<p>It’s human nature to take comfort in thinking that an adverse outcome is due to some unfair rules in the system or something out of one’s own control. While I agree there’s “unfairness” in the process just like in about anything, there are indeed well-rounded, non URM, non legacies, non-athelete etc. kids who get admitted and funded in HADES (not by a smaller number or chances than non-HADES schools at least). On the other hand, those admitted shouldn’t think they are that “special” either. There are kids who are just as qualified but have been rejected for various reasons. At the end of the day, it is just a high school. There is big world out there, and plenty ways and room for one to shine and achieve.</p>
<p>And, if you think the BS admission system is unfair, wait to see elite college admission where the admission rate has dipped to single digit.</p>
<p>Unfair? Nah. Cruel and merciless? You betcha!</p>
<p>Anyway, I think the big lesson of this thread is that there *is *such a thing as a free lunch…in that one must presume that, by now, the ■■■■■ is fully sated. Further feedings should be restricted.</p>
<p>Notice how schools often can tell if a student is full pay based on their ECs. If you go to Darien High School chances are you are full pay. Summers spent helping one legged orphans in China… Full pay. Ten math camps so that you can be in Calc by sophomore year… Full pay.</p>
<p>Sometimes being full pay helps your application and often it does. The extra opportunities make a big difference.</p>
<p>Just to add to the discussion- it is completely chance. My cousin and I are the same age, and we applied to pretty much the same schools. She could pay the entire tuition, and I was asking for full FA. Even though we both have good grades and extracurriculars, the money had little impact on our admissions.</p>
<p>“Also of note is that 36 percent of new students will receive some form of tuition assistance during the 2011-12 academic year.”</p>
<p>As a rough estimate, if you assume that the roughly 20% international students are all full-pay, that means that 36 of the remaining 80% or 45% of the new domestic students receive financial aid (against 55% new full pay domestic students).</p>
<p>I’d just like to go back on deerhotch’s claim that he had the 3.5-3.7 GPA, but since he was full-aid, he was rejected. Honey, I hate to break it to you, but if you’ve got grammar like that, I seriously doubt whether you have a GPA of 3.5-3.7. Just my two cents.</p>
<p>Wow, this is the most outrageous claim I’ve read so far on this forum. All FP applicants will be accepted to a HADES school? That’s ridiculous. I am a full pay applicant, have a 3.8 GPA, have played violin for 4 years & piano for 10 years, do horseback riding, play badminton and soccer, and got 98 percentile on the SSATs. I was rejected at one HADES school and waitlisted at three. Just by pure numbers, there’s no way HADES schools could accept all the full pay applicants. I know that the OP probably won’t read this, but I just had to express how narrow-minded that opinion was. No offense to anyone.</p>
<p>As a financial aid applicant, I also had to come to terms with the disadvantage this gave me. However, I disagree with deerhotch’s sentiments. While I understand his frustration, making these sorts of accusations are offensive to other accepted students, full pay or otherwise. If you think about it, the school can’t accept every student that may be “deserving”, because their financial aid budgets, no matter how large, are still ultimately limited. Therefore, you’re not only competing for spots with all the other applicants, but also completing for FA with other applicants/current students in need of FA. If you’re not the very best, why would the school give you money when they could give the award to someone better than you? In a sense, applying for FA puts you in a more competitive applicant field, so you just have to be that much better. </p>
<p>Also, no offense, but a 3.5 GPA really isn’t anything that spectacular. Many students with 4.0 GPAs don’t get accepted.</p>
<p>Sorry for the long-winded post but I just to add that while applying for FA may put you in a more competitive/selective pool, it definitely does not eliminate your chances. You may just have to work harder to give the school a reason to want to give you money.</p>
<p>No, Invent, deerhotch was saying that “if you can afford to pay you can go.” and “no matter how you put it or what you say the truth is if you can pay you can get into any hades school.” and very offensively, “thats the bottom line im sorry if you cant handle the facts”</p>
<p>Honestly I don’t really understand your post. Obviously people who are willing to pay for something have priority. Nothing in life is free. The fact that schools are willing to offer any free rides at 200,000 dollars a pop is unbelievable in itself. Complaining that they don’t offer more free rides is absurd. Its not like these schools have unlimited funds. You don’t have as good of a chance, and ever believing that you did was foolish. Would you complain that somebody wasn’t offering you a free car? No. So why are you complaining that you aren’t getting a free education? The world runs on money, and in order to offer any free rides, they have to accept mostly full pay students. Its pretty ignorant to complain that you didn’t get something as valuable as a prep school education for free. You took your shot in applying, and the truth is that you weren’t good enough. Getting 200,000 dollars for free is not and never will be easy.</p>
<p>I don’t really think your being fair towards BS applications. Of course, they need to have people donate and pay tuition to help FA students and keep their endowment up but I can say just from this site there are a lot of “rich” kids with a very high gpa who you seem to be writing off as people who pay their way in without work. Thats like saying that any minority automatically gets in. Its innacurate. If you look at the amount of FA usually offered per income tier and the percent of student of FA at most schools, I think you’d find it sincerely shocking since you seem a little ignorant or bitter.</p>
<p>@invent what I was getting to was that rather than finding fault in himself, he placed all blame on the schools. He was saying that someone with a 3.3-3.5 GPA who plays full tuition and have a couple EC’s will automatically get in while a financial aid applicant with the same credentials would not. Loads full paying applicants with similar resumes get rejected regularly. Many people have 4.0 GPAs, play multiple sports, have strong EC’s (president positions in clubs) etc. Judging from the name “deerhotch”, he was applying to top tier schools, and frankly, the credentials he described may not have even been sufficient for him to gain acceptance even if he was full pay.</p>