<p>Do the Admissions and Financial aid offices go through the piles of apps independently? It seems like a waste of time to go through a bunch of applications that might be rejected. Or is financial aid review so pro forma that it doesn't matter?</p>
<p>Seeking…what are you asking? </p>
<p>Schools have admissions folks who review applications. They have a process they use to determine the applications they will consider for admissions…and for the ones that simply are out of the running.</p>
<p>They have financial aid folks who do financial aid.</p>
<p>I’m guessing that Seeking is asking a question that has occurred to me too.</p>
<p>At highly selective colleges that receive vastly more applications than they accept, and (presumably) numerous FA applications from people who won’t receive an offer of admission, do the financial aid folks actually review and assess all the applications they receive, knowing that most of those applicants won’t receive an offer of admission anyway? Or do they have some kind of process to hold off reviewing FA applications until they know who is going to get an offer of admission?</p>
<p>They have to be reviewing them from the get-go, or they wouldn’t be done in time to send out the aid offers more-or-less at the same time as the acceptances. That is why many institutions have priority dates for Fin Aid. They want the numbers in time to start cranking out the results.</p>
<p>I asked that of someone once. I’m sure the answer is not identical but here is what they said…</p>
<p>They do preliminary reviews of financial aid during the whole application process. Admissions sends them updated information and they complete the packages for those who are accepted, and do not for those who are declined admission.</p>
<p>Much of what they do is computerized an by formula… At least that was the case at the school where I inquired.</p>
<p>Most schools are not “need-blind”, which is where they consider your application without any regard as to whether you will need financial aid or not.</p>
<p>So they have to start processing the financial aid side at the same time, because the potential aid needed (or not needed) can affect the admissions decision.</p>
<p>
That is true for most schools but there is a lot of top private and public schools that are “need blind” for admissions.
Beloit College
Boston College
Bowdoin College
Brandeis University
Brown University (need-aware for transfer students)
California Institute of Technology
Carnegie Mellon University
Claremont McKenna College
College of the Holy Cross
Columbia University
Cooper Union
Cornell University
Davidson College
Deep Springs College
Duke University[7]
Emory University[8]
Georgetown University
Grinnell College
Hamilton College[9]
Harvard College[10]
Haverford College
Johns Hopkins University[11]
Knox College
Lawrence University
Middlebury College
Northwestern University
Olin College[12]
Pomona College
Rice University[13]
Stanford University
Swarthmore College
Trinity College[14]
University of Chicago
University of Miami
University of Michigan
University of Notre Dame
University of Pennsylvania
University of Richmond
University of Rochester
University of Southern California[15]
University of Virginia[16]
Vanderbilt University
Vassar College[17]
Wake Forest University
Wellesley College
Wesleyan University
Williams College</p>
<p>The following are “need blind” for both US and International students:</p>
<pre><code>Amherst College
Dartmouth College
Harvard University
MIT
Princeton University
Yale University
</code></pre>
<p>That’s 50 out of, what, 4000 colleges in the US?</p>
<p>I guess it depends on the school. S has 4 accepts from EA/rolling admissions, has had them since around December, and merit aid already included. No need based FA info yet, all coming this month, supposedly.</p>
<p>I think Swarthmore is also need blind for international applications. Can anyone confirm?</p>
<p>
They are not. See below on question if fin aid affects admission for an international:</p>
<p>Perhaps. Foreign national students who request our financial aid assistance will be reviewed in the most competitive pool
for which the rate of admission is about 1 in 21</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.swarthmore.edu/Documents/administration/financialaid/1213/1213_QandA.Financial_Aid_Foreign_National.pdf[/url]”>http://www.swarthmore.edu/Documents/administration/financialaid/1213/1213_QandA.Financial_Aid_Foreign_National.pdf</a></p>
<p>
Actually most schools ARE need blind. The VAST majority of public Us don’t care what need is required. They will just offer what is available and gap the need.</p>
<p>I would not be surprised if many public universities are giving an admissions boost if you don’t apply for financial aid or are OOS with no or small need.</p>
<p>Public schools are desperate for money, state funding is continuously being cut.</p>
<p>Do you have any evidence otherwise? The only public schools I see on the list above are UM and UVa, if other public schools had this as a stated policy they would be on the list as well.</p>
<p>^ Yeah but don’t state schools already give little financial aid to students because the cost is much much lower than that of a private school?</p>
<p>And I don’t think it takes that long to do the financial aid package for a student- it’s a highly formulaic process except when there are extenuating circumstances.</p>
<p>
I think that’s one reason, another is that few public schools have a significant endowment that they can use for FA.</p>
<p>If your EFC is $3,000 and the in-state cost is $20,000, does getting a couple thou in financial aid really make it possible to attend? All the more reason for the FA dept to be evaluating the applications and fingering the full-pays, it gets them more money to use for FA.</p>