<p>hey guys im a high school senior and am going to apply to pton this fall. i know the website says that pton is 100% need-blind and its got the hight % of students on aid and blah blah but does it really not make a difference when u apply wheather u ask for aid or not ? its obvious the college website isnt gonna say that "we prefer ppl hu pay full" but does it increase ur chances of getting in ? i mean seriously if theres a guy with good stats paying full woulnd he be selected over someone else with maybe a liitle better stats but asking for the school to pay for him ? </p>
<p>im an international btw and want to kno if paying full will increase my chances. coz id fall into the aid catagory but dont want to reduce my chances just coz f the money coz its not like theres no way i can pay for it.</p>
<p>PS. specialy since its a bad economic time for all the schools.</p>
<p>“its obvious the college website isnt gonna say that ‘we prefer ppl hu pay full’”</p>
<p>Actually, some colleges are need-aware, so this is what is implied.</p>
<p>But Princeton is need-blind. The school does not take your ability to pay into consideration. I applied and told Princeton I was going to need financial aid, and I was accepted and given a wonderful aid package.</p>
<p>Princeton is definitely need-blind for all applicants, including internationals. I know it’s hard to believe, because there are only very few schools that are actually need-blind to internationals, but it is. I am a tour guide, and at one of the information sessions we had with the admissions office (to learn stuff for giving tours), they insisted that they never see your financial aid information at all–applications for admission and for financial aid are handled in two separate offices. </p>
<p>So definitely apply for financial aid with confidence that it will have nothing to do with your admission decision. Now, getting in is the hard part…good luck!</p>
<p>if they’re so need blind then why do they ask in your application if you need financial aid?? Im just a tiny bit suspicious of that, as cornell was the only school i applyed to that didn’t have that little box to check off</p>
<p>That information is solely for the financial aid office so they can prepare your file to consider you financial aid package. The admissions office does not see if you’ve applied for financial aid or not.</p>
<p>hey one more thing. what if i apply for financial aid but i dont get it, will i be denied admission ? (this is what they do at upenn so am just confirming. )</p>
<p>No, your financial aid decision does not impact your admissions decision. And I’m pretty sure UPenn doesn’t do that because it is foolish to deny someone admission just because they didn’t get financial aid.</p>
<p>Oh, never mind then. That would make more sense (I know they are need-blind within the U.S., but I didn’t know about their policy with international applicants).</p>
<p>That’s nonsense: 4 out of 5 applicants are not admitted to Ivies, no matter how you cut it. And if the students paying “sticker price” are truly admitted at such a high rate (which is ludicrous), I would sooner correlate such a trend with the greater level of opportunities, expectations, and “resume-boosting” activities afforded to upper-class students, rather than a tendency among Ivies (especially HYP) to admit students that can afford it. In case you’ve forgotten, the classes that are being admitted these days are over 50% on financial aid, and if anything it’s moving in that direction. </p>
<p>The reason I’m saying this: Please don’t be afraid from applying for financial aid at Princeton, or any need-blind school of similar (but inherently lesser :p) caliber. Instead, focus on making your application as best as it can be, because if you don’t get in there’s no limit to the number of things you can blame it on.</p>
<p>I just want to reiterate that applying for financial aid (at least for U.S. applicants) does NOT affect your admissions decision. These universities are need-blind (again, for U.S. applicants, not necessarily for international applicants) and will not take your ability to pay into consideration. </p>
<p>“if you guys want to check all the ivy admissions decisions roughly 4 out of every 5 people who DO NOT apply for aid are admitted into ivies.”</p>
<p>Please don’t post false information on the forums without proper evidence. 4 out of every 5 people who don’t apply for financial aid are not admitted into the ivies.</p>
<p>^^ can someone back this up ?? is this even remotely true ?! coz it sounds very illogical im sure therd be atleast 30000 ppl in the world every year willing to pay the whole fees so what ur saying is that 250000 (Approx) get accepted to ivies. BUT thats approx. the total no. of ppl hu get accepted to ivies and around 40-50% are on financial aid… so how on earh is that possible ???</p>
<p>Harvard1009: If we’re going to try to get scientific here, we would definitely need better quality data than “decisions threads”. I could point out a number of statistical problems with using such data (self-reported, qualitative, impossible to verify), but I trust that these problems are self-evident (or at least I hope so). </p>
<p>Of course, I have no idea how many students who can pay are actually admitted to Ivy League Schools. But, then again, neither do you. So, cr_freak, please do not get the wrong idea that is being force-fed by Harvard1009. If you choose not to apply for financial aid, it should be for no other reason than if you think you are not eligible–not because you think it will give you a leg up in admissions.</p>
<p>Harvard1009, an applicant’s response to that question about aid, as well as any other information pertaining to your family’s income, is only seen by the financial aid office, not by the admissions committee. And if you can’t pay for it without financial aid, it is not smart to apply to the school without applying for financial aid as well because it wouldn’t really matter at that point if you got in or not; if you can’t pay, you won’t be going.</p>