I know need-aware schools can base decisions on if a student is applying for FA. But if a student applies for FA, and they don’t give it, does it then make them more inclined to deny admission? As in, “we aren’t giving this student FA, so we won’t bother to accept him/her.” Or do they offer admission anyway if they want the student?
Plenty of schools will accept a student without offering them financial aid. (I can think of at least two schools that are notorious for doing this!) They figure that if you want them badly enough, you’ll find a way to come up with the money.
A piece of unsolicited advice: if you find yourself in this position, JUST SAY NO. No school is worth crippling yourself financially.
Usually the admissions office and the FA office are separate.
If you’re not admitted, how would you know if a student was going to get FA …or not??? Schools don’t give you a FA pkg (or deny you FA)…before acceptances/rejections go out.
Thanks ladies. My D is applying to some highly selective LACs, and obviously these schools tend to look more closely at an application than schools with tens of thousands of students. I don’t know if that makes a difference?
Okay, we’re talking about “highly selective LACs” that are also need-aware. So I think that gives you two possibilities:
(1) Schools that meet full need, and will not accept your daughter if her need exceeds their budget. Again, as noted above, the admissions decision comes first, so what would happen is the admission committee would say “yes,” and the FA committee would say “no.” The result for your daughter would be a denial.
(2) Schools that do not commit to meeting full need, in which case, a “yes” from the admissions committee would get your daughter an acceptance letter . . . but there’d be no guarantee she’d get a FA package that would make it affordable.
@dodgersmom , thanks, super helpful. How does one know if the school falls into your first or second category?
you may have to search for the specific school and use keywords like ‘need aware’ ‘need blind’ ‘meet 100% of financial need’, etc.
if a school is need blind and meets 100% of need, they will likely have that plastered all over their finaid page.
if meet 100% but not blind, it will be more hidden and may only be found in news articles that the school has written or published (I’m thinking specifically of schools like Scripps, Occidental and Bryn Mawr). Some come right out and say they are need aware (like Colorado College), but most couch it in terms of “only the last 10% are need aware, the rest are need blind”.
you can also do a blank search for ‘meet full need’ and their are blogs that talk about this. wikipedia has a page about it too, but it’s not completely accurate.
So, what if they think she doesn’t qualify for FA at a school that meets 100% DEMONSTRATED need? I mean, if she gets accepted, but we haven’t demostrated the need, would they still deny her? Sorry to be so confused. As my husband is self-employed, he still doesn’t have his tax returns back. It’s all based on esitmates.
Not sure what you mean by “demonstrated”. Often financial aid will be given but it will still make the school unaffordable to some families.
“demonstrated need” means that the school as determined that you have need (through css profile, fafsa, verification docs, etc) by demonstrating to them you have need. as though you have proven to them that you have need, not just that you “need more money” (which everyone would likely say).
if the css profile and fafsa have been turned in with estimates you ‘should’ be ok. but call the school to make sure. ask how they’ll handle tax filings that are still due.
as for admission - you’re more likely to be admitted if you don’t have need. so not demonstrating need would not hinder chances of admission.
“Demonstrated” surely means that the FA office is satisfied that the applicant has shown a need for aid. They might not feel that our child qualifies for need, based on the info provided. In fact, we don’t think she will get any FA, because my husband’s self employed status is very complicated. So I am wondering if my kid will be accepted even if we aren’t given FA.
are you saying because you are applying for need, but haven’t submitted all the required forms by notification day? for deep-pocket schools that are need blind it may not matter but for need aware schools it might. no way to tell without contacting each school specifically.
We have submitted everything but the actual Taz return because we don’t have it yet. We file in October. My husband has explained this in the additional comments on the CSS profile.
You are going to have a problem. Explaining that “we file in October” won’t cut it. You don’t get the benefit of using extensions if you are the parent of a kid asking for FA. I have a small business and am sympathetic to the issues of getting filed in Feb or March, but at least for this year they want 2015 tax returns. You run the risk of getting no aid. You should call each school to discuss. Some people file and then amend – but you do need to provide them with the amended return then, and they may adjust aid either way.
Thanks everyone. I will have my husband call the FA offices. I assume they expect parents to make these calls, as our child has zero idea about how any of this works.
If the school says they meet 100% of demonstrated need, then by demonstrating need (through FA filings), the student automatically qualifies for need, and will be offered need-based FA.
Linda- actually a school that cannot come up with need based aid for your D is doing her a favor by rejecting her, no? Are you going to sell an organ to come up with cash you don’t have???
But agree you need to clarify the late filing status with each school.
Identifying full need schools:
See also Wikipedia’s detailed listing of need-blind schools that do and do not meet full need for U.S. applicants:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-blind_admission
But take both pages with a grain of salt . . . school FA policies are updated annually.
The situation is very complicated. I have now called the FA offices of a number of colleges and discussed with my husband. We have figured things out. Thanks for everyone’s help.
Now, about this business of waiting until October to file your 2015 tax return . . . well, I guess it depends on how much you really need financial aid. You can’t wait until October to pick a school, and the schools can’t give you a final determination of your aid eligibility until that tax return is filed. So your daughter will have to choose a school with only a guess as to what aid may end up being available to her.
Your prior year’s return, along with an estimate for the current year, will help, but you won’t really be able to compare the offers you have from different schools because the most you’re going to get is an estimated award. Well, that’s from the full-need schools. The schools that don’t meet full need may make your lives simpler by just offering you nothing.
Starting next year, this very common problem will no longer be a problem because schools will no longer require the most recent year’s tax return. Doesn’t help you, though . . . 