<p>i am late on my IDOC apps by 5 days, will they affect the decision a lot?</p>
<p>It can hold up your admissions decision especially if you are waiting for Dartmouth which sends out the admissions letter and aid package at the same time. Also if you really need mone, schools only have a limited amount allocated. if you are late with your paperwork you could be out of the money (because it has run out ) or saddled with loans. Get it in yesterday.</p>
<p>sybbie, i have a question, although i don't quite know if it'll make sense. you said that schools only have a limited amount allocated for finaid, but aren't they going to be offering aid to ALL qualified admitted students, even though obviously not all of those qualified students would enroll, right? so we're not completely screwed over if we get things in late, are we? 'coz shouldn't there be extra funds from those students to whom aid is offered but who later decide not to enroll?</p>
<p>First of all out of the over 3000 colleges in this country only a handful (maybe 10% and that is a really generous #) are need blind (where your ability to pay or financial need is taken into consideration) in the admissions process. Most schools are need sensitive or need aware where between 2 equally qualified students the student who can pay thier own way or leads the least amount of aid will bump out a "poorer" candidate.</p>
<p>Schools know their enrollment pattern and are pretty consisitent in the amount of full pays vs, the amount of students who need aid, the number of studnets that will ultimately enroll and the amount of aid they will need. They know that every person admitted will not come to them in the fall. Most schools already know if they lose students who they are going to lose students too. They all set financial aid budgets because you must remember that bulk the monies usually come from donations of the alumni. Even at the ivies they know that every one who is admitted will not maticulate (although it would be pretty interesting if it one day happened). You must also remember that a school can still meet your financial need by offering you loans. If you would check the common data sheets of a few schools over the course of a few years you will see that the ratio of full pay to those needing aid does not radically change year over year. When they set their financial aid budget, you must realize that they are budgeting for upperclassmen and grad students also.</p>
<p>The publics are a whole different story all together because their priority is to educate the masses. Evn then, only so much money and so many slots are allocated to honors programs, and merit scholarships.</p>