Low-Income Student Chances Greatly Diminished?

I’ve always known that WashU was need-based, but does being low-income (~40-45K) and applying for FA automatically diminish my chances to some great extent or is it minor?

I’m in the same income bracket and was accepted Early Decision, so it is need aware but I’m not sure to what extent.

^ do you mean need aware for need based financial aid? My understanding was that they were working hard to improve need based financial aid.

washu is not “need blind” like some other schools. Meaning they can see how much financial aid you need, which may (stress on may) play a role in admissions. Need blind schools dont look at FA at all during the process of granting admissions.

They’ve actually been trying to increase economic diversity recently, so if everything else lines up to be stellar, then your low-income status could actually be a plus.

Good luck!

actually we were told during a visit that “needs aware” and FA only comes into play when cherry picking off the wt list and should not affect admission decisions in the ED or RD cycle . if you end up on the wt list than yes FA applicants probably would have a harder chance than full paying applicants getting off the wt list but other than wt list applicants, we were told it shouldn’t affect admissions