So you got me all curious about whether need blind colleges see that we checked the “no” for financial aid when you said some common app previews showed that info and some did not. I just checked D21’s applications to three of her bigger need-blind reaches and they all see that info. It’s downloaded on the version of the common app that was sent to each of them. So was her race. Did you really have some schools that erased that from the common app that goes to the AOs?
So from what I recall when my daughter applied 2 years ago she clicked the “applying for financial aid” box for all schools. Her ED school is need blind though and the Financial Aid office is completely separate and don’t know you are applying for financial aid. I can’t recall if on her common app if that part was removed her not specifically, but I can look as I still have a copy of it.
For my son, same school he clicked not applying for financial aid. I can check his also to see if it shows up. Other schools (non CSS) he did apply for financial aid. I remember we had to go through for each school to make sure it wasn’t inadvertently marked for any of them because we knew any CSS school he was not applying for it and only filling it out for FAFSA.
We went back and forth the first go around with my kids (twins) about applying for financial aid or not and if it would hurt them. The good news is that we learned it did not. So that part is true.
People do question whether schools are truly need blind or not. I know for international students however, they are not need blind.
Let me know if you want me to compare the apps between now and then. I have them all in one area together and am happy to check it out.
I’ve never seen race taken off (or didn’t notice), but I have seen religion taken off as some schools show our religion and others don’t. I specifically remember that because I thought my daughter accidentally deleted it two years ago, but then saw it was on some of the printed common apps and not on others.
Nah. Don’t go through the bother of checking. I just thought you wrote in your post that some of your kids’ common apps showed the yes or no for financial aid and others did not. I’ve checked most of D’s by now and they all show that we checked “no”. We’ve always assumed that the AO sees the common app as we see it when we download it after submission so, if that’s true, then AOs see if you don’t apply for aid. Only chance they don’t is if the school goes out of their way to block if on the CA after we submit. Of course they don’t see how much anyone needs if that box is checked yes. But it is pretty interesting if AOs see that “no” even at schools that say their financial aid office and admissions office are completely separate.
I agree. I know we applied for financial aid last go around and it was need blind. I’ll check to see on that one if anything shows up. Now you have me curious. It’ll be easy to compare those two at least since last time we clicked yes and this time no.
I’m not so sure that what is included in the Common App preview is specifically what AOs are looking at when they review a file. This question has come up before with regard to the Yes/No checkbox for financial aid.
In fact, this year some have reported the opposite situation, test scores reported in the app not showing up in the pdf when the scores were, in fact, received.
My guess is that colleges import Common App fields into their own system.
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On Wake Forest’s portal, they specifically say that, if you want to preview what Wake receives and you applied with the CA, you can download the pdf of the app you sent and that’s what I’m looking at for each school that all show that “no” for FA. I agree, though, that we’ll never really know if/how need blind school AOs see financial info. I’m sure none of them see the details of how much a student needs but who knows how many see the no or the yes when it comes to whether a student is applying for aid.
@GoldPenn I imagine this will come up from time to time, since many kids are of mixed ethnicity and that is a struggle within itself. I don’t think you need to worry at all.
Also, with regard to the financial aid box being checked, I recall this summer Pomona did a webinar where the AO went through a few case study applications and I can’t recall if they addressed the box being checked for Financial Aid, but we could very well see it up on the screen. I would guess if they care to know, they certainly have access. I imagine at need blind schools with as many apps as they deal with that the AO’s stay in their own lane and let Financial Aid deal with that.
You would hope that “need blind” schools do not give any information to the AOs, but even without that information they can guess pretty accurately. At our school everyone gets free lunch since most qualify, AOs can correctly assume almost everyone will qualify for aid.
@homerdog Colleges in a student’s dashboard on the common app are able to see certain pre-submission information. I’m uncertain what that information is, hence my question.
Btw, I like your new pic.
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Just about every single need blind college wants to increase the number of enrolled pell grant eligible students…I doubt they are ‘guessing’ which applicants satisfy this criteria. Schools have significant data for each applicant, data which makes it relatively straightforward for them to identify students who are likely low income/pell grant eligible…so even though they might not be directly communicating with Fin Aid, they have other ways of gathering this info (student’s address, parent education level, etc. etc.)
To chime in on the discussion about the financial aid box being checked, I always assumed AOs could see that it was checked.
Does anyone know how it works for need aware schools? I assume the financial aid office calculates the EFC and that AOs see the amount of need for each applicant.
Did your son have a chance to visit Cal Tech? One of my son’s best friends went there and is now getting his PhD at Stanford. It’s a great school but tiny. He liked it but they made him retake a lot of classes he had already taken in hs.
I agree that you’re probably right as far as covid helping students with good scores that are full paying etc with the only exception being not having a hook. If a kid has a hook and great rigor, grades etc that will make a big difference this year.
Our high school is a top public high school in our state and our valedictorian didn’t get into most schools he should’ve gotten into while other kids in our school with lower stats did get into some of those schools. His essays probably were part of it and perhaps weak ECs because he focused on his grades and academics.
They also will take a URM that is willing to keep their overall numbers the same. The things we’ve been hearing is that in state applications are up all over with students having same or better stats as applicants in prior years but oos apps are lower because Kids want to stay closer to home. That may be your hook except unless they think your student won’t travel and don’t want to take the risk!
God only knows what they’re thinking and doing as we all “speak”.
My son applied to UNC but since were OOS that’s a long shot but again in this cycle anything goes!
S21 just submitted his final application - Virginia Tech! Now nothing to do but wait, unless something catches his interest in the next few weeks. I wish VT didn’t take so long to get out their “early” results.
I’m not sure about this layout yet. Will take some getting used to. One thing – it seems like we just have one very long page. Will it break up into separate pages? I found that helpful for navigating back to earlier threads.
Our Thanksgiving was nice with just us and staying home. D23 got off track with schoolwork and really needed the week to catch up so I was glad we were not going anywhere.
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@JESmom – Congrats on your S getting VT submitted! I’m hoping my S will submit his tonight. He found the essays hard, but they’re pretty close. I swear the prompts were 50% as long as the 120 word essay!
This might be my S’s final application too! He’s talking about adding a couple RD big reaches, but hasn’t followed up yet, so we’ll see. VT is his 9th application, and he’s already gotten into two rolling admissions schools that are very viable options, so I don’t think he needs to add more. This is a case of peer pressure – his high achieving friends are applying to more ‘big name’ schools so he feels like he should too. Of course, he’s shown zero interest to these schools so it just seems highly unlikely he’d get an admit. Not to mention being the right fit. . . Anyway, I’ll see if he can make a good case for any of them in the next couple of weeks.
Agree – late Feb feels like a long time.
I also would like the pages numbers too – though it looks like you can bookmark specific posts? That might be helpful.
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@AlmostThere2018 Don’t you have one at VT already? I thought I recognized your name from that forum. It’s a gray day in Bburg at the moment.
It is weird that the prompts are as long as the questions. I’d heard a discussion of the VT essays in an admissions podcast and they said you should consider just the first part of it to be the prompt you are answering and the additional questions in the prompt as thought starters to help you answer it, that you don’t have to actually answer every one of those questions since that would be impossible in 120 words!
S21 already has his UDel admit, which is his 1st choice safety so at this point I don’t think he cares about JMU or Miami. He’s unlikely to get in to UVA so now it’s really VT we’re waiting on. If for some reason it doesn’t pan out, UDel will be a great option for him. He’s into what’s affordable and has the programs he likes and (so far anyway) doesn’t seem to be too influenced by “big name” peer pressure. I wonder if it would be different if he was actually at school all day.
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@JESmom VT has made many many changes to the admissions process over the last 3 years or so, so my guess is they will continue to tweak ED and EA dates and decisions going forward (it’s still earlier than UVA though I think). They only started taking the Coalition app a couple of years ago and the common app this year, so maybe they will let the dust settle and figure out what works and what doesn’t.
Good luck to your son! I have one at VT and live in Blacksburg, so I hope it all works out for him.
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I do not have a student there, but I have been on the VT forum b/c my S is applying!
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@AlmostThere2018 Good luck to him!
@rbc2018 – tks! VT is near the top of his list, so we’ll see! 