Does financial aid affect chances for admission?

College Search & Selection
1

Hello!
So I’m just curious to know, will applying for financial aid affect my chances for admission? I do not qualify for financial aid and my family would be able to comfortably afford to send me to a private university, but will this help or hurt my chances?

I am also an asian female attending a Toronto prep school who will be a first generation student, born and raised in Canada if that could influence admissions in any way?

Stats:
Junior
GPA: we don’t do GPA here but it would be around a 3.9
ACT: 26 (not good, I will retake it and aim for 30)
ECs: Lots and lots
Sports: this is my first year with Sr. Girls Varsity Softball
Recs: Great
Life story:…not very interesting, born and raised in the suburbs, attended same prep school since SK, that’s it

Probably applying to Boston College. Northeastern U, Babson, and Bentley all for business

Thanks! xx

2

The answer is, it depends At a very small number of schools it would make no difference. They are need blind and meet need for international students. Most other schools are “need aware” for internationals. That means that if you need FA, your odds of admission go down. Now US schools are often VERY expensive – your parents could spend a quarter of a million dollars easily to send you to one without FA. So if you actually do need FA, there is no point in not applying, since getting in does no good if you can’t afford to go.

For US students, first gen helps, Asian can be a disadvantage depending on the school (they are an overrepresented minority pool at the Ivies and very top research universities, not so much at lower ranked schools and most LACs). I don’t know how much first gen helps or hurts with internationals, although most schools seem to like to give a leg up to students who come from families where the parents did not attend college.

3

Thanks!! I know that the tuition is insanely high, but cost is not an issue for my family. I will not be applying for financial aid, but what do you mean by need aware? Would need aware work in the favour for those not applying for FA? I like your profile picture by the way haha

4

(At some schools, Canadians aren’t considered international students, so some schools that are otherwise need-aware for internationals are need-blind for Canadians. I don’t remember offhand which ones, but a few years ago I had direct experience with this in my assistance of a Canadian student who ended up getting a bunch of aid at a top-15 college.)

5

If you are full pay and can afford it then all schools will be very happy to take your money. Then it comes down to which schools you can get accepted to.