Hello, I was just wondering do the numbers that a student provides on financial aid applications play a role in the admissions decision or is it just the fact that the student is applying for aid that affects the admissions decision? Thanks
It would depend on the school. For need blind schools it makes no difference - the school is either committed to filling the gap in need or is not. For those that are need aware it probably is based on how much is needed and how much they want the student. For instance Reed College is need aware when it gets to their final student selections. IMO that would be based on how much the college has to fund.
Need aware schools consider your ability to pay when reviewing your application for admission.
Need blind schools do not consider your ability to pay when reviewing your application for admission.
Yes I understand this but my question is do the numbers you put, for example how much can your parents approximately contribute to your tuition, and in other areas of the financial aid application put you in a disadvantage against other people who are ALSO applying for aid?
I think post #1 is as good as your going to get here. It depends on the school and the most anyone here can say is probably this is or that.
Are you a domestic applicant or international?
Which schools are you applying to (it depends on schools: need aware? need blind? meet need?)
Can a university admit a student but reject his financial aid application? And if so, is this quite common?
Of course, if by “reject” you mean decline to offer any financial aid.
Depends on how you define “quite common.” I’m reasonably sure that it’s not a rare occurrence.
A school could reject a financial aid application if they think there’s fraudulent info being provided. Otherwise what will happen if they admit you, is to offer you the aid they think you need if it’s a meets need school or gap you, offer aid but not enough to meet what they or you think you need. Then you have to decide if you can really afford the school.
And some colleges do enrollment management. These are need aware schools that try to balance admitted students who can pay, students who need limited aid to attend, and students who need a lot of aid to attend. In some cases, you can be admitted, but with far less aid than you would need to attend. This is sometimes referred to as an “admit/deny”. If you attend, the school won’t be funding that gap in aid. And some schools also do preferential packaging. They might give more grant aid to one student and more loan aid to another…depending on how much they want to attract a student.
The most important is what MiddKid and AD said upstream. The colleges will compute your aid, not you. The colleges will determine your aid award, not you. But you get to decide if the money is sufficient to attend…or not.