<p>Someone told me that you have a better chance of being accepted at WUStL if you don't ask for any money. I'm not applying for any financial aid, does this help me at all? I know they judge you on everything, but will this make any difference especially with the economy being what it is right now?
Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>i feel that it might boost up a little bit ( not a lot). if you are extremely close to another candidate with similar stats, the admission will certainly favor your going to WUSTL with ticket price, esp. with their falling endowment.</p>
<p>thanks. I've only heard that about WUSTL though, is it the same for most schools? I know Duke has in their supplement that they specifically don't care about financial background. But it seems like if someone can pay the full amount to a school like Duke, they would have a better shot.</p>
<p>I think it may help a little, but the bottom line is they want a student who will really bring something to their school. But, yes, I've heard that no financial aid helps a bit. Check out the Stanford boards, somebody said that international applicants wanting financial aid last year had about a 3% admittance rate. :(.</p>
<p>the UPenn chancellor has also taken a pay cut. thats what i heard.</p>
<p>What about people who are URM?</p>
<p>I am 1/2 Native American and am enrolled in my family's tribe, but my family are very well off financially. Thus, I will not be applying for financial aid.
I know that people hate the affirmative action deal at many colleges, but I've a question about it.
I am involved with my tribe and I am very proud of my being Native American. However, will colleges see my financial status and treat me just like any other Caucasian applicant or will they look at what I can bring from my "unique" experience?</p>
<p>My GC said that my heritage is kind of a unique attribute that many colleges will be interested in and she is "excited to see how the application process will turn out for me."</p>
<p>Ehm, can somebody translate that for me? How have Native applicants been treated in the past, what exactly does she mean?</p>
<p>On the Stanford forum people have been saying that many private school kids have gotten in SCEA. Someone went on to say "I wonder who has the money". </p>
<p>Hmmmm.....maybe colleges look at who can pay unconsciously, especially with in this tough economic time. </p>
<p>DUnno.</p>
<p>I see people on here saying that people who don't apply for aid will be favored in the admissions process all the time. That very well may be true, which perhaps is why WashU is not need-blind. However, there is no factual evidence to back up that claim to my knowledge and it just seems so unethical. But, colleges do need a certain amount of students who can pay, so I guess it does make sense. Nobody here really knows how the process actually works, but I'd guess that it might give you a minor boost. Nothing major though. I was admitted ED and needed A LOT of aid to attend.</p>
<p>Yeah, I don't pretend that I know much about this college stuff at all, I'm not an admissions officer, guidance counselor, etc. However, like you said, it makes a bit of sense that colleges will need some people who can pay their way. </p>
<p>I didn't know WU was not need-blind. </p>
<p>Congratulations on the admittance!</p>
<p>dpattzlover - I think your Native American status could help you at many schools. Have you considered applying to Dartmouth? It's not too late, and they take the common app. The college has a long history of educating Native Americans, and employing them on the faculty. I get the impression there is a significant and active group of NA students there.</p>
<p>Yeah, I've heard about Dartmouth's Native population and it's quite encouraging. But there's one problem, they require two SAT IIs and I've not taken any.......otherwise I would apply.</p>
<p>The phrase you guys are looking for is "need blind." If a school states that policy, then the admissions group is not even informed of your finanical aid status. Very few schools offer "need blind" with "meets full need" policies also. Generally these would just be the top tier schools. </p>
<p>Last time I checked, Wash U was still not able to adopt a "need blind" policy, though I could be wrong. That said, my impression is that aid status has little to do with admissions. </p>
<p>I once saw an explanation, and I doubt that it was an official one, that they operate "need blind" until they get toward the end of the acceptances and start to make sure they can afford the aid that will be needed. Again, that explanation was probably speculation on someone's part, but it makes sense, as there are SO many people there receiving huge packages. </p>
<p>The net is that if you need aid, apply for it, and if you do not, then don't. Changing your status in an attempt to game the admission system is a mistake. The difference in your admission status is likely to be small to nothing.</p>
<p>ok, well, my only problem is that I don't qualify for any financial aid anyway. When my older brother was filling out his FAFSA, they laughed at him because there was no way he would get any help. After that, my parents just decided there was no point to even fill it out for me. So, I don't have a FAFSA, I don't need financial aid, but the only schools where that will help me even a little bit are schools that don't have a need blind policy? any idea of which top schools don't have that besides washington?</p>
<p>Perhaps Northwestern, Emory, Notre Dame; what schools are you looking at? Some of the "2nd tier" top schools, but I don't really like to look at them as such, may have non-need-blind (if that's how we refer to it). </p>
<p>However, I would definitely take an invite to WU freshman class over Yale's any day! </p>
<p>WashU is awesome!</p>
<p>Agreed with dpattzlover. There's a few schools that may have what you're looking for, but if you don't need the financial aid, paying for WashU is definitely worth it. Instead of aimlessly trying to search for colleges that will give you hardly any money, you should apply to many many external scholarships and maybe that can get you the amount you're looking for.</p>
<p>actually WashU, Northwestern, and NYU are my top choices right now. I think NYU is probably a safety for me, the other two are probably reaches or higher matches. I am looking for merit scholarships, but i'm not an URM, my test scores are good, but not spectacular, i'm not really sure where to start. Even without merit aid, i should still be ok for undergrad. By the time i get to grad school, i'll be independent, so I should qualify for something.</p>
<p>You should definitely apply for financial aid. I was just accepted ED and applied for finaid just for the heck of it. I didn't think i would receive any money (nothing spectacular about my stats, high family income), but I somehow recieved a 21k scholarship in my financial package. Washu really does want to help out and it's worth applying for finaid, even if it's just to receive the $2000 workstudy.</p>
<p>I think I'm not going to apply for FinAid, but I am applying for all of the scholarships that I possibly can (including five from WU).</p>
<p>Right now i'm looking for merit scholarships and random not-needbased ones like "white, jewish girl interested in international relations". Hopefully something will come up!</p>
<p>Where are you looking?</p>