<p>i was wondering, do schools have access to information such as income and other things involving one's financial background when making admissions decisions? i know that you turn in ur fafsa in like january or something like that, is there any other place where you report legal income and assets? so do colleges get to directly see how much you make or do they judge things like opportunities and financial background just based on evidence on a family's comfort of living?</p>
<p><em>bump</em> 10char</p>
<p>Some colleges take an applicant's income into account when making admission decisions, and some do not. The practice of not considering income for admission decisions is called "need blind" admissions, and usually requires the college to have a lot of funds so that any planned financial aid budget can be exceeded if need be. Some colleges that are need blind in that sense, in that they will let you in even if you can't pay, would actually like to know if you are poor, because that might even be a favorable admission factor, if you have overcome adversity and still achieved well in preparing for high school. </p>
<p>In general, it's an advantage to be rich to have more choices of colleges.</p>
<p>im assuming in that sense what im asking is different is different from the need blind/aware concept (which i probably didnt make very clear), since thats usually contingent on whether you apply for finaid (i think?)</p>
<p>so do adcoms get ur fafsa (and any other numbers charts) to consider as well? or do they have to infer social standing based on indications that you give them and not on purely numbers?</p>
<p><em>bump</em> </p>
<p>i would think that some people would wanna know the answer to this, but noones even looking at this thread.</p>
<p>The pages views counter is broken, so that's why it doesn't seem like anyone is looking at your thread. If you apply to a need blind school, the admission officers don't look at your FAFSA. If you apply to a need sensitive school, they can look at whatever they want.</p>
<p>Weasel is right. For schools that are truly "needs blind" the practice is normally that admissions does not even talk to financial aid about an applicant prior to making a decision. The offices work entirely independent of each other. If for some reason you feel them knowing something about your general financial circumstances might be helpful (like you're very rich or very poor or anywhere in between) you can find subtle ways to reference it in your application, either in your essays or ECs or wherever. For example, they can probably draw certain conclusions from a student who traveled the Near East with their parent the Ambassador and one who spent that same time working at Wendy's.</p>
<p>Conversely, if you think it might be a detriment in your application, you can try to make it as income-neutral as possible.</p>
<p>Schools that do consider need in the admissions process will almost certainly look at your finances.</p>
<p>are there any top schools that are need aware for domestic students? since as far as im concerned im not aware of any</p>
<p>That depends upon your definition of "top school," but I think Macalester is in that category, or was recently, because it couldn't afford to provide full financial to all students who might be admissible.</p>