Duke ED--Changing Financial Aid Consideration

Colleges and Universities A-Z Duke University
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Hi, I applied to Duke ED (fall 2023) and want to change my financial aid consideration. Originally, I wanted to be considered, but now I do not believe I will be able to qualify, so I would like to change it. If I were to alert the admissions office of this, would it be a problem? Should I just leave it as is?

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Duke is need blind for admissions so there’s no benefit to changing your request for aid. If you don’t qualify for aid you simply won’t get any. But it won’t impact your admission decision.

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I think it depends on context here. Are you a first generation or URM or any other demographic that the University is aggressively recruiting?

If you don’t need financial aid, then why apply for it? That’s the path of least resistance.

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No matter what the answer to this question is, it’s irrelevant for need blind schools like Duke.

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But if there is any doubt that the student can afford this and financial is not on the table for this demographic, why would the school extend admission (which is otherwise binding for ED)?

AOs are aware of which applicants apply for aid… So, cynically, I think it’s a mistake to apply for financial aid if you really don’t need it…

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I’m assuming that this thread will not degenerate into yet another "is Need-Blind really Need-Blind discussion. I’ll further assume users are more interested in answering the OP’s question than in getting the last word.

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As Duke is need blind, I’d leave it. And, while it’s anecdotal, I will tell you our story. We felt that we wouldn’t qualify for any need based aid - we ran the NPCs, did all the calculations, etc. We live in a very high cost of living area where our crappy house with “deferred maintenance” was expensive and our taxes and cost of living are high. But the majority of schools don’t take that into account. In the end, Duke was the only school that gave us need based aid (and it was NOT the only CSS school DS applied to). Was it a lot? No. But every dollar counts. And, being a family that got need based aid qualified us for $400 for two people (student plus one adult) to visit on an admitted student day AND got our son $300 extra dollars a semester added on to his food points. So, you never know.

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