<p>how is superscoring like cheating lol</p>
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<p>Actually, I don’t believe that that is necessarily true.</p>
<p>I don’t think they care about aid too much. In my application, I talked about being low-income and even mentioned the estimated amount of my mother’s salary. I got in, so obviously they don’t care too much about need.</p>
<p>I followed this ‘debate’ with interest. IMO, college admissions involve more than one factor, be it financial ability, ethnicity, or stats. Matter of fact, it has to be a complicated mix of all. Campuses want to maintain socio-economic diversity, diversity in personalities, academic interests, and career aspirations. They want a dyanamic, colorful, community. It is wise, and good for everyone on campus. For this very reason, many schools now have increasing interest in recruiting international students because it brings the world to US campuses.</p>
<p>Money does matter, but it can’t be the sole determining factor (unless the economy continues to go down the drains). Just like colleges have to save at some level or another, they also have to SPEND a lot of their endowment money, or else these will go down. If you get a grant for example, you have to spend it all or return any unspent portion at the end of the fiscal year. I would expect the same goes for money allocated for financial aid and from some donors. </p>
<p>To Columbia hopefuls: Don’t forget that the majority of admitted students do NOT receive the ‘L’ letter! Keep your dreams alive!</p>
<p>Good luck to all of you!</p>
<p>Admissions is such a huge mystery!!! I never thought about if they give preference to people who need aid or don’t need aid. They definitely need a combination of the two, and with the economy so awful, they probably need more rick kids. But unless you are insanely rich, it probably won’t help you that much.</p>
<p>^^^not true at schools that are “need blind” like Columbia. They have enough $$$ and “a mission” to equalize educational opportunities.</p>
<p>Many of you don’t seem to understand that many (most?) full-pay students apply for financial aid. My children applied for financial aid, and were denied. I sincerely believe (given their acceptance history) that they were admitted to their schools (including Columbia) without any input from the financial aid office. I strongly encourage all but the truly wealthy to apply for financial aid; you might get lucky, and I simply do not believe that asking for aid will impair your application for admission.</p>
<p>@mrbritish: I don’t know where you’re getting you’re information from, but Dartmouth is need-blind for all applicants. They are very committed to financing undergrads. Check your facts, brah.</p>
<p>congratulations!
out of curiosity, what were your personal and scholastic achievements, cuz im just wondering what theyre looking for?</p>
<p>@Lobzz
they may say they are needs blind, but from what i’ve heard from the person close to the admissions office is that they “take it into account”. it might not be very important at all, it might not make a difference between getting in or not…but it might. i don’t know.</p>
<p>from everything i’ve heard, mrbritish is closer to being right.</p>
<p>but as i’ve commented before re: dartmouth, middlebury, williams and amherst - they are primarily able to be need blind, whereas mit, columbia and stanford are not, for international students because they don’t really have an international brand and therefore being need-blind is a) a means of attracting int’l applicants, b) it is determined that the commitment they have to make in being need blind is not significant enough.</p>
<p>every school in finaid has to guess the percentage of kids who they admit that will require finaid and at what amount. it must be that some schools because of the pool, or the amount they normally give to foreign students are able to be need blind. within top universities with international brands - only HYP commit to need blind fully (but there are stories that there is some skimming at the edges here too).</p>
<p>it is rather well documented that columbia has a higher finaid commitment than dartmouth, penn and brown, and is probably only trailing HYPS and perhaps tied or behind M in their degree of generosity.</p>
<p>The financial aid office is seperate from the admissions office. I can’t imagine an adcom leaving his/her office to ask a FA officer how much an applicant is asking for. ESPECIALLY when he/she is not allowed to. A school says it’s need blind, so it’s need-blind. Plain and simple. If what you’re saying is true, then why don’t places like Penn, Brown, and Stanford just claim to be need-blind?.. because they can’t. Gotta love conspiracy theorists.</p>
<p>@admissionsgeek: I’m not, in any way, trying to be hostile or anything, but could you please show me concrete evidence that Columbia is better than Dartmouth at giving FA?</p>
<p>@mrbritish: Not trying to be hostile to you either, but can you “define” how one is considered “close to the admissions office”? is said person some sort of paparazzi? is he/she a peeping tom that the admissions office should be worried about? OR is he/she a former admissions officer/ Sibling of an admissions officer?</p>
<p>lobz: i’ll actually pull back slightly on this only because looking at the numbers, columbia and dartmouth are actually relatively comparable. according to stats sent to usnews - both give out approximately 33k in need based institutional aid. columbia discounts a bit more from the total sticky price with institutional aid, but in the end both schools give about 46% in need-based institutional aid.</p>
<p>so most of my info comes from being chummy with admission and financial aid officers as an undergraduate. i’ve asked them how we compare, and they said HYPS and M are the only ones more generous. though occasionally B, Cornell, Penn or Dartmouth might have a more generous package, that usually is rare. </p>
<p>as tour guides they talk to us about this stuff because we do phoneathons and at times students mention that they get a better financial aid package somewhere, so we tell them what they can do to have a financial aid review. in my experience doing phoneathons, not a single person mentioned a school other than HYP as a place that gave them finaid better than columbia (oh those kids are so honest). </p>
<p>but a final commentary - so 1) columbia is need-blind only domestic, 2) dartmouth is need-blind for all, 3) they provide similar financial aid amount (46% on institutional aid, 33k a student). then we must conclude two things - a) dartmouth because it is need-blind (or semi-need blind, there is a way to tell based on occupation, etc., if someone has a lot of need that wouldn’t involve two offices talking to each other) for international would be more generous to international students, b) columbia in order to keep pace would have to be more generous with its domestic applicants.</p>
<p>I’ve heard vanderbilt gives out the best financial aid in the country…my friend was accepted early decision, and although he doesn’t have a ton of money his family lives comfortably. He received more than 40k in aid</p>
<p>^ woah, is that 40k/year? 0.o</p>
<p>yeah probably 40k a year.</p>
<p>he is referring to this: <a href=“http://premium.usnews.com/best-colleges/national-need-based-aid[/url]”>http://premium.usnews.com/best-colleges/national-need-based-aid</a></p>
<p>vandy being third highest in total aid, but that includes almost 20k it gives to the avg. student in merit aid. not need base. its need-based aid would put it close to upenn’s. but only 37% of students receive need-based aid. considerably less than other schools.</p>
<p>Ok, so Vandy just focus more equally on merit and need…because the ivies give out almost no merit aid.</p>
<p>Question pertaining columbia finaid…I received the likely letter so I’m expecting to get in and seriously am considering going there. But money is an issue. I can go to the University of Illinois Engineering school for $20,000 less (I’m in state)…plus I haven’t heard back about any scholarships.</p>
<p>I didn’t apply for aid, but can I after I’m accepted and attending? For sophomore year and beyond? What is the sort of high end combined parent salary mark where Columbia will still give out aid (Harvard’s is around 180,000). </p>
<p>Any ideas?</p>
<p>@Lobzz
Haha not a paparazzi…spouse of a dartmouth administration staff i think in one of the departments (but not admissions or financial aid) so perhaps they might be less reliable.</p>