<p>My student is waitlisted. She has an impressive high school resume--National Merit, 4.0, 2200 SAT, several leadership positions, etc. etc. Just how much do family finances figure in admissions decisions for this school? Our family income declined drastically last year due to a job loss which lasted many months. Would our current financial picture have overshadowed the strengths of my student to the point of being waitlisted? This school says it is need blind, but why then did we have to submit the CSS profile before the admit decision. If the school is truly need blind, why not wait and just have the admitted students send CSS profiles?</p>
<p>I’m wondering the same thing, as our EFC is $6300, and D has 6 wait lists.</p>
<p>I had a 3.87 unweighted in a full IB diploma course load, 34 act, 760 USH, 710 Math, and the ECs. My EFC was $2800 and I got into Vanderbilt with 54k in aid. But I was waitlisted at many other colleges including WuSTL (need-aware) and Northwestern.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt has a very good financial aid program. In fact, I know many people who went to Vanderbilt just because of the great financial aid. They want the CSS profile upfront so that they can send a financial aid package with the acceptance letter. Keep in mind that Vandy had a 16% acceptance rate, meaning that they had to turn down and waitlist MANY qualified applicants. Good luck to your daughter!</p>
<p>Vanderbilt is 100% need blind. The amount of need is not factored into whether your child was admitted or not. If you were waitlisted or not admitted, it was based upon your application, not your financial need.</p>
<p>Could you imagine not filling out financial aid forms before being admitted? It would be impossible. Why? Given that decisions are rendered around April 1, it would than take time for the University to both receive all financial aid forms (tax returns CSS FAFSA etc.), process them, and then render financial aid decisions, and then return this information to the applicant. So that might let a student with only a few days before the National Reply deadline of May 1 to make a decision. </p>
<p>It wouldn’t be reasonable to do such a thing. </p>
<p>Bottom line: There are a lot of very qualified people in the applicant pool. Your daughter seems to be one of them. But unfortunately, given the finite class size, Vanderbilt can only admit so many of them.</p>
<p>with six waitlists, I don’t blame you for wondering…your daughter has lovely stats…it is possible however that you simply applied to a lot of colleges with excessive numbers of fully qualified applicants.</p>
<p>But I believe Vandy is need blind in a way you will not find many places.</p>
<p>Hope something that makes you all very happy is an open door for her and assume she got into many great schools.</p>
<p>AnOnmity-</p>
<p>Our D was also admitted to Vanderbilt with an EFC very close to yours. I’m not surprised you were waitlisted at WUSTL. They are notorious for their waitlisting/need aware practices. (Not a good bet for a low EFC applicant.) Looking at where else you were waitlisted…it seems that it was not the best group with a low EFC. Georgetown is not known to be good for finaid and UVA is a state school, etc. Vanderbilt has a great finaid rep, and now you know why!</p>
<p>D had very good luck with merit aid as well as need based aid, even with a low EFC. She applied to several need blind schools, but was pleasantly surprised by the generosity of other places that were not need blind.</p>
<p>I think it is important to apply to need blind schools if you have the stats to be competitive and then cross your fingers. D thought of them as lottery picks and did not get attached. First she worked on her safeties and merit $$$ matches. They are wonderful schools where she would be happy to attend.</p>
<p>I think it was just a tough admissions year all over. There are so many qualified applicants. For our D, at least, it seemed to be a matching process. She knows herself well and had a good sense of which schools would be interested in her…and which places interested her as well. Still, some of it does seem to come down to good, old fashioned luck.</p>
<p>Hopefully everyone can make a happy choice now and move on to an exciting future! (Not that a waitlist or two would necessarily be a bad idea, if it truly is an option still of interest.)</p>
<p>Yeah I realized I had made some bad decisions in applying to the out-of-state schools. I had no problems in my own state schools (UCLA, UC Berkeley) but the moment I stepped into the private colleges level I started having issues. Congratulations to your daughter on being accepted.</p>
<p>Critter and AnOmity, D was accepted at all the schools you mention as well as a few others; however, the one school she really saw herself going to was Vandy, and she was waitlisted. (She was also waitlisted at most all of the ivys too.) Hopefully she’ll get that call, but she’d trade her Northwestern, UVA, UNC, etc. anytime for your Vandy. Count your blessings!</p>
<p>Thanks AnOnmity and congratulations to you too! D revisited Vandy last month and was telling me more happy stories just this evening. UCLA and Berkeley too…wow. We are from the west and are suitably impressed!</p>
<p>jc40…we certatinly are counting our blessings! It looks like your D is very blessed as well. She must be very talented. She has so many great options! I’m sorry that Vanderbilt was not a clear admit for her but I think that Northwestern is very similar, academically and socially. (Tried to get D to apply, but unfortunately she doesn’t do cold well and has an anti-Chicago bias.) How does your D feel about the cold?</p>
<p>Will she take a spot on the waitlist? We will cross our fingers! </p>
<p>Does she know yet where she will deposit? I sure wish we were to that point. Today, D started with her first ‘thanks, but no thanks’ and it was hard for her. She would have been happy at any of her schools but it is harder to let go when they have interviewed and have scholarships, I think.</p>
<p>Our D is going to graduate in May. I can guarantee you that finances plays no part. We never had an EFC of more than $3,500 any year at Vandy. The money just kept coming in from them.</p>
<p>When choosing reaches to apply to, it was worth the $75 app fee for son to apply to Vandy because we were told of their generosity. They did not have that reputation in years past, so I am glad this has changed. Unfortunately, son was waitlisted, so we were not able to find out what kind of aid he would have gotten.</p>