<p>Other than the obvious - that it is common for students to apply to more than one college - how do the colleges know which other colleges you are applying to? Is there a form or something where you disclose this information that the colleges get? </p>
<p>Also, I read that to get the most financial aid, you should not apply ED to any college. Is this true? If so, why? (Since the ED acceptance rate may be higher, are you just shooting yourself in the foot by doing so?)</p>
<p>If it’s a common app school I believe they can see the other schools. </p>
<p>I think so and my son’s GC said no way my kid would have gotten the FA package he did if he applied ED. He also said it wouldn’t have been that high if they didn’t know the other schools and what DS was likely offered by them. They made sure they beat all of them (more than $10K in FA above his second choice.)The interesting thing is that it’s the most selective school that was on his list and the most expensive but with the FA it’s the least expensive for him to attend. </p>
<p>Also, as the schools increased in selectivity the amount of merit/FA increased! </p>
<p>YMMV.</p>
<p>emily-thanks! I had no idea they may be able to see that info. Duh. Well, good to know. I will just have to pray for the right acceptance/financial package when my daughter applies her Senior year. I know everything will work out for the best in the end, but its the interim that is hard to take. :)</p>
<p>I feel your pain. I stressed about this so much in wondering if she applied to x school would y see it etc. In the end my daughter applied to 6 schools and got into 5. Unfortunately the one she really wanted she didn’t get into. I will always wonder if she would get in ED but we did need financial aid. We’re down to the top 2 schools of the 5 and the aid is comparable at both. I’ve learned that you can’t game the system, just apply to the one’s you want and go from there.</p>
<p>I don’t believe that Common App shares that information with the schools. It is not uncommon to see a question about other applications on supplements to the Common App or individual college apps. Interviewers often ask. If you apply for FA, one of the forms (FAFSA or Profile) allows you to list 8 or 10 schools to send the information too and, as I understand it, those schools then see where else you applied. If the school is need-blind, the financial people should not be sharing that information with the admissions people. </p>
<p>I have heard both views expressed on ED and FA. Either that you get more aid because you applied early before they ran out of aid or more later because you can compare offers (and they know it).</p>
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<p>I don’t think they do either. Some colleges ask on their application forms which other colleges you’re applying to. You might tell your interviewer what other schools you’re applying to. But unless you tell them, I don’t see how any college would know where else you’ve applied.</p>
<p>I’ve heard that there is a mysterious list that is circulated if you get an ED acceptance that goes to other selective schools to try to catch applicants who don’t plan on withdrawing applications to other schools. Don’t know if it is true or just made to scare applicants into compliance.</p>
<p>Sorry, but don’t know how the FAFSA data is handled.</p>
<p>I think I did read somewhere that that info was on the financial aid form, but by then you’ve already been accepted or rejected, right?</p>
<p>^ But that is when they make the decision on FA. If you apply ED they have nothing to compete against. They got you as an admit so why bother giving you a good package.</p>
<p>It’s somewhere on an official Common App page that they don’t share that information with other schools.</p>
<p>One supplement asked me; I told the truth and listed them all, even the ones far more selective. I was admitted with full-tuition (not a specific one like NMF, just general scholarship). In a scholarship interview for one school, I listed a few, including some that were more selective. I didn’t receive the full scholarship, but another large one attached to a Social Justice program I liked.</p>
<p>It might cause better offers, or it could cause denials, or it could not factor in. Depends on the school.</p>
<p>There was a time when I plugged in all sorts of colleges to my son’s common app (well before he was submitting anything of course). I did it just to get information, like their supplement questions. Soon he was getting emails and direct mail pieces encouraing him to finish his application. It wasn’t just “consider us”, it was more like “get going and hit submit”. I wished I had saved some of them, but these were some lesser schools. </p>
<p>This begs the question: would a top level school also buy that information? Maybe, just to keep tabs on their numbers. It is, after all, all about marketing a product and like any marketing dept, they have to know the competition.</p>
<p>A school knows when you select them on the common app, even if it’s just hitting their name.</p>
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<p>Sigh! What a bunch of bull.</p>
<p>Leave it to the good ol’ GC to show and spread such ignorance. There is simply no foundation for the statements made by the GC.</p>
<p>With 20-50K applicants to sort through, do we think Adcoms and FinAid folks really care? Or have time to care about who else you had applied? I don’t know, just curious…</p>
<p>There is no way my son would have gotten a package with only institutional aid in it which was $18K over our EFC if he had applied there ED. His COA will be $4K less than the state school he got into and we are in NY - the state with one of the cheapest COA. </p>
<p>I believe his GC. He has been doing this for a long time for a small private school.</p>
<p>My son didn’t apply to schools with 20K-50K applicants except for the state school. At this school there were only 5K apps and they only accepted 1500 and change. Yes, I think they cared.</p>
<p>I work at a university (but a public non-selective one). I work in IT, and was requested to write a report to see if there was a correlation between the place the applicant listed our institution on the FAFSA and the likelihood they would enroll. In fact, there was. I was not asked to analyze or list what other schools the applicant applied to, but the data is there. However, as I said, we WANT students to come and do not turn very many away.</p>
<p>So colleges can see what other schools a student has applied to off the FAFSA, then? Is it usually just the financial aid office that sees that information or the admissions folks as well?</p>
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<p>That might explain how off-the-wall his comments are. Old timers, who started in a era when information was scarce, could get away with speculative and misleading statements. People familiar with financial aid offices know they do not work with different rules for ED and RD at the SAME school. Parents have reported different packages from different schools, but finding how different a financial aid offer could be different for the SAME applicant at the SAME school is inherently impossible, unless a family with twins would have one apply under ED and the other under RD. </p>
<p>Think about how unfeasible the statement of your GC about schools comparing financial aid offers really is. How in the world would they pull this off? The GC probably told you all the schools call him first. :)</p>
<p>He’s only about 45 yrs. old - hardly an old timer or someone who is clueless. And he is well aware how FA offices work and how office of admissions work. He also knows a lot of the people in these offices personally as our school can afford to send him to conferences and to visit colleges several times a year. </p>
<p>It’s common sense. A school has no reason to give a great FA package to an ED applicant. </p>
<p>Because they know the schools he applied to it is easy to determine approx what their FA packages would be. I was able to tell based simply on what the schools give for certain GPA’s/SAT/ACT scores and what our EFC was what we would get! I have no doubt financial offices know what kind and amount of aid other schools give and anyone with half a brain could put together a package which could beat another school if they wanted. </p>
<p>No, my GC didn’t tell me that.</p>
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Wow. I just listed them by state, North to South… Or was it South to North? Not sure, but definitely by state.</p>
<p>I guess a very competitive school will do it differently vs. a state school on FinAid. For top 10 or so schools, they COULD decide to ask (and obtain) all students paying the sticker price, IF the anti-trust law does not exist, correct? What a horrible scenario for low-income family…</p>