<p>Does applying for financial aid (or not) affect the admission decision? Does anyone have any experience with this?</p>
<p>There are a couple of highly competitive, massively endowed schools that are need-blind in terms of admissions. There are some small -- also highly competitive schools -- that are sort of obscure that offer merit scholarships liberally. But, as a general proposition, yes -- financial aid puts you on a totally different admission track at the majority of boarding schools.</p>
<p>To the extent a school can meet its needs and desires for a well-rounded class that has everything the school wants that class to include while obtaining full payment for tuition, room and board from these applicants, it's going to reach out to those people.</p>
<p>To the extent that a school cannot fulfill its wish list and create a class that has a diverse student population (not just ethnically diverse) in which everyone feeds off everyone else...they'll tap into their limited financial aid pot of money to induce students to become part of the community and complete the tableau that the admission committee was commissioned to deliver to the school.</p>
<p>If you (or your child) brings something to the table that's desired and can't be had from among the full pay population, you've got a shot at FA and -- if I can avoid putting the cart before the horse -- a shot at admission.</p>
<p>If you (or your child) is like so many other full pay students -- even if s/he's just a little bit brighter than most -- there will be better ways to spend that money you're going to need in order to matriculate. And, without the aid, they figure you can't enroll. So offering admission to qualified students who aren't getting aid would be a quick way to make their yield numbers take a nosedive.</p>
<p>And as the class gets filled, it's not as if there will be specific things they need. You'll know if the football team needs a left tackle who's big and strong and experienced enough to protect the quarterback from a blind-side blitz. You'll be getting letters in the mail if you're that guy. And if all the bassoon players are seniors this year and that's your instrument, you'll know about that. But if you've got some exotic ethnic background or possess some other attractive quality that would be of some profit to the other students on campus, it's not usually going to be a rigid checklist that they're checking off. Think of it like a Leroy Neiman painting or even a Jackson Pollock...in which the next splash of color and where it fits isn't so obvious as it would be for that empty space on a canvas being tended to by Edward Hopper or Homer Winslow...where you know that that empty space is going to be filled in with a cash register or rudder. </p>
<p>The more ways that you (or your child) can help make the tableau complete, the more worthwhile it will be to incur the expense of extending an offer of admission with aid. The less an applicant adds to the development of the tableau, the less need there is to pay a higher price for that student -- when pretty much the same sort of student is available at less cost by looking through the full pay pool of applicants.</p>