<p>I know that it wouldn’t necessarily increase chances drastically or anything, but do admissions tend to give preference to those who aren’t applying for aid than to those who are?</p>
<p>I ask this because I have applied ED without asking for any aid. Would this help or would it just not to anything at all?</p>
<p>I know that for international students Brown is "need-aware" therefore requesting aid moves you into a more competitive pool =P</p>
<p>I'm not sure about U.S. citizens though</p>
<p>That's a good question sak09 and I have actually been wondering the same thing, especially considering the budget cuts that all the Ivy Leagues have had to make and the fact that massive amounts of people are going to be in need of aid this year.</p>
<p>Of course it does. The question should be to what degree does it help.</p>
<p>Brown has been need-blind for at least five years now. So no, it doesn't help, unless you're an international.</p>
<p>Yeah they say they're need-blind. Maybe they really aren't but I hope they're telling the truth..</p>
<p>Need-blind for US citizens means that admissions literally has no access to your financial information at all when evaluating you, period.</p>
<p>It won't have any effect if you're a US citizen. International students may have a different experience, however. In those instances, Brown does have access to financial information when assessing admission.</p>
<p>modestmelody is correct in theory. However, there are some parents who are very skeptical and argue that no college is really need blind. Their "proof" is that the percentage of students on financial aid rarely changes from year to year, which seems a little fishy. Admissions can typically guess a student's financial situation based on zip code and other factors (a student who holds down a job most likely needs financial aid more than a student who plays raquetball and skis). And the "are you applying for financial aid" check-off box is on the application.</p>
<p>Honestly, I don't know what to believe. The idealist in me agrees with modestmelody, the skeptic in me is, well, skeptical. I do think that if you are an exceptionally strong student you will be accepted no matter what your financial need is. I don't think that students who are not applying for need have a statistically significant increase in the chance of getting accepted. I do think it will be tougher this year for a high need international student to get accepted.</p>