Hi all, I am wondering about the effects of state residency and financial aide when applying for colleges. I am from Washington and my top 2 schools are Upenn and Georgetown. I was wondering if State residency will give me any push since I think most kids attending those schools are from the east coast or california, according to my interviewers. Additionally I did not apply for financial aide from those schools which I don’t know if it will help because they say they are need blind but if anyone has any insight on that please let me know. Thanks!
The schools are need blind for admissions. The admissions department will not have any financial information…plus you didn’t submit any anyway.
In terms of admissions, both Georgetown and UPenn are top schools and attract applicants from all over the country. Washington isn’t likely an underrepresented State (places like Wyoming and Montana, and North Dakota might be) as there is probably a decent enough applicant pool from your state applying to both schools.
I doubt being from the state of Washington will help much. It’s not as if you’re from Alaska or North Dakota.
What are your parents saying? Are they saying that they’re fine with paying $70k per year for those schools? If not, how would costs be paid?
My parents strongly value education and therefore are willing to pay the amount. Fafsa will not give us any money and if they do it will be very little.
FAFSA doesn’t give anyone money. The FAFSA is a financial aid application form. It is primarily used to determine eligibility for federally funded need based aid, but many schools use the data on this form to calculate their institutional need based aid awards as well.
And anyway…UPenn and Georgetown use the CSS Profile to calculate their institutional need based aid…not the FAFSA data.
Can your parents afford their EFC?
If your parents can comfortably afford full costs, it’d be in your interest to apply to some need-aware colleges.
I thought you said your GPA is “average” for Penn and your test score is below their range. If you’re below the 50th percentile I don’t think legacy or stay of residence will give you a boost.
GPA above average (with hard classes) and new test score is within the range. @austinmshauri
@thumper1 im confused if i did not check applying for financial aide were my parents still supposed to fill out the FAFSA and CSS?
If your parents can be full pay without loans then no you don’t have to.
However admissions are need blind so you don’t get a review if you’re considered borderline, as you would at need aware colleges. Not applying for aid won’t help.
@MYOS1634 im applying to George washington and pitzer which i think are need aware. Not sure of any others
GWU only uses need aware for the bottom 5% though.
Hoping that’s not you! IDK wrt Pitzer.
@123daehrs And I’m confused. Are you needing to apply for need based aid…or not. If the answer is that you really are not going to be applying for need based aid, then no you don’t complete the forms either.
My point was…the FAFSA doesn’t give anyone money. It’s a financial aid form. Not a money giver.
Ok thank you that makes sense. I do not need to apply for financial aide. @thumper1
Did you run the Net Price Calculators for each of the schools? If you have not, you should. Find out what these schools expect you to pay. If the dollar amount is way over the Cost Of attendance , then there is no sense in applying for financial aid. You won’t get any. What is your FAFSA EFC? Again, that gives you an idea if you even have a chance to get grants from colleges.
FAFSA is needed for you and your parents to gain access to loans, so that is a reason to complete and submit that form.
@cptofthehouse the net price calculators said my family would pay the full price of attendance. I will tell my parents to fill out the FAFSA though just in case I qualify for any grants and for the loan access. Thanks for the help, sorry I do not know much about financial aid.
Colleges value geographic diversity, but schools like Penn and Gtown get plenty of applicants from both coasts. You’ll be at neither an advantage (like an applicant from a truly under-represented state) nor a disadvantage (like an applicant who lives right in the school’s own metro area) - geography is neutral for you. Likewise, Eurasian applicants are a dime a dozen - that’s neutral too. Legacy+ED at Penn will definitely help, though… and for some reason, ED applications dropped off this year, so hopefully that will put those who did apply in a good position: https://admissions.blog/penn-receives-far-fewer-early-decision-applicants-in-2019/
@aquapt thanks for the insight! And yes, I read the article and it seems odd to me that the ED applicants dropped by 1,000 as the past years all had major growth. Do you have any idea why this happened?
The blog post speculates that it’s because they restructured the supplement in a way that made it more work.
I’m not sure if I buy this argument re: ED. I could definitely see RD apps dropping off, if people are just tacking on extra schools that they can apply to without too much extra work, and the essay prompts don’t fit that strategy. It definitely does happen that people choose to do apps that feel like a good fit, and shy away from apps that feel daunting or unsuited to what they want to say.
But people are generally willing to do what’s required for their ED school - I mean, the UChicago supplement is certainly more work that UPenn’s and they’re still getting increasing numbers of ED apps each year. Still, any change can shift behaviors. It’ll be interesting to see if there’s a corresponding bump in ED apps at schools that typically compete with UPenn for ED apps, such as Cornell.