<p>I just wanted to let some of the FA applicants know that Groton does take financial aid into account when accepting students, as does other schools. Here is a quote from their website:</p>
<p>"We have been tracking our admission activity over the years and can relate that the admit rates for financial aid applicants run at about 20% year to year while admit rates for those not applying for aid have run between 25% and 30% year to year."</p>
<p>It's quite a bit difference...</p>
<p>Based on that statement alone you can't conclude that Groton takes financial need into account. Rather, the non-FA application pool may be stronger in certain respects--such as academic preparation for higher level work--than the FA pool. Non-FA applicants have probably been privileged their entire lives and have had access to better schools, tutoring services, even expensive school consultants. Their parents social or cultural capital could help them get more impressive recommendations or help them better tailor their applications. </p>
<p>Differential access to these sorts of things is a bit unfair, but it's a different situation than Groton just being stingy with its FA applicants. (They may also be stingy and hold FA applicants to a higher standard--I have no idea. But it's not uncommon now for legacy applicant pools at Yale now to actually be stronger than the regular pools in certain respects, and I wouldn't be surprised if this happened at the high school level too.)</p>
<p>Another quote from Groton.</p>
<p>"During the regular admission season, decisions regarding admission to the school and eligibility for financial aid are made independently by the Admission and Financial Aid Committees respectively. Since admission is a separate issue, all families who are interested in financial aid are encouraged to apply. "</p>
<p>Their basically saying they take financial aid into consideration when you apply.</p>
<p>Why wouldn't they take FA into account? Honestly, I thought all schools do except schools that are really, really rich (like exeter)</p>
<p>Why wouldn't they take FA into account? Honestly, I thought all schools do except schools that are really, really rich (like exeter)</p>
<p>even places like Exeter take FA into account. They only have a certain amount of money to spend on it, so they want to make sure it goes to the people who are most likely to make the school 'better' (read: most prestigious).</p>