I’m from a decently upper-middle class family, and I’m the oldest child. We aren’t expecting to get much aid but 70k per year is a lot of money (assuming I end up going to a private school) so my parents figured it was worth a shot to apply for aid; just getting 5k/year is still better than nothing.
Now that I look back at it, I’m unsure how this might be viewed by schools who are either looking to admit students who are ‘willing’ to pay, or would rather give financial aid to a student who needs it more than I do. If I requested aid even though Im in a decently wealthy income bracket, will it harm my chances at top schools who might assume that I’d only attend if I received some aid?
There are a few ‘need aware’ schools that do consider your ability to pay while in the admissions process. MOST schools are need blind and they will admit you without knowing if you need FA or not.
For need aware schools, it doesn’t mean they will reject you just because you applied for FA. They’d look at your FA application and decide first if you qualify for FA and second if they admit you how much they will provide. Just because you apply for FA doesn’t mean you’ll get it.
At most schools there’s no connection. The FA department takes the time to figure aid amount only for those who are admitted, and the applicants wanted the most are admitted first. When the FA budget is depleted, applicants asking for aid are not admitted.
^^I don’t agree with that. MANY students are admitted to schools that can’t afford them. The admissions office admits those who are qualified, the FA office gives out FA based on the FAFSA or other forms like the CSS. Most schools don’t meet the needs of their students and admit many who can’t afford the school (the admissions office doesn’t know who can and who cannot afford it because the admissions office doesn’t see the FA applications).
At a few schools that do meet full need and that are need aware, the admissions office and the FA office ‘talk’, sometimes not until taking students off the wait list.
Whether or not you ask a need-aware holistic private for aid, if you don’t match, you won’t get far. It’s a big leap to assume needing aid is the only pitfall.
At this point, I’d suggest more attention to combing your app/supps to see if you do match. It’s more than stats and some ECs. Do you know the college well enough? Can you properly answer any Why Us (which can also be behind some/all supp questions.)
Learn how need aware works, how different colleges among your targets look at need and when. Many explain on their web sites.
A need-aware can have some early-ish convo with FA folks. They won’t wait til past the final decisions, all the work involved. Need aware for decisions implies “need informed” during reviews. There can be different ways these school do that. Or how they code the level of need.
There’s nothing a $70k a year private school offers that you can’t already get at a state school for a small fraction of the cost. Private schools represent the worst possible value for a bachelors degree. $300,000 is more than medical school, which, in my opinion, is complete and utter insanity.
Do the net price calculators indicate your net costs to be full pay?
If your parents are married, aren’t self employed, don’t own a business, or don’t own real estate other than your primary residence…run all the net price calculators for the colleges on your application list. See what the say about your net costs at those colleges.