<p>Does needing financial aid reduce my chances at all? I know that Vandy is need-blind, but honestly, I have no idea what that means. Anyone wanna enlighten me?</p>
<p>If it’s need blind for domestic applicants, and you are one, then applying for financial aid doesn’t affect your chances of admission</p>
<p>There are some schools that are ‘need-sensitive’ and some that are ‘need-aware,’ which means that they are aware of your family financial status when they make a decision. This can mean that they actively recruit ‘full-pay’ students and will admit those with less compelling applications. Other need-aware/sensitive schools may choose to admit the student with less need among two equally qualified students. I’ve heard of the former approach at large public schools and the latter at smaller, more competitive private schools,r eally.</p>
<p>Need-blind schools are schools that do not see at all your family’s financial status when they are making admissions decisions, and the offices of these schools (admissions and FA) are completely separate. This supposedly encourages students who otherwise would not apply because of financial reasons to do so to be considered on their own merits. However, if a lower family financial status has resulted in less chances to participate in extracurricular activities (because, for example, the student needed to work to support the family), that is something that should be included in the app itself, because again, admissions officers will not see, at all, family financial status.</p>