<p>When you apply to a school, and also apply for financial aid, what happens? Does the FA office prepare a package for you in case you are accepted or, do they wait for notification that you were accepted, and then prepare the package? Just curious as to how they do this when there are so many applicants. Thanks!</p>
<p>stressed out mom:
There are several thoughts on this but my personal opinion is that the financial aid office checks each persons financial aid folder to make sure all necessary paperwork is included. They then wait for admissions to tell them which students have been admitted and therefore prepare packages for them.But - I do believe that the Financial Aid person for MIT - Mr. Barkowitz frequents these boards occasionally and I bet he can answer this questions for you better than I can. You might search for threads by him for good info.</p>
<p>Depends on the school. At the colleges where I have worked we wait for the Admissions office to tell us first about "likely" admits. This means we may read students who never get admitted, but they are/were likely candidates. That said, the college I work for now has less than a 15% acceptance rate. If I worked at a college with an 80+% acceptance rate, we might do things differently.</p>