Hello all,
I believe that not applying for financial aid will give you an edge over the students who will apply for financial aid in schools such as Phillips Exeter.
However, does applying but not receiving FA put you in the same pile as not applying for FA?
Some schools will admit a qualified applicant but without FA, while many schools tend to just not admit kids if they are unable to fund their need for FA. Some schools have FA waiting lists.
We were admitted to a school and FA waitlisted, so I don’t think applying for FA will hurt your chances. But if you need the FA why wouldn’t you apply for it?
Actually, applying for FA automatically puts you into a much more competitive applicant pool. There is only a certain amount of FA money allocated each year in the school budget.
There are lots of schools without FA waitlists (my kid’s school is one). And if a school is aware that an applicant needs a substantial amount (or full) FA, and they are unable to award that amount, they often won’t admit that applicant, rather than say “yes” and have the family be unable to come up with the funds.
^ agree with @cameo43
Specific to Exeter, I don’t think they put applicants who apply for FA and who do not into different piles. Instead they make admission decisions without considering FA status and then distribute FA based on need. Only when the FA budget cannot cover all the FA need do they start throwing out a few relatively weaker ones from the admitted pool and pulling up a few stronger ones from the WL pool. To me, it means the risk of applying for FA is relatively low, so I would apply for FA if you don’t feel you could afford full tuition relatively comfortably.
Exeter says they are need aware on their website. Andover however is completely need blind. DS was waitlisted at a school last year and his letter said specifically that they were unable to meet our financial need.
@momof3swimmers However Exeter and Andover take the same number of kids on financial aid (around 50%)