How would college admissions know if I need financial aid or not

Applying to College
21

I wouldn’t read too much into the boarding school T20 placement as evidence schools are need aware.

  1. they still are extremely selective. Their T20 candidate pool per student will dwarf an above average public.

  2. kids have a ton of admissions support to polish holistic apps.

  3. the course offerings and academic support are top notch

  4. families have money to even consider expensive private tuition. There are a lot of extremely well qualified students at middle/upper middle class public’s whose families fall in the wealth “donut hole”. Too wealthy for aid 150k+ but not so wealthy that 75k/year isn’t a huge burden. Those kids don’t even apply.

  5. legacy status. Boarding school student bodies are disproportionately legacy at extremely selective schools. That can double an applicant’s admission chances at those schools.

  6. ease of comparison. Colleges see a lot of apps from classroom peers over years at these schools. There’s a lot of basis for comparison. AOs know what kind of student is likely to go on to do what level of work/university contribution because there’s a rich data set there. I think this helps in borderline cases where boarding school advisory office reaches out to the AOs.

An otherwise unhooked high stats, at least decent EC kid might have a 10%-25% shot at a T20 type school, depending upon the school. With legacy, that could jump to 20-50%. Add some boarding school admissions counseling gloss and that could be 35-75%.

I think what you’re correctly perceiving is the inequity in education generally, legacy preference and some of the limitations of holistic admission rather than AOs inferring ability to pay.

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22

I just knew they had the highest family net income of any school and googled it. What i read said 2017. Dang, I wonder what the average family income is now if this data is from 12 years.

I was just being tongue in cheek to the note from @CTDad-classof2022 - it’s ok to smile once in a while. I LOVE WUSTL - my son applied (RD) and was Waitlisted. Wouldn’t have gone had he gotten in - but because I’m one of those no aid families and while I don’t make $272K, we wouldn’t help their “inclusion” stats. Love the school, WOULD LOVE MY KID TO GO THERE, but I wouldn’t pay $80K for any school - why my daughter is at C of Charleston and not W&L which gave her no aid even though 88% get $38K on average in my income bracket (according to their not believable #s - but they publish so I’ll assume they are true).

I just was goofing on the note which basically said some schools game to get the rich, full pay kids…that’s a hard yes!!!

23

Sorry. I just keep hearing about a study of 30 year olds over and over again and keep asking myself, “And that pertains to today how?”

But basically:
-I’m sure that income figure has remained flat/increased. I’m also sure that they’re not the “richest student body in the country” anymore. Household wealth at all top schools has increased, but they’ve corrected more than anyone else in the last 10-15 years.

-they’ve introduced a lot of additional things like the 0 cost for 75k and under families in MO and southern IL program and covering living expenses for low income kids taking unpaid internships.

-they’ve consistently trended less “need aware” and I’d expect them to announce a need blind policy within a couple months due to the endowment increase.

-they’re always going to lag slightly behind their peers on the Pell eligible side. So many of those applicants have extenuating circumstances where they need to be close to home. There is a very limited number of those applicants in a place the size of STL. It’s not Notre Dame limited, but far worse than the coasts, Houston, Atlanta, Chicago, etc.

-to your point, I think the relative weakness is WashU’s aid package right now is in the 80-175k range. They’re competitive below that with the most generous schools. Above that, and no one is really giving aid. Their net price reduction tapers more quickly than most of their peers. That will likely change as well with the 65% endowment increase. Currently, they’re probably slightly less competitive than a NU or Duke right now in that range. I would expect them to make a big jump there. If not this year, then next. Not to HYP levels obviously, but they’ll be competitive with/more generous than anyone outside of the usual 6 or so suspects.

Part of the problem with addressing the modest aid gap earlier was growth. They didn’t have the same legacy infrastructure in the 90s that peers had built up. They were trying to grow class sizes to accommodate more curriculum breadth and depth (going from 1200 to about 1800). That takes capital investment. There’s always something else to build, but they’re running out of those obvious projects. They’re down to about 900 1960s era beds from maybe 2300. Maybe they’ll replace for Mallinckrodt center on the main campus. The money earmarked for undergrad needs to go somewhere. Those things and aid are the only places it really can.

Id expect a sea change.

24

The CNBC article ignores the fact that a major reason that wealthier kids make up a disproportionately large share of the student body at many top schools is that wealthier kids account for a disproportionately large share of the applicants. Some months ago someone posted some data on Harvard admissions by income from 2009 to 2016, and the acceptance rates were pretty similar for low-income, middle-class and wealthy kids. But teenagers in the latter group were far more likely to apply to Harvard than poor kids were.

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25

Here’s some more reading - FWIW from US News. It’s likely what you have already read.

Honestly, my family is my family. While I’m jealous of others who go to top schools for dirt cheap, I also realize - I’m in a better position financially than them. Is that privilege? I don’t know - it’s not for me to say. That’s what everyone is debating today. I grew up in a upper middle class household, was sent to the private college I wanted to go to (had I known what I knew now, I’d have gone public and saved my dad a boat load…especially because what I went to school for, I’m not doing - journalism/Syracuse )…and I’ve worked hard and created an upper middle class lifestyle for my family. Did I have advantages? Sure. Still, it kills me that someone might pay $10K a year and I have to pay $80K for the same. After all, when we go to the Outback, all our steaks are the same $16 regardless of income. Yes, you can say, others may not be able to afford the outback and I get that.

I’m the fortunate one whose kids went to lesser schools (both by choice) but as they stood out amongst the applicants, and got paid to do so. So I’m spending little compared to sticker price - and I gotta tell any parents out there - you can talk about - I want my kid to go here or there and it’s wonderful to have opportunities.

But we all throw around spending $50K or $80K like it’s nothing…we saved for it, etc. - but I could not imagine the emotional weight I would be under if I was that parent. yes, I could afford $80K a year, but I don’t want to. I think, both my kids combined this year will be low $30s…including R&B. I just throw that out there because as consumers, we all have choices, and just like those less fortunate could never go to a WUSTL without generosity, those who are fortunate can go…but the emotional toll to the parents would be alarming (I think).

College Vine has a list from 2020 - actually has Colorado College above WUSTL (which is 2nd) - but it’s the same # $272K - so i’ll assume it’s also old data as you point out.

The others on the list are - Colgate, W&L (and they give a lot of “merit” and need), Trinity, Middlebury, Colby, Gtown, Bates, and Tufts.

2022 Economic Diversity Among the Top 25 National Universities | US News Rankings

26

While colleges are very commonly need aware for the entire class, that does not require them to be need aware for individual applicants (which is what claims of need aware/blind are typically about).

Indeed, with good analytics, they can predict how changing the weighting of need-correlates affects the class’s need, even while remaining need blind for individual applicants. For example, weighting legacy and prep school sports more favorably tends to lower overall need, even though a few legacies or prep school athletes may be needy.

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