@gigichuck, same thing here since I’m international asking for a ton of aid. I’ve been rejected and waitlisted so many times when I believe I could have gotten in if I was full pay or domestic so I think this could be a sign of hope, especially for these “richer” schools that won’t just turn away applicants they really want because of aid.
(please)
@filipiyes Dartmouth is need sensitive to international students, and if your email is personal not automated, I think it’s a good sign. A girl in my country ( asking a ton of FA) only got into Mount Holyoke until accepting by Harvard.
never given an interview even though I live in NYC. bad sign?
@NYcollege2022 people in big cities rarely get interviews. Simply not enough manpower to interview everyone. Universities send out a list of applicants to available alum, and the interviewer basically gets to choose who they interview. Sometimes they’ll get halfway through the list and find out they don’t have enough time to finish everyone. That’s why interviews don’t matter much
@LondonVall hm, always thought big city kids would have a better chance at getting an interview. never thought about it like that. Thanks so much!!
Thx a lot. dartmouth is my dream school…
Has anyone else received very detailed inquiries about their FA application? I get why since my family is complicated, but I’ve not gotten this level of inquiry from any other school (including those I’ve been accepted to).
@Islands62 yeah I have. Lol they asked specific ass information like where does that $4073.50 come from? We need to know. Seems like a good sign in the past
Are they asking everyone who is under serious consideration these questions or are enough getting in in previous years without having to answer these very specific financial aid questions
anyone else deferred ed and still a lil salty/sad ab it hahah… i wanna know what date they will let us know
@pf1212 Ivy Day: March 28
@Islands62 @Lemonade22 and anyone else who cares.
There is great confusion on this topic because people conflate two different types of financial aid contacts. There is the general, usually sent out before the FA deadline has passed, contact which is simply a reminder email sent to those applicants who said they were applying for financial aid but have not turned in all the required documents, and a more specific contact which demands a specific explanation of your situation or more specific documents usually a week or two before decisions come out (for schools that provide FA decisions with acceptance). The former contact is meaningless and does not correlate with acceptance, while the latter correlates highly with acceptance.
For example, I was contacted by the Smith Financial Aid office a week before I was informed that I was accepted (early write) asking why my mother’s income in her 1040 did not add up to the submitted W2s. This was because she had income for which a W2 or a 1099 was not given. When I told my father this he said congratulations, you have been accepted to college. I asked him why and he explained, that from the mid-90s to the mid-00s, he worked as a Financial Aid Officer at a mid-level college in California and that a FA officer NEVER works on a file until they have been informed that that student is accepted. NEVER!!.
In fact, when he started, they only worked on the files of those people who had paid the deposit and returned the acceptance form. This is because they have limited staff, and don’t have the resources to review the files and create a FA Award for students who will not attend. Plus there are limited pots of internal FA money, and they can only be allocated to the pool of accepted students. He further told me that this didn’t used to be a problem because FA Awards were usually given two weeks to a month after admissions decisions, but with higher competition for students, there came more pressure to have FA Awards with the Admissions decisions. Thus whereas before there was no overlap between Admissions and FA, now there is.
Finally, more proof. As I said in other places I was accepted to Cornell and Williams, rejected from Swarthmore and waitlisted at UChicago. I received the same W2 demand from both Cornell and Williams a week before I was notified of their acceptances, whereas with Swarthmore and UChicago, I received nothing. Thus, in all my applications where we have access to an FA checklist, I can reasonably tell you if I am in contention or not for a spot because the issue with my FA is something that needs to be rectified before they can issue FA Award. Two other schools have messed with my financial aid based on this problem, and the rest there is nothing.
So, in my case, if I have not received an email asking for clarification of my mom’s W2 problem a week before decisions are to come out (for schools that give FA Award simultaneously with acceptance), then I know that I am not accepted. Likewise, if I receive a W2 request, I know that I am accepted.
This is all based on a small sample size I know, but it makes logical sense.
Thus, the problem becomes not whether FA contact is meaningful, because in some cases it is, it is whether the contact you received is the “right” type of contact.
when I checked my applicationportal for bowdoin, the “recieved” date for my fafsa changed from 1/1/18 to 3/10/18, and I got accepted. My dartmouth portal still shows the original date I sent them my fafsa, is that a bad sign? Did naybody else see the date change next to their financial documents? Or does dartmouth not have these dates change the way Bowdoin did? The change happened 6 days before they sent out acceptances, so if it does change there is still time for it to do so.
@Green135 Not a bad sign. My date never changed for Bowdoin and I was accepted. Stop over-analyzing things guys!
@Green135 my date did change but I was rejected
jus because you don’t get a specific FA contact doesn’t mean you won’t be accepted though, maybe all your documents are straightforward and don’t need any clarification
@“Maschinenmädchen” what if an applicant doesn’t apply for financial aid?
Exactly. To the above user who wrote the long post, I also got an early write from Smith and I never got contacted. And considering financial aid is coming out a month after we got the early write, it’s safe to assume that you got that call/email because you had documents missing, not because you got in. Your sample size is too small to indicate anything significant. Stop trying to perpetuate rumors that get people’s hopes up or stress them out a week before decisions. I told people on the Bowdoin page the same thing, and it turns out the FA thing meant nothing, like I said.
I think it’s only logical that a school wouldn’t bug a person about financial aid until they need to prepare a package. I’ve had several problems with my FA applications at schools, and many told me, “Sure, great!” I got rejected/waitlisted there. This is a small sample size, sure, but it makes no sense to email a person about new/missing documents if there was no use.
Honestly, in a little over a week we’ll find out the correlation and save the Class of 2023 applicants their strength.
@mmstanfordbound Then you will simply not be privy to a “hint” about your application. The same would be the same for all applicants who have no “problems” with their FA application. You simply are left with no “hints.”
@sciencenerd123 I understand your apprehension with what I have said. Please feel free to take it with all the grains of salt that are necessary. I am only talking about a specific, and tiny, subset of people who are getting specific emails from FA about specific problems. That said, the fact remains that schools do not work on the FA files (at least an in-depth analysis) unless you are accepted. If you don’t believe me, here is a video discussion of this topic if you prefer (https://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/103552/getting-in-a-college-coach-conversation-november-9th-2017). Key in on 3:10-3:51 of the conversation. That should give you more information on the fact that FA Officers only work on the files of accepted students.