<p>BAAAD advice, unless you have a secret source of money that will step in and it’s so worth it to get into certain need aware schools that you will sacrifice the aid. For those schools that are need blind, it’s not going to make a bit of difference, and that’s most schools. BUt my guess is that the article is aimed at those applying to schools that are selective and on a lot of kids’ A lists, like GWU, JHU, Gettsyburg, Dickenson, COnnecticut College, F&M, just to name a few, where, yes, they are need aware for some of the kids and you can up overall chances by not applying for aid. Maybe it’s worth it for you to get your kid in GWU and hit up Grandma for the money rather than get the $10K or so of aid you might get from them when you run the NPC. You know Fordham is need blind so you put in for aid there, the same with BC and Williams. You know Wesleyan is not need blind, so you don’t apply for aid there. Yes, you can strategize that way. But then you aren’t going to get the aid when you get in , and at some schools, get red shirted for aid in future years. These schools are on to these tricks, you know.</p>
<p>Also, even at those schools that are need blind and meet full need, if you do not get your financial aid requests in on their time schedule, you may not get access to some of their grants. They state that V-E-R-Y clearly on there web site. So you try to play games with those schools and you can be out a lot of money unnecessarily, and some of those penalties do carry forward. </p>
<p>So, yes, if you decide getting into, say Lehigh, Lafayette is worth sacrificing some aid money, go right on ahead, but understand the consequences of this, that can be for future years too. </p>