So, we got an email today from the financial aid office asking for an additional piece of documentation, and it sparked a discussion about “where they are in the process” (keep in mind we’re not trying to read tea leaves, just passing time until decisions…)
But we were wondering: given that the school purports that admission decisions happen separately from financial aid decisions, does that mean that the fin aid office processes an application for every applicant, regardless of whether the school intends to offer admission? That seems pretty inefficient. One would think that they would choose admits first and then send to FA office? What is the sequencing of the process?
I don’t believe there is a sequencing. The financial aid department doesn’t have time to wait for admissions. These are two different departments doing 2 different jobs.
The financial aid office needs paperwork, and some of those forms have deadlines. How can they inform families that they’re missing something if they aren’t reviewing the financial aid forms? Some schools offer aid “while it’s available.” Work Study, for instance, is limited. But it’s awarded by application date, not acceptance date. The financial aid office needs to have packages ready when acceptances are ready to go out. That can only happen if they’re working concurrently.
That makes sense, I suppose. It’s just fascinating to imagine processing so many applications that will ultimately not even result in an offer.
Once they have all the info, it takes about a millisecond to “process”. The time consuming part is getting it into a lettr (probably another 5 seconds or so) but they only do that for the accepteds. As long as they have the system capacity, it’s not an issue. Guessing that old Fin. Aid. apps get archived somewhere with the ability to write over those files.
When you apply for Fin. Aid. you need to provide everything they requested, regardless of whether you are accepted, in order to be assured they are looking at your files. You want them to get on the ball about that in case you are admitted, so that there is no delay in getting the info to you. EDII Fin. Aid. packages come out within a few days of decisions (or maybe even sooner) and RD is a small window till Decision Day on May 1. Additional documentation can take several days to get to them so sending that along during the “down-time” while awaiting a decision makes sense 
Thanks, @JBStillFlying! My son is an ED2 hopeful. Won’t be long now! :-SS