<p>I heard that if you have no financial aid and you pay tuition in full without the hassling the colleges with financial aid stuff you have a higher chance.</p>
<p>Is this true?</p>
<p>You should get conflicting opinions on this, but i am of belief it does help,but not significantly…if 2 applicants are nearly identical in stats,the one with full pay would likely have a better chance…i await the debate</p>
<p>Since admission without sufficient financial aid is effectively like a rejection, not needing financial aid to afford the school increases your chance of a useful admission at schools where sufficient financial aid is not assured for those who need financial aid.</p>
<p>For example, two top level applicants to NYU, one who can pay list price and one who needs a lot of financial aid. Both are accepted. The one capable of paying list price can attend, but the one who needs a lot of financial aid cannot attend because NYU offered too little financial aid to make it affordable. So the acceptance is useless for the second student and may as well be a rejection.</p>
<p>It definitely helps at some schools. Not all schools profess to be “need-blind” in admissions. If they’re “need-aware” or “partially need-aware” that means they’re telling you they take financial status into account (i.e., they favor full-pay or low-need applicants) for at least part of the class.</p>
<p>Many, possibly most U.S. colleges and universities are need-aware for international applicants. Many are need-aware or partially need-aware for domestic applicants as well. The more interesting category is schools that claim to be 100% need-blind in admissions. Some question the veracity of that claim. I’d give them the benefit of the doubt and say they at least try to live up to that claim.</p>
<p>No school is really completely “need blind”, other than those which give full rides to everyone (e.g. military service academies, Deep Springs College), since decisions by the financial aid office necessarily take need into account and can affect whether the student is able to attend (i.e. can afford to attend).</p>
<p>However, if one considers only the admissions office (not the financial aid office), a larger set of schools is “need blind” for admissions only. This includes open admission community colleges and moderately and less selective state universities that use GPA and test score formulas to select students.</p>
<p>At some schools, it definitely helps (think public unis). But SkilledFool, is this your situation already? Is your family prepared to be full pay for you?</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies guys.
I asked because in my current situation, I will not be receiving any aid.
And my current SAT scores came back lower than expected. (1380/2070)
My #1 choice is Stern. I wanted to know if it would make a difference there.
And yes my family is fully prepared to pay the costs.</p>
<p>I think it will absolutely make a difference at NYU. It’s the perfect example of a school where it makes a big difference-an expensive private that does not meet need.</p>
<p>I disagree that it matters at state schools, but privates that don’t meet need, which they don’t do because endowment doesn’t permit, need A LOT of full pay kids.</p>
<p>^^I think T26E4 was referring to publics that are looking for full pay OOS students.</p>
<p>Need-blind schools do not consider it at all.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies.
Anyone else have any info on this?
Thanks again.</p>
<p>This is an interesting article on the issue - [Buying</a> Your Way Into College - WSJ.com](<a href=“Buying Your Way Into College - WSJ”>Buying Your Way Into College - WSJ) . (A bit outdated but not too much)</p>
<p>That was very informative.
Thanks.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>NYU has a reputation of giving useless acceptances to needy applicants – accepted, but the financial aid offer is insufficient to make it reasonably affordable. However, some foolishly do attend using large amounts of student loans, eventually becoming the subjects of magazine stories about six-figure debt with no job or a poorly paying job at graduation.</p>