<p>Do financial aid offices review fa aid applications of all students or only admitted students?</p>
<p>Most of the time, schools will wait until a particular student has been admitted...However, there are some that do not have a need-blind admissions policy and look at how much a student can pay before making a final decision on acceptance...try to apply to schools with need-blind admissions....to find out, just call the school's admissions office or look in their literature...</p>
<p>Many need aware schools do not have the financial aid figures when they make their admissions decisions. The college where I worked made their decisions on a need blind basis but coded their acceptances as A, B, C, notations that meant little unless you had checked the financial aid box. Financial Aid then awarded the grants and packages to athe A's first, followed by the B's and then when it came to the C's they were either gapped if the amounts were not too large, got a lot of loans, and were turned down. According to financial aid, less than 5% of the accepted kids were in that turned down category. If more than that percentage turned up in that category, then admissions would add some non need kids to the accept list, but that rarely happens, I am told. It is too complicated to sit there trying to weigh the need and assess the profile of the applicants. It is easier to make the assessment in the pool that you have accepted as need can be just a few thousand dollars to full ride.</p>
<p>I am advising my lil brother one step further than to just "try to apply to schools with need-blind admissions...." He not only needs to apply to need-blind schools, but schools also schools that can meet 100% of need. (Of course, differences between FAFSA and parent's conception of EFC can be hindering even if you apply to the right "financial" schools). Thus, he must work his butt off in high school to get into these such schools.</p>
<p>In the University of California and the Cal State University system financial aid offices review info as soon as it is available and will request verification and such before any decision on admittance has been made. As far as any other universities, it sounds like others have some idea of how the process works.</p>
<p>Gphoenix, if your brother is a top of the line applicant at schools like Johns Hopkins, Oberlin, Wash U, and a number of other schools that are not need blind but do give very close to 100% of need and do have merit awards, it may not be a bad idea to throw a couple of those on to the list. You may well do better with one of those schools. I hae known too many kids whose best packages came from non need blind schools. I do not suggest making those schools one of your super reach schools, that is, if you stats are not well in the top 25% of the class, but I certainly would not eliminate them, particularly if it looks promising in several areas. The schools I would tend to avoid are the ones who do not give close to 100% of aid and whose packages are heavy in loans, especially if the school is not generous with merit awards as well.</p>
<p>how does it matter sheesh....</p>