FA not qualified = no FA ?

We didn’t even dream of Andover until my daughter got extremely high SSAT score at her first try, 99% in all sections. After some research, I had the idea that PA is need blind. I really don’t know where the cut-off line is, so we submitted the FA, just try, for the heck of it. Now I see the family report in SSS, estimated contribution is much more than the tuition. Do these top BS treat “FA but not qualified” students the same as non-FA students? Should I inform the school to modify my daughter’s application to remove the FA request? (We didn’t ask for FA in other schools’ applications)

I don’t know the answer to your question about whether Andover will treat your application as full pay if your EFC is higher than tuition. However, when we filled out the PFS our EFC also came back as more than the total cost of tuition. We made the decision after seeing the number that we wanted to retract our FA applications and change to full pay. We contacted the AOs and financial aid directors at each school and asked them to change our son’s app to full pay. I just explained that we needed to do our due diligence to fill it out and see the EFC, and that we had decided that applying for aid was not necessary. They were more than happy to accommodate that request to change to full pay.

I think that some schools will offer admission to kids with high EFCs and just give no aid. But I think there are others who may wait list or reject an applicant whose EFC demonstrates full pay but applied for aid. If parents have the means to pay full freight, then it shows more commitment to the school to go full pay and not ask for aid. Schools may question a family’s commitment to a boarding school education if they have means but are reluctant to give up some luxuries in exchange for a world class education.

PA it wont matter–I think let it be. For what it is worth a 99% SSAT will not guarantee her admittance. They get more 99s than they can admit.

Thanks dramakid2! Your post is very helpful.

I agree for PA it won’t matter.

Hmm, then why would PA even have a “full-pay” option. Logically, everyone would be going for FA.

Its pretty easy to ascertain whether you will or wont qualify for aid before you apply via the various calculators. If you dont qualify you dont qualify. For need blind schools it doesnt matter because it isnt included with the file so it doesnt matter

In our case those calculators were way off. We have a very middle class income and live a modest lifestyle, but we have high assests. The private school calculators suggested we would qualify for 50% aid, even when I put in the full value of our assets. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

Honestly, I knew instinctively going into the PFS process that we would likely not qualify for anything. But I was encouraged to apply due to our income and the fact that we have a younger child who attends the same private school my 8th grader goes to. But it was clear that we weren’t going to get anything. Maybe if my kid had 99% scores and a whole list of accolades, then maybe a school or two would give money just to attract him. But that’s not our situation so pulling the FA apps was the best choice for us.

I agree with dramakid2. I tried the estimator on all school web sites, they all say we are qualified for 10k to 30k aid. I don’t believe it. PFS result proved my feeling. We are actually not that serious about PA since we don’t think she stands a chance. In my eye, my daughter is just a normal smart girl, but those applicants are all non-human super kids. So this application is the one that we don’t mind messing it up. That’s why this is the only school we tried the PFS to see how far we are above the line. I may pull the FA apps as well, just to be fair with her other applications. The interview went really well though.

@dramakid2 We are same and we showed qualifying for nothing. Because I was supposed to mortgage my modest house that is paid off…

@center ouch, that would hurt! If home equity were our primary asset and we had to mortgage our house for tution, I would have to think long and hard about whether BS is worth it. There’s a difference between using home equity vs assets that can be liquidated for tuition.

@dramakid2 yes and that is how colleges behave as well. you are better off with massive mortgage on a primary home and vacation home and no savings. house paid off and savings in bank for retirement --you are supposed to deplete your savings or mortgage your house.

Asked a friend whose daughter is already past this stage. Question was did your EFC match the SSS number? Not even close. The school made a much better offer than SSS. The schools factor in lots of things. Personally, I could never
imagine mortgaging anything to pay for BS. But some will/do. Also some have large amount of $ in assets and others have high income and high expenses like big mortgage esp in places like Ssn Fran and NYC. I think you should leave it as is. There are thousands with top scores but if they want her would be great for you to get some funds.

We were surprised by how high the EFC was when we filled out the PFS/SSS… We were assured by a parent whose child just graduated from BS that the EFC does NOT take cost-of-living into account, but that most boarding schools do.