<p>When are we notified of a financial aid offer in the case of a waitlisted student? We can't hold out for a school without knowing whether we can afford it.</p>
<p>Others may chime in but I’m guessing there isn’t too much finaid left for waitlisted students. Make sure you accept somewhere you want to go and can afford by May 1!</p>
<p>What do you mean by …“can’t hold out for a school”?</p>
<p>When you’ve been waitlisted, you need to proceed as if you’ve been rejected. You need to pick the best school that you’ve been accepted to and proceed. </p>
<p>If you’re lucky and get accepted later to the waitlisted school, you’ll receive a FA package at that point, and then you can decide to go there instead of the other school. Maybe some schools send FA packages to students while on the waitlist, but I’ve never heard of that happening. But, since many schools can have different policies, I could be wrong.</p>
<p>You can also ask your top accepted school for a delay in sending deposits. Some schools, if requested in writing, will agree to let you miss the May 1st date and decide by June or so.</p>
<p>My son was waitlisted at Cornell last year and he accepted a spot on the waiting list but he never received a financial aid package to review.</p>
<p>OP you can also look up the stats of the chances of getting off the waitlist on the schools common data set. Most stats are not very good. Last year Cornell waitlisted something like 3300 students and accepted zero.</p>
<p>The school should be able to offer a FA package when accepting a student ( if needed) though typically FA for waitlist students I can only imagine to be lower than needs.</p>
<p>I don’t know what school you are talking about but if a school is need-blind that policy does not extend to the wait list.</p>
<p>some schools are need blind from the waitlist (HYPS), but you wouldn’t get your aid package until after you get accepted off of the waitlist.</p>
<p>Check with the schools to see what their policy is for waitlist fin aid and whether or not it differs fromregular fin aid packages. At some schools it does, at others it doesn’t.</p>
<p>Also keep in mind that schools can be very need aware when offering acceptance to waitlisted students.</p>
<p>I think the OP is expecting to see a FA package NOW…while still being on the waitlist.</p>
<p>I think the OP wants to see the FA package NOW, so he can decide whether to just cross the school off the list. </p>
<p>However, I don’t think schools give FA packages to students while they are on the waitlist. I don’t think they have a need to make FA packages for those students.</p>
<p>Being kept on the waitlist doesn’t cost you anything. You’ll want to make sure to accept admissions from the colleges you do have offers from by the deadline. If something happens later on where you’re accepted off a waitlist from another college, you’ll have a financial aid offer from them at that time. But in the meantime, you can just stay on the waitlist. You do have to proceed, however, with the offers you have in hand as though those are all the offers you’re going to have.</p>