Does it matter if you can afford any amount for college tuition, but not enough to donate and “buy your way in”? Just wondering if it ever becomes a factor in student selection for colleges.
For schools not having a need-blind admissions policy, simply not asking for FA is a plus.
Depends on the school. At Yale, for example, about half the kids are wealthy enough that they don’t bother applying for financial aid. Being able to afford tuition doesn’t make you anybody special there. But, students who can “merely” afford tuition are sometimes given special consideration at schools that have higher-than-50% acceptance rates. The harder a college has to work to fill its classes, the more attractive someone who can fill classes and pay full price will be.
It has probably happened that a wealthy family “donated” admission of a marginal student, especially, e.g., if the donation allowed the school to help many other students get an education. Like when the wealthy Saudi donates his way to the top of the transplant list, because his donation actually saves ten other lives.
Since so few families are able (and willing) to make 8-figure donations, it’s pretty much a non-issue.
Thanks for the responses, I originally posted this because I do not have the best GPA, but with everything else A-OK like extracurricular, test scores, and decent teacher recs. I wanted to know if this factor could help cover for the fact that I do not have a competitive GPA unlike other students applying that have better. A sample school I am looking at would be USC. I can pay for any college up to 60-75,000$.
So back to the original question, would this factor heavily despite my 3.0-3.6 UW GPA, and one of you mentioned it depends on the school, so if i were to apply to a private, is there usually an option or question that asks if you need FA or not at all? Thanks guys 
There are a few schools that are ‘need aware’ where your being full pay might help tip you into the ‘accept’ pile, but you really have to be qualified and it is that last little bit that pushes you over at one of those need aware schools. At most schools, the school accepts you without knowing how you are going to pay.
Yes, there is a question on whether you are applying for FA on the common app and on most individual college apps (on all the ‘need aware’ schools). But it probably won’t be a big factor. Your gpa, scores, essays, EC’s will play a bigger part in your acceptance. Now being able to go to any school you get into can be a big plus, as many of us aren’t in the position and have to eliminate schools we can’t afford and never even apply.
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Would this factor heavily? There’s no way to know; you can’t know where you are in a school’s ranked order of desired applicants. For a few it might be the determining factor; for others it can be irrelevant. It’s possible you could be admitted somewhere over a more desired applicant, given what you can afford.