<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I am an international student from India and I have applied to some elite colleges without applying for financial aid.</p>
<p>The colleges are :-</p>
<p>UPenn
Columbia
UChicago
Duke
Swarthmore</p>
<p>Now my question is - how much does it help by not applying for financial aid?</p>
<p>Are non financial aid applicants reviewed differently from financial aid applicants?</p>
<p>Most schools are need blind, but not all. The financial portion is reviewed separate from the actual application. So applying for aid doesn’t really affect your decision.</p>
<p>^That is very very wrong.</p>
<p>The colleges listed by you have need aware admissions. So you are better off not applying for aid. </p>
<p>Not that your chances increase, just that your chances won’t decrease. </p>
<p>For example - When two applicants have similar stats or even if you have slightly lower stats than an aid applicant - you will have a better chance at admission than the other applicant!!</p>
<p>I knew UCSD, Berkeley, UWA and UCLA heavily favored out-of-staters that could pay full-freight over even full-freight in-staters, with all else being equal. But these schools aren’t as extreme.</p>
<p>More and more schools are moving from “need blind” to “need aware” like Tufts declared several years ago. It is the state of our times when budgets are squeezed and endowments aren’t returning what they once did…
Even schools that declare themselves need blind (specifically thinking of one in the OP’s list) declares itself need blind but if you go no the student portal in big bold letters at the top, it declares “NOT APPLYING FOR FINANCIAL AID” I’m willing to bet that the Adcoms can see that as well…</p>
<p>All those schools are need-aware for internationals. Most international applicants have huge financial need, and they’re very expensive for the college because they don’t qualify for federal aid.</p>
<p>So yes, your chance will be better than that of an international applicant with huge financial need. Still, those are extremely competitive colleges, so it’ll still be pretty hard getting in.</p>