it is likely your aid won’t be significant. Ask your parents what type of savings this is, certain types of retirement accounts can be excluded by FA calculations and you could save some money. If this is cash holdings I HIGHLY suggest that it be invested in an account that FA won’t calculate or that it be spent on your siblings loans or an educational experience. If you choose to apply for aid with those kind of assets you will get neither the Full pay advantage nor the kind of FA a family at 65k should expect.
@txstella I’m confused at your argument as well? Why are you breaking 65K over the course of four years when that is our ANNUAL income? I’m very well aware of my sistuation and am not clueless. My family has saving FOR my college tuition since I was born, although I don’t know the specific amount, we also have a hefty amount in regular savings.
I was simply asking if this is an advantage, although I will most likely apply for aid.
You are lucky that your family has been saving, but until you know how much money is saved, you won’t know how much aid you are going to need. So sit down with your parents and get this sorted out.
As for the statement about the Ivy admissions officers above:
Students from families who can truly afford to be full pay are also the ones who are most likely to apply to the Ivies in the first place. And once they have applied, they are much more likely to have “Ivy-worthy” stats simply because SAT/ACT scores are almost directly related to family income.
Many families are willing to stretch in order to pay for an education at what they believe to be a “top” institution. This means that families that learn they are full pay at an Ivy, and can scrape the pennies together, often will find a way to make the money work.
At many of the Ivy institutions, a certain number of spaces every year are specifically for legacies - and most of those students are full pay - especially students from the umpteenth generation legacy from old money.
Many otherwise qualified students (especially those that would need the largest amount of aid) don’t understand enough about financial aid to be able to judge whether or not they could be offered enough aid to make an Ivy affordable. This means that when they see that the estimated COA is so huge, they don’t even bother to apply.
The only one of these that an admissions officer could possibly affect is #4. Even when they do their level best to reach potential applicants, it remains an uphill battle to get those students to apply.
“Honestly I guess my family could afford first year tuition”. This statement implies your family has $65,000 saved to devote to your college. This amount would reflect a very frugal family with admirable savings habits if your parents’ income has been in the $65,000 range.
The typical way to think about paying for college is to consider all FOUR years, so I divided your implied savings by 4. I called you clueless because your parents cannot pay $250,000 for you to go to college, and you seem willing to risk applying to school without disclosing your true financial situation.
You also state that you aren’t even sure if your family qualifies for financial aid and don’t know the specific amount saved. Have you run the NPC for Boston College? I actually think it is possible that IF you are accepted, then Boston College might grant you a terrific aid package.
Honestly, yes my family has a large sum in SAVINGS(this amount I do know) Which is why I believe we wouldn’t qualify and the fact that I’m the last child going to college considering the rest of my siblings are working and sustaining their own lives. I’d rather not disclose how much in our savings due to privacy reasons. I do not know the exact sum in my college savings(which they separated) I will admit but thank you for all the advice you’ve given me! Sorry my sistuation is rather complicated.
Please ask your parents to run the NPC for Boston College. A family’s EFC is based mostly in income. Savings are included but at a % rate. It may be that your parents should move money into protected retirement accounts, but they would need to check with an expert on these matters.