How much of an advantage does not applying for financial aid provide students? How much does it help under qualified/on the border students?
For schools with need-blind admissions (typically, selective schools with fat endowments), asking for FA has no effect.
For schools w need-aware admissions, it will give an edge.
Any idea on how much the edge can help? Will it actually give you a leg up or just be a final decision maker that won’t make too much of a difference?
There is no definite answer, no way to know how much for a given school.
For need-aware schools, the amount of FA you need is relevant.
Admitting one student with full tuition FA costs the school as much as admitting several students with each getting a small amount of aid.