@milee30 : because Harvard actually ‘favors’ high need applicants in final decisions. They have enough for financial aid. They do care how it’d look if they had even fewer Pell Grant recipients and families whose income is below 125k.
This however, is NOT how regular colleges do it. 
“because Harvard actually ‘favors’ high need applicants in final decisions.”
Maybe, maybe not. Again, none of us are there and can only go by when the college says and what the college does which may be in opposition. Even if we generously agree to accept the idea that financial aid info is only used to make kind, beneficent decisions, there’s no question financial aid info is used. This is in complete opposition to the repeated claims of being “need blind”. If the college is need blind, then it wouldn’t know and wouldn’t use FA as a factor. Having FA be one of only 5 elements important enough that it’s used to determine the final composition of the class is a pretty strong indication that FA is not some irrelevant thing that Harvard is “blind” to…
OP is not talking about Harvard.
And no, we aren’t there and don’t know just how it’s done.
Strictly speaking Harvard has said that they’re need blind except in case of high need in which case they’re high need affirmative. In other words, if the application is not flagged as high need, financial need doesn’t come into play. How do you think the percentage of Pell Grant recipients has been steadily increasing for the past 10 years, with a spike for the past couple years after they made the need-affirmative policy official? That increase does not happen randomly.
It doesn’t mean an unqualified high need student is admitted, but in the same pool of qualifications the high need applicants will have a leg up. (This is as per Harvard’s understanding, which seems to include incomes that are decidedly middle to upper middle class, far from the low income limit.)
Look it up if you want to know more. It’s out there.
“We follow two key principles: Admission to Harvard is need-blind, meaning your financial need will not impede your chances of admission. Aid is based entirely on need, not merit.”
“Will not impede.”
What college are we talking about? Then others could hone in on what they’ve experienced.
Per College Board, Bucknell is need blind.
^^^Exactly, and not sure they even need to flag applications. AOs can see on the common app if 1) fee waivers have been used (highly correlated with Pell/high fin need) and 2) whether or not candidate checked the ‘applying for finaid’ box. Perhaps certain schools remove this data when AOs read apps, but that seems hard to believe. Combine that info with high school attended and home zip code, and an overall need picture starts taking shape.
Apply Ed and apply for financial aid. It won’t affect her either way. If she has other schools she likes also with a good chance of getting in to the same with financial aid. Every school whether Private LAC’s or Large big ten said the same thing. They are confused why people that qualify for need don’t apply regardless of your score. You will either get money, aid, work study or not. Simple as that. It won’t be that you applied for financial aid that your daughter didn’t get in. With competitive schools /programs a lot of times it’s a flip of the coin. I would be more concerned of having a great, unique, interesting essay Vs worrying about if you ruined her chances due to applying… You will never know anyway.
I need to clarify something that comes up on CC. Adcoms can ONLY see what the school/dept choose to show in their own download format the reviewers will see. It’s a reformat according to how each college does it and what they want to view and consider. Fee waivers and applyng for FA can be excluded. It doesn’t matter if anyone finds it hard to believe, we all should know how downloads can be tailored.
What will show, however, is parents’ occupations and parent and sibling education levels, that context. In itself, that’s not always telling. There are doctors who work for non-profits at a lower salary and first gens whose families have accumulated wealth.
@lookingforward I hear you, yet @MYOS1634 point is a good one, that many schools, including those saying they are ‘need-blind’, have the goal to increase the percent of Pell grant students. To do be able to do this, they must have information on hand that helps them understand which applications are from students likely to qualify for Pell grants. There are many ways they can figure this out, but again, they have to know it to inform the admissions decision, at some point. Lots of data out there, and I expect different schools rely on different data: fee waivers, fin aid application, high school, zip code or one of the many student lists that they buy from third parties. These lists can be cut in incredibly detailed ways, including standardized test scores (and whether they received a fee waiver for those), race, zip code, home value, debt burden, etc, etc, …all geared to allow them to target (and select) students they want as they shape their classes and achieve their institutional goals.
I don’t think it will have a huge impact but I recommend going full-pay for the first year because it’s only a 20k difference, and in the grand scheme of things, I think it’s worth it. When I review ED acceptances for prestigious private schools, I do notice more accepted stats that are full-pay. This could be due to a variety of factors, including more students who need aid apply RD in order to compare aid offers.
I’m guessing since you said the school is not need-blind, that it’s need-aware. I don’t know if, when admissions sees you checked the aid box, if they know how much aid is needed. It would be helpful to know that. I do know that colleges need a certain number of full-pay students in order to be able to offer aid to others. I think you’ll agonize over it if your daughter doesn’t get in, and if you consider it’s full-pay for just one year, I’d go for applying full-pay.
I know of a family who paid full price the first year for a prestigious private high school because they were concerned that needing aid would tip the scales against their daughter. After that first year, they applied for and received aid for the remaining years.
Best of luck to you!
This isn’t about community demographics. The School Report will include things like % of graduates who attend 2 or 4 year colleges and some communities have quite low numbers. But now we’re talking individual families.
But the topic here is whether or not applying for aid will affect OP’s D’s chances. And I’m on the side that thinks not.
@citymama9
I recommend you toggle over to the forum on CC for the college your D is applying to. Look for the ED acceptance thread where students post their stats and what the admissions decision was. The stats include whether or not they applied for aid, whether or not they are an athlete, a legacy, a URM or a 1st generation. I think you’ll find it extremely helpful and it will bring you peace of mind.
On the CC main page, if it’s an Ivy, go to “Ivy League” and select the school. You’ll likely need to go several pages in. If it’s not an Ivy, from the main page, select, “Colleges and Universities” and then select your D’s school.
@GoldPenn great suggestion. We did this 2 years ago but I will tell you. It’s the same hodge podge of results without really a clear consensus. You tend to look at the results your after also. Think that’s just human nature.
@lookingforward you mentioned that Bucknell is need blind per the College Board. Does the College Board have a list? I’d love a link if you have it or can point me in the right direction. TIA.
@GnocchiB when I looked at Bucknell, it’s not clear. I think someone else noted that they only say it’s not NB for intls. So I googled and CB Big Future came up. https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/print-college-profile?id=3409
I don’t know if only third party sites collect a master list?
I understand. Of course I don’t know your circumstances. I only know what you wrote, which was that you COULD pay full.
Every full-pay family can use the money for something else. But you said you don’t “need” the money in order to send your D to the school. So my recommendation was that since you could pay, and you are worried that applying for FA might affect the application negatively, and you want to have no regrets, then don’t apply for FA.
You are asking the wrong question. What you can afford comes first…then she can pick a college that would cost that much. Apply for the aid and tell her this will only work for the family if it costs less than XX,000,
Admissions and financial aid are two separate decisions, and the FA decision won’t even be looked at unless she’s been accepted. It won’t make a difference in the admissions decision one way or the other. Still, I don’t see rational reason to pay $300,000 for a bachelors degree anyway. In my personal, humble opinion, that’s as nutty as a peanut butter pecan pie! 
@mamaedefamilia I didn’t see the breakdown as my husband did it, but it was a combination of grants, loans and work study so they would give us btween 5 and 10k, I think.
Thank you everyone for all your feedback. The school we are considering is both need aware and it does not meet full need. If we could just get the 5500 loan and work study we’'ll be pleased. We decided to apply for aid and see what happens. Thanks again.