I’ve heard that stating that you dont need financial aid on your application increases your chances of admission, and that you can later request financial aid regardless of your previous statement. Is this true? Can someone tell me everything i should know about financial aid?
Thanks in advance.
No, you don’t really have it right at all. Also when you post at this hour so I had to take a peek to see if you were an international because that does change everything.
So your schools, and many top schools and most publics are ‘need blind’ for admission so applying for financial aid doesn’t affect your chances, it isn’t considered as part of the admissions process. In addition, all of those particular schools also promise to ‘meet 100% of need’ for accepted students.
But when you indicate you are not applying for financial aid from the institutional funds, no you may not ask for it later. Most have a rule about that. Plus you have to meet certain deadlines to be considered for the college’s own funds. If there are special circumstances that may be an exception. But you can always file a FAFSA later and get a Pell grant if you are eligible and a student loan. So you can get federal aid whenever you are entitled to it but it won’t go very far.
A first step to learning everything is to read the FAQ in some of the links at the top of the forum.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1486647-financial-aid-faqs.html#latest
@BrownParent Your answer was very helpful. I am in a different country at the moment, taking advantage of summer break to do more volunteering and such. Thank you for your response!
Beware and don’t take advice from the international students on these matters. They are in different circumstances. Only 6 schools are need blind and promise to meet 100% of need for them. Many more are just need blind and will present a large bill. Others are need aware for internationals so asking for aid does affect them as there are so many more internationals wanting aid. In any case, when anyone needs aid, it is best to ask if you won’t be able to attend without it.
For you, need aware colleges may not even be an issue. But if you are close to being a full payer anyway and won’t qualify for much, sometimes it can help not to.