<p>Is there an admissions advantage for being able to afford the tuition of a school? Are some schools with smaller endowments more likely to admit a student from a wealthy family?</p>
<p>There is a notable advantage for “full pay” students. There are a couple of schools that are need blind (Andover and Roxbury Latin come to mind) but the large majority of prep schools rely on tuition for income.</p>
<p>So if you are full pay then you are at an advantage. If you need financial aid, then it will be harder.</p>
<p>St. Andrew’s School of Delaware is another school that is very generous on financial aid with 47% receiving aid (same percentage as Andover) and with a higher average financial award than Andover at over $40,000. Of course, Andover awards much more money overall with a student body almost 4 times bigger: 1,129 at Andover compared to 299 at SAS.</p>
<p>The short answer to your first question is yes. Everything else being equal you are much more likely to get accepted at almost any school if you do not need FA. If a school has a “need blind” or similar policy it will be a more fuzzy situation, but in general it is true.</p>
<p>The answer to your second question is a lot more complicated, and it is worth searching for and reading in their entirety previous threads on the subject. Certainly they do need a minimum level of full pay families, but beyond that they can be a creative with their FA as any other school. I started our search with the assumption that applying to the better endowed schools was the way to go if you needed a good aid package. I used this forum extensively (though I did not post at all) and doing so really helped my family narrow down the list of schools and get a better understanding of how to think about FA. I cannot get into all of my thoughts here, but here a couple of points I found helpful. All the below is recycled form the good advice I got on this site:</p>
<p>Your chances of getting FA will depend on how much a school wants you. Sure, St. Paul’s, St. Andrews, and a handful of others have a guaranteed FA policy for certain income levels, but this does not mean that all such school remain blind to your need prior to admission. If they cannot fund you fully, some will simply not accept you. This is the difference between “need blind” and “guaranteed full FA if admitted.” So in this sense, your chances of being admitted and given aid may in fact be higher at a “hidden gem” that really wants you. You are much more likely to stand out as unique and desirable at school where there is less competition, fewer people similar to you, etc. </p>
<p>Bigger endowments do not mean better FA. Some schools with significantly smaller endowments offer the same or almost the same overall as some hugely endowed schools FA (both in terms of total dollars or in other cases in terms of per student FA). As many have discussed here, there are a few good reasons that applying to a wide range of schools, and deliberately seeking out a few well matched, less competitive, less well endowed schools, will greatly increase your chances of both acceptance and FA.</p>
<p>Do not base your list on schools that have those full aid income levels or need blind admission policies of one sort or another. Certainly never cross a school off your list because you think they do not have the wherewithal to give you enough FA.</p>
<p>A corollary to all the above: getting aid is first dependent on getting accepted. In the end, you have a much better chance of getting sufficient aid at a less well endowed school school that admits you than you do at a school where aid is certain but rejection is almost as probable.</p>
<p>The most important point is that if you are not locked into a rich, big name school (which we hope you are not), start from scratch and create a diverse, viable list of where your child will be comfortable and which have a varying chance of both admission and good FA packages. Sure, Hotchkiss and Deerfield might be your dream schools, but you might equally enjoy and thrive at Pomfret (or - depending on what it you like about the dream school - Westminster, Berkshire, Millbrook, Blair or any other more poorly endowed, “less selective” school). Pomfret et. al. might also be a whole lot more excited about you – either because you stand out more in their applicant pool or because you have made clear to them how much you want to go there and why - and go out of their way to try to get you there. My son applied to a lot of schools, and we knew he would likely get rejected from a good percentage. He did get rejections, and he also got acceptance with no FA. And waitlists. I am also guessing one or two rejections/waitlists had as much to do with FA as anything else. We had built a pretty good list, though, and as it turns out he was accepted at his first choice school with enough aid to make it doable. I cannot imagine him being happier, or even as happy, anywhere else.</p>
<p>The reality is that schools have a finite budget for FA (they don’t deficit-spend like the gov’t); however, the number of students applying for FA is ~double the number of students who are not applying for FA. </p>
<p>For schools which are not need-blind, the rough rule of thumb is:</p>
<p>full pay applicant admit rate = 2 X average admit rate
FA applicant admit rate = 1/2 X average admit rate</p>
<p>GMT started a mega-thread discussing “need-blindness.” You might want to check it out. </p>
<p>Wasn’t it SharingGift who started that thread?</p>
<p>" For schools which are not need-blind, the rough rule of thumb is:</p>
<p>full pay applicant admit rate = 2 X average admit rate
FA applicant admit rate = 1/2 X average admit rate"</p>
<p>In looking at admissions vis a vis FP vs. FA, this is indeed the rough rule. However, admissions are also split International vs. Domestic. International roughly equals FP, perhaps more precisely than that. Certainly most if not all FA goes to Domestic applicants. I am no statistician and cannot determine how this might (somewhat) skew the admit rates in favor of Domestic FA applicants but on appearances it seems that this may afford some benefit to them. </p>
<p>This one?</p>
<p><a href=“Can Andover be truly need-blind in admission even if it wanted to be? - Prep School Admissions - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/1640845-can-andover-be-truly-need-blind-in-admission-even-if-it-wanted-to-be-p1.html</a></p>
<p>@Agincourt – So, can we say that, with all other things being equal, a domestic full pay applicant has the best shot at admission? Does this hold true regardless of endowment?</p>
<p>@ heartburner --</p>
<p>All other things bring equal, I would say yes but please don’t look to me as an authority. </p>
<p>Sadly, the number of American families who can afford full pay continues to shrink as tuitions rise. If I told you how little my family had to full pay for me to attend my school, you would choke. It was long ago and far away, but still. </p>
<p>This is a complex subject of course and not all about FP vs. FA. If it were, entire school populations could come from X’ian or Seoul on their own. There are and must be limits to how many applicants from each foreign country can be absorbed into a school population before said school begins to part ways with its own identity. The more inclusive the schools get, the harder it must be for the AOs to find the right mix. Does a Chinese American kid get preference over a Chinese kid? I certainly hope so but that’s a subject for someone with more inside knowledge than I can offer. I do know that these are American boarding schools and one of their main attractions is that they are American. That American-ness is hugely appealing to many foreign families and essential for continued support from the (largely domestic) alumni/ae. That said, these schools are huge complex enterprises. Their endowments can’t be spent down and there are many demands on available funds, scholarships being but part of those demands (infrastructure, expansion, employee benefits, unexpected overhead and debt service being major matters among others). Therefore applicants who do not need financial aid - all other aspects being equal - have a decided advantage and amongst those, domestic applicants trump internationals, per above. </p>
<p>I could have whacked out everything but the first sentence, saved you some time and trouble.</p>
<p>@heartburner,
When seeking FA, don’t just target the highest endowment schools. These tend to be the ones w the most applicants/ lowest admit rate; therefore, the competition for FA is the stiffest, needblind or not. </p>
<p>Also look at schools were your child’s stats put him/her in the best competitive position.</p>
<p>At the end of the day there are two piles of applicants-the ones who can pay and the ones who can not period!!
The ugly truth is FULL PAY get in first so they can pay for the ones that can not.
Needblind is code word for political correctness- fell good- big donors.<br>
These and all schools are run like any other big business…there is a bottom line and bills have to be paid!
Please try to remember these schools were built for the wealthy by the wealthy. FA is there gift. </p>
<p>These schools were built by the wealthy for the wealthy, and they could still be that way. However, they have chosen to be more than that, better than that, by bringing in students who truly deserve and will benefit from the great education they provide. Yes, FA is a gift, but it is a great gift, not one to be spoken of with bitterness, not part of some “ugly truth” (except in the sense that everything to do with money may be called an ugly truth). Honestly, I have never seen a better example of what money can do when wielded by people with good hearts and good sense than the school my son is lucky enough to attend with the gift of financial aid.</p>
<p>
I don’t know why it’s an UGLY truth; it’s simply fiscal reality. When you shop at Whole Foods, should you be bitter that the market tries to sell their premium produce at full price first before they discount it?</p>
<p>Oh, let’s bring Whole Foods into it! After sending three FP kids through BS, I’d love to shop at Whole Foods on a regular basis but I can’t afford it. Thanks for rubbing pricey sea salt into my wounds, @GMTplus7. Who’s bitter now?</p>
<p>WHOLE FOODS :x :x :x </p>
<p>WHOLE PAYCHECK :(( :(( :(( </p>
<p>RICE & BEANS AGAIN !!</p>
<p>Rice OR beans, for some of us…</p>