<p>I think its meaningless. The college financial aid office has got to have things in place when the decisions come down, in order to have a package ready. So I think that there are probably 2 steps to the financial aid process.</p>
<p>Step 1 is making sure that all materials have been received. That requires a file, a database, and a checklist -- it can be handled by any employee in the office. I don't think it requires much thought -- more like simply going through files, checking what's missing, and sending out appropriate letters. If stuff is still missing come decision time, it won't be the fault of the financial aid office for not asking. There is no way they can sit around doing nothing in January and February, and then look at the files for the first time during the last 2 weeks of March -- it would be a huge mess and they'd never get the stuff they needed on time. </p>
<p>Step 2 is taking all the information and actually calculating a package. That step probably does not happen until after admission, and it is possible that at that time they will notice something missing that they didn't spot before. So I would guess that requests that come very late in the process, especially for unusual stuff -- might be a good sign. For example, one college wrote us asking for verification of sibling's college enrollment -- that isn't the sort of thing required of everyone, but might be the sort of issue that comes up when they got down to calculating the numbers, and saw that d. had a sibling listed as being in college on the FAFSA.</p>
<p>OK, I've given this a little more thought, and I've decided that if I were in charge of running the financial aid office at Harvard... I'd streamline the process a little more. I'd arrange to have admissions send over a list of rejects every week -- that is, as soon as Harvard decided for sure NOT to admit a student, I'd want to know so that I could close the file. I'd also prioritize handling of files that fit certain patterns - for example, I might push apps from kids with divorced parents to the head of my list because I would know what a pain it always is to get the noncustodial parent reports -- so I'd figure we need to start sending letters about that early. I might also want an early look at any application that was borderline for Pell grant eligibility -- since that's a potential source of outside funds to the college, it would be important to get those things right. </p>
<p>So then, the farther along in time, the more likely it would be a good sign. If it's mid-March and the student's file is still open at financial aid... that means that they were still in the running. (If I were running the admissions office at Harvard I'd also weed through applications to get rid of the for-sure rejects early on -- Harvard must get hundreds of applications from students who don't have a prayer of getting in, and they are probably easy to spot. So by March 1st, there should only be serious contenders left in the financial aid pool.) </p>
<p>Anyway, I have no clue as to how it really works. That's just how I would do things in an effort to maximize efficiency.</p>
<p>I am keeping fingers crossed and hoping it is good news (it was good news when this happened at our house).</p>
<p>While it could be good news, it is not a certainty as there are so many factors that come in to play behind the scenes (percentage of need met, the schools grant aid to loan/ self help ratio, how much the school may want to attact your student to fill a niche, etc). </p>
<p>There are very few schools that are need blind as the majority at some level are need aware/ need sensitive. </p>
<p>Most schools don't have pockets deep enough to accomodate everyone, so if the school is need sensitive or need aware, they may need the information to use to "rank" students in terms of need (if your kid needs a lot of $$ at a school that believes they can't accomodate the need) it could be a deny or an admit-deny (your child is academically qualified, but the school will give a package making it impossible for them to attend).</p>
<p>I think as it goes later in the admissions process, the good news could be that your child has been tapped for admissions or it could be a push to collect information from everyone who a decision hasn't been made for so they could "be ready" when a decision does come (this could be a waste of time in some people's mind, but what is the alternative when you are trying to make sure that families get the information in time to make the most informed decision).</p>
<p>Put I am going to end this with a positive note and say good luck. We hope to hear from you with good news!!</p>