<p>I think you have a strong case. They can’t penalize you for not knowing you could qualify for FA. If your appeal is successful you could save thousands and the worst case scenario is they may say they don’t have any FA left. As you said, you have nothing to lose in asking and only the FA office can tell you what is possible, not the people here on CC.</p>
<p>@swimdude: yes you have nothing to lose, so go ahead and ask.
@Invent: What’s confusing? Don’t you know that these schools are running pretty similarly to private colleges? Colleges that are need-blind are years ahead in rolling out the policy. Since we don’t have stories about how such a situation got resolved at Andover, it’d be enlightening to know how a similar situation would be handled in need-blind colleges. swimdude doesn’t really need any “practical” advice. As you and he noted, he could just ask the school and find the answer, but he brought up a topic I am interested in further exploring. How did it confuse him? It confused you?</p>
<p>How do you know there are no stories about Andover? Have you read all the threads. If Harvard gave someone a million dollars will tell you a zilch about what Andover will do, unless you ask Andover directly.</p>
<p>You are being ridiculous. I was just trying to look at how peer insitutions (since there are so few need-blind BS so I expanded to need-blind colleges) handle similar situations, and whether they have clear policies laid out for such situations, etc. Who is trying to give swimdude a definite answer that he will or will not get FA??? And where are the stories about Andover? Do share them please. You ARE confused!</p>
<p>Harvard is no peer institution to Andover. I learnt in 2nd grade not to compare apples and oranges. You are being ridiculous ad infinitum talking about policies at colleges and how they apply to high schools. If there are no stories about Andover, you go ask Andover, not look for Harvard stories. You said you expanded to colleges, you didn’t ask for policies at other BS like Exeter and SAS who give out equally generous amounts of FA. This is a prep school forum and who the heck you think will answer about colleges on this forum?</p>
<p>If I’m confused reading your posts, I’m not surprised.</p>
<p>FWIW, Exeter was not need-blind last I looked.</p>
<p>And yes Exeter gives out the same amount of money for FA as does PA, haha (% of students on FA and the total amount). Just because you don’t call it need-blind doesn’t mean anything. I really don’t think any private institution that depends on tuition dollars can be truly need-blind because at PA more than 50% of the students are still full pay. This implies that there are more rich people in the world than middle class and the poor which we all know is a contradiction. You can paint stripes on a donkey and call it a zebra, but it’s still a donkey. :D</p>
<p>@Invent: Wait, weren’t you the one who repeatedly encouraged swimdude to apply for FA saying because Andover was need-blind and generous in FA? Why then… Ah, I know your secrete agenda now. Are you trying to get enough people to apply for FA from Andover so as to bankrupt the school? Wow, what a plan! Stick with it keep shoveling. Let’s see how far you can go! ;)</p>
<p>“I really don’t think any private institution that depends on tuition dollars can be truly need-blind because at PA more than 50% of the students are still full pay. This implies that there are more rich people in the world than middle class and the poor which we all know is a contradiction.”</p>
<p>I think the more obvious implication is that those 50% full paying students are more qualified than the other students who were waitlisted/rejected and needed financial aid. Full paying students usually have more opportunities in both academics and extracurricular activities which help set them apart from their financial aid requesting counterparts. If Andover accepted many more financial aid students to represent the current state of the world, they might not be selecting the most qualified student body.</p>
<p>Oh, I don’t know about that. You can be middle class and have had plenty of academic/athletic/musical opportunities but still not be able to afford $50,000/year for high school…</p>
<p>The student you described, if he/she has taken advantage of all of those opportunities, would most likely be a great financial aid applicant for a school like Andover. But it’s undeniable that students who come from wealthier backgrounds usually are the ones who have many more opportunities than students from lower income families thus making them stronger candidates for admission.</p>
<p>Undeniably, middle to upper middle class families are in an awkward position when it comes to financial support from private institutions. Some of the kids babystate described may get admitted but turn out not qualified for financial aid “on paper” although the familes do “feel” the need. The evaluation of finanical need in this case can be subjective - so to speak. I believe many of the top BS do support many middle to upper middle class families, but many others may still end up not getting it, but can it be used as an evidence that a school is actually not need-blind although they claim so? I don’t know. I’ve heard the kind of “conspiracy theories” on all the top colleges’ need-blind policies as well. I honestly just don’t know if I can make a judgement either way here, so I guess the best way to put it is “suit yourself, and believe what you want to believe.”</p>
<p>I guess my family is really lucky. My middle class kids had great luck with FA at both prep school and private colleges. FA at prep school happened before the great financial meltdown though, and colleges were chosen partially because of their large endowments…</p>
<p>I have a couple questions about Andover.</p>
<p>Does applying for finacial aid hurt your chances of getting in, when your in the upper middle class? And, when is the best time to apply, interview, and visit the campus? What scores the SSAT would be the best to help you get in?</p>
<p>
According to Andover, no. That’s what need-blind means - regardless of your financial situation and whether or not you apply for financial aid, your chances are the same. At least one person on this thread would argue that it’s not truly a need-blind school, but there’s no way for us to tell since we’re not in the admissions office (FWIW, though, faculty members do one or two passes through the apps too, not just admissions officers). I’m upper middle class, applied for FA, got in, and received about 50% aid. My college, on the other hand, deemed that I needed nothing. The best time to visit campus is when there are students there, but I know tours happen in the summer (I’ve occasionally seen them this summer). Higher SSAT scores are generally better than lower, but there isn’t formally a cutoff. I honestly have no clue how admissions can do their job - at least colleges receive high school profiles to help distinguish candidates…</p>
<p>Did you see the school when you were a 7th grader or 8th grader? I was just wondering because my mom thinks i’m too young to be thinking about prep school when it would still be 2 years away. Were your interviews on campus? Because my parents don’t want to fly back in forth to see the campus and interview because live pretty far away. Does the SSAT include questions about things I haven’t learned yet? Because the applications deadline is Jan. 1st and by then I would only have taken half a year of algebra. How do you think it would look to the school if your only applying to one? It’s not because I’m cocky, it’s just because my mom doesnt want me to leave home, so she is only letting me apply to one school.</p>
<p>Sorry for the grammer mistakes</p>
<p>I did not even consider the possibility of prep school until the fall of 8th grade. Interviewing this far in advance doesn’t make much sense either. My interview was on campus, but I do know the admissions officers travel a lot. I have no clue about the SSAT - I don’t know what you’ve learned (curricula aren’t standard across states, for instance. One of my friends took geometry at a public school in 8th grade, but I didn’t have that opportunity). You wouldn’t need a full year of algebra, though. That’s what I had, and I was in the 99th percentile for math. The reading has a good amount of vocabulary, though, and there is (was? It’s been 7 or 8 years) an essay. Unless you tell the schools, they won’t know how many other places you’re applying.</p>
<p>DA, Don’t panic, PA won’t be bankrupt as it produces such successful alumni who continue to support it as they have done for the last 200 odd years. They can give FA to ten other swimdudes and they will still be fine.</p>
<p>Oh, I am very worried…</p>
<p>I made my donation to financial aid this week!</p>