Yes, it may be different at other schools. But they need the checkbox to know whether or not the applicant wishes to apply for need based aid. A lot of applicants at the selective need-blind schools don’t qualify for aid so the FA office would be wasting time and resources if they simply processed aid applications for everyone.
Not everyone submits FAFSA and CSS (we didn’t).
Perhaps at schools where the AOs don’t see this information they should explicitly say so on the application form.
Anyway, we’re veering off-topic now so I’ll move on.
I agree we don’t know. But most admitted legacies have competitive stats, at least this is what I have heard from enrollment management professionals. Those who don’t are hooked in other ways.
I don’t think this is the case at many need blind schools. The more selective need blind schools use other data points to infer financial need (or lack thereof).
We don’t know this either. Many, maybe most, denied applicants from highly selective schools have competitive stats, which is why I would like schools to publish average/mid 50% ranges of denied students.
If we think that legacies with competitive stats would still be admitted, then the impact of eliminating legacy pref is even smaller than what many are assuming.
The legacies with more than one hook will also still be admitted, and these are the ones who may have relatively lower academic stats…which is the point that really seems to bring on the ire, and charges of unfairness.
Not to be dense, but I don’t understand. Did you apply for financial aid? How can someone apply for aid if they don’t submit at FAFSA (and if needed a CSS)? I think that I am misunderstanding your point.
It seems to me if an aid application + any necessary documents are received by the financial aid office, then the financial aid office doesn’t need a common app box to tell them that an applicant is applying for aid. The only reason that I can think is the check box might be useful to the financial aid office is if the checkbox on the common app makes it easier for the office to cross-check. It might be easier to make sure they aren’t wasting their time processing aid applications for students who sent their paperwork but didn’t complete their admissions application.
I wasn’t just talking about stats, but the overall qualifications. If legacy applicants who wouldn’t be admitted without their legacy bumps, they may not be admitted by other elite schools where they don’t enjoy their legacy advantages.
Admissions and financial aid are separate departments at the more selective schools. Admissions doesn’t know who applied for aid (generally), nor their level of need. Not everyone who applies for aid is found to have need, and some full pay students apply for aid to get the students loans.
Right. And I am asking why a question about financial aid is needed on the documents that the admissions office received at need blind universities. If they are need blind, why does the admissions office need to know an applicant is applying for aid?
This isn’t necessarily the case, which I and others noted above…many admissions offices at the need-blind more selective schools suppress that question so the app readers don’t know. But, simply knowing that the student applied for aid doesn’t give the reader any insight to the level of need, or even if there is need (could be a full pay applicant).
There are a lot of great questions being asked here. My question would be:
What percentage of applicants to “need blind” colleges are full pay? Do we think it’s 50%? Higher? Lower?
I personally have no idea, but the answer to that question would shed a little bit of light on whether these institutions are truly need blind in practice (even if they are in fact need blind in process).
If they’re going to suppress it, why collect it in the first place? Besides, none of these schools have publicly and explicitly stated that they suppress this information. They should if they do. It’s like the need-blindness: if they don’t state they’re need blind publicly and explicitly, don’t assume they are.
That information tends to be readily available. Cornell released that 54% of last year’s class received some kind of need based aid. That would imply that 46% were full pay.
Harvard, since popularly cited on CC, says 55% of their students received need based aid.
You would have to ask the schools. I agree they don’t need to ask whether one has applied for aid on the app, especially the schools who are using other data points to infer level of need (home address, parent jobs/education level, HS attended/its profile, CollegeBoard’s Environmental Context Dashboard, etc. etc.)
Well, to be clear, there will be more Asian American students at five or six specific private research universities: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford and one or two others. In all the years I’ve been on this board, I’ve never encountered a thread where an Asian American applicant complained about their chances of getting into Dartmouth or Brown or Wesleyan or Amherst and a loss by Harvard in the Supreme Court will make it even less likely.
Sorry, I didn’t see your clarification before posting… Need blind schools wouldn’t have that information to share, right? So, I don’t think there is a way to truly know. My guess is it probably mirrors what they are seeing in their incoming class.