<p>Hello!</p>
<p>My question is: Are need-blind colleges allowed to look at a student's financial information BEFORE making a decision on admissions? Or do they have to wait until a student is admitted to start calculating Financial Aid?</p>
<p>Do colleges calculate financial aid for ALL applicants, and then toss out the rejected ones?</p>
<p>Thanks!!</p>
<p>They would allow you to look at how much financial aid they can provide you with and then let you make a decision on admissions. They probably won’t calculate financial aid for ALL applicants… that seems like a waste of time… they would only calculate it for accepted students.</p>
<p>Need-blind colleges aren’t allowed to accept or deny you based on your family income. Hence the term “need-blind” haha.</p>
<p>NYU says they’re need blind but I doubt it. Out of the 7 schools I applied early too, they were the ONLY one who asked for family financial info before the regular FAFSA deadline. There must be a reason they want it by Nov 15.</p>
<p>jjohn42: they are in fact need blind, except for internationals. a departmental liaison to the admissions office confirmed this for me when i asked him (in person) before i applied for finaid.</p>
<p>also if they weren’t need blind they wouldn’t admit kids who go into huge debt for NYU…</p>
<p>they give you a financial aid estimate with your admissions decision which is probably why they ask for it… if they did just the fafsa you would have to wait until april probably.</p>
<p>The post above mine is correct. The only reason the school asks for info earlier is so they can provide you with as accurate an estimate of your costs as possible along with your acceptance packet. They understand how significant the cost of higher education is now, and with our pitiful endowment, they realize the need to be up-front with their fairly minimal aid packages.</p>
<p>And yes, if it wasn’t a need-blind program, chances are I would not be here right now.</p>
<p>@hellodock</p>
<p>After sending in a letter stating that I anticipated a discrepancy between my 2010 and 2009 financial information, I received an email from the OFA asking me to fill out a Expense / Resource Verification sheet. They instructed me to fax it with attn or email it to a specific financial aid officer, giving me the officer’s name and email.</p>
<p>I am aware this isn’t asked of all applicants, so I am guessing they are already looking at my financial information. Does NYU look at all applicant’s FA application, or does it wait until it has a list of accepted students to calculate their FA?</p>
<p>In other words, is this a little hint that I’ve been admitted?
(I reckon with admissions decisions likely finished, they wouldn’t be asking for more information if I was rejected. that would be a waste of time?)</p>
<p>They need your FInancial info to calculate an estimate of your FA. You are not entitled to any FA without a FAFSA filed. The admissions office and the FA work independently. But, I would think that it would be a waste of time and resources to figure out FA for every applicant, so it is possible that you will be admitted if they are asking for further info.</p>
<p>So why don’t they ask everybody for this sheet? and if they already have all their admissions decisions done, would they ask me for this info if I was rejected? that doesn’t make sense. </p>
<p>Yes they work seperately, but OFA has to know which students to calculate FA for, I doubt they calculate it for ALL applicants?</p>
<p>Well, you basically gave them a bit of a red flag when you volunteered that you expected a discrepancy. They’re asking you to clarify that. Nothing more, nothing less. It’s a need-blind institution, meaning they won’t choose to admit or reject someone based on how much money they need. However, they will send admitted students an estimated aid package along with the acceptance in the spring, so you may be right in thinking that they’re leaning towards you as a successful applicant since they’re requesting more information from you.</p>