Interested in your thoughts: Applied to a "need blind" school, but on the Common App they asked if

@calmom - agreed.

Today Stanford joined the list of colleges that don’t count home equity - https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2018/12/17/stanford-drops-home-equity-calculations-family-wealth

I have mixed feelings about that, having a lot of home equity vs having little or none (or being upside down) are very different financial situations, financially. Maybe it should be counted like retirement income since that’s likely what it ends up being for many families - sell the house for the condo or senior living place, eventually. But I can also appreciate that many families can’t afford to sell and tap that equity because the next house in the area won’t be any cheaper.

Stanford can do what it wants with its money, of course.

Home equity loans present a simple way to tap equity and pay it back gradually.

Home equity loans require income based qualification. At the time my kids were in school, my debt to income ratio would not have qualified because of the amount of my existing mortgage. I’m sure that is what drives many parents to PLUS loans.

So no, neither simple nor affordable for many. With California real estate values together with the tax system, selling and moving out of a modest home is not a viable option. There isn’t anything available that costs significantly less, and all a move to buy another property does is radically increase the tax base. And where I live, rent on even a modest apartment would be double or triple my monthly mortgage.

As @OHMomof2 noted, for many of us the home equity is the primary asset available for retirement. Given the Californua real estate situation, I’m sure Stanford sees plenty of parents in that position.

But simple and affordable for the other many (as we found)! Especially compared to the problems of selling.

That’s a difference directly tied to financial ability…just one additional way that need-blind, full need met colleges structure their financial aid policies to favor families who are financially stronger and less likely to need huge amounts of aid.

They can say they are need blind, but they also know very well that the aid they offer isn’t really going to be enough for many of the students they admit. So even in the RD round, yield is going to skew toward higher EFC families.

Perhaps, but a HELOC is a horrible way to pay for college (from an investment standpoint). It’s one thing to borrow $20k to replace a roof or add solar panels, both of which ostensibly improve the home value somewhat, but quite another to borrow for a kid’s college fund…

The generous colleges (and that’s more than certain tippy tops) allocate a cushion on top of what they expect to give out in aid, in a given year. Ime, pretty substantial.

An awful lot of cynicism here, based on what? The apps I know do not indicate whether or not a student intends to apply for aid, regardless of the CA asking. It’s not blacked out. It’s simply not downloaded onto the readable forms for admissions.

It’s not just where you live. Nor parent education. We’ve all seen the CA, right? It asks parent occupations/employer. CEO is a lot different than housekeeper or CNA. And many Ivy grads, doctors, lawyers. MBAs, even CEOs, etc, may be working for non profits, etc, at lower salaries.

More understanding about what it really takes for an admit would be more productive than fretting that they lie.

It might be helpful to give alternative ways, assuming a family doesn’t have enough college money saved, has home equity, doesn’t want to sell, and can pay it back over time.

Start with colleges you can afford. Use the NPC, if it applies. Read up on a target’s merit awards. Dont fool yourself what loans you can afford. Or even qualify for.

Don’t plan to raid retirement funds. Don’t count on an inheritance. And learn about affordable safeties. How’s that for a start?

Excellent, for those who have enough cash or current income to afford the cheapest school.

This thread was not about affordability. The original question was about how need blind are need blind schools.

But my point is that colleges can afford to be “need blind” on an individual basis because they have a variety of systems in place, through their admissions systems and criteria and financial aid policies, that work well to generally assure that their incoming class has the balance between full payers and low need students that they need to bring in, so as not to break the bank with their financial aid budget.

Marking the “apply for financial aid” box on the common app really doesn’t make a difference for admissions. Even a need-aware school is probably going to check with their financial aid department before rejecting a student simply because they are asking for aid they might not be eligible for in any event.

For need blind schools, shouldn’t they get rid of the “apply for financial aid” box altogether?

It’s a Common App question, not college specific. Though college officials are involved in various sorts of CollegeBoard meetings and can offer input, they can’t change the CA at will. They can, however, choose not to download the answer to that question. They have more control over questions in their own supplement.

As someone said, at a need blind, the question does affect the FA dept, which can build a list of kids who check this box. As FA documents roll in, they can start the initial processing stages, get ready.

As far as I can tell, Common App (and Coalition App) can customize questions for individual colleges. Truly need blind schools should, in my view, remove this question to allay concerns of many FA applicants that trigger this type of threads.

@1NJParent then how will the FA department know to start collecting the info and processing FA? They can’t start doing that after decisions come in.

@OHMomof2 I don’t see why FA applications couldn’t be made completely separate. Upon receipt of the application from an applicant, the FA dept of the college could email the applicant to apply for FA within certain deadline if s/he so wishes.

What happens now is that at need blind schools the admissions office doesn’t see whether the applicant is requesting FA but the FA office does. That way a financial aid offer can go out with the admissions offer without delay and without the need to file a separate FA application. The total amount of FA varies from year to year but since the demographics of the applicant pool doesn’t change all that much on a year to year basis the swings aren’t broad.

The way it works at the partially need blind schools is that the admissions office fills the class need blind up to a certain percentage of the class, typically 75-80%. Again, the admissions office doesn’t see the if the FA box is checked but the FA office does. Once that 75-80% is determined admissions sends a list of students they’re accepting and another of students they’re considering to the FA office and get the FA award numbers back. The FA needs for the already approved applicants are deducted from the total FA budget for the year to come up with a new budget to be spent on the rest of the class. They fill the remainder of the class with the budget and those numbers in mind. So if you’re in the top 3/4 of the class whether you need FA never comes into play. If you are in the bottom portion and you need full FA it could hurt you because the FA needed for one full needs student could be spread over many partial need kids.

Why isn’t it good enough that adcoms at a Need Blind don’t see whether a kid will apply for aid? Why does the college need to send a separate invitation after 1/1 to apply for aid? Kids should be on top of that.

Before admit decisions are made, FA is checking documents/what they do have, verifying eligibility (you can see this on CC, where kids may get a question from FA, long before admit letters go out) or verifying SSN, whatever else, and building your file, incl things like the Fafsa EFC, as it comes in.

Does this really boil down to some don’t believe a college can be NB? (We do see comments like, “I don’t think” or “I don’t believe.”) Imo, not something to worry so much about. Not going to increase chances of an admit.

FA applicants always have to file separate FAFSA application, and in most cases a CSS profile (plus sometimes additional institution-specific supplemental form) or an institution-specific application. There’s no need to send out admission and FA offers simultaneously. Even for ED applicants, there’s often at least a one-week window.