<p>With need blind admissions colleges, and specially the more selective colleges, is it custumary for the colleges to begin reviewing the Financial Aid Applications of all the student applicants, or do most wait until the student is put into the "most likely to get admitted" pool?</p>
<p>Wouldn't it be too much work to review all of the FA applications, instead of just the ones that are most likely to be accepted?</p>
<p>I asked this question of a finaid officer I know. She told me that her school does preliminary reviews of financial aid applications to get a “head start” but the final run comes as their office receives confirmation that a student has been accepted.</p>
<p>Related to this…this is why DEADLINES are so important. This same finaid officer said that they really do need the completed documents even to begin the prelim review. Then the final one is completed so that the final awards can be sent along with the acceptances.</p>
<p>thumper, how about schools that accept less than 20% of the applications?</p>
<p>It would be hard to believe that time would be spent on all financial aid applications to make sure that they are complete, instead of waiting for the ones that have a high probability of getting accepted.</p>
<p>oh, and thank you for the response, by the way</p>
<p>You know…it really doesn’t matter what the finaid office does anyway in need blind schools because finaid does NOT communicate with admissions…untll AFTER admissions accepts a student. </p>
<p>My friend works in a school that has 20,000 or so applicants. They accept about 50%. I’m only telling you what she told me…they do a preliminary review. Maybe they just sort those with HIGH EFCs who won’t qualify for aid anyway…from those who might. Not all of the 50% of accepted students at her school will qualify for need based aid even though they apply.</p>
<p>thumper1, when you say after admissions accepts a student, do you mean after admissions decides they are accepted or after letters are sent out?</p>
<p>The Non Custodial Parent profile is not really “financial aid”, but it’s close - so I have a story (because it sort of feels like OP has been asked for more info, and might feel that means they’re “in the running”).</p>
<p>My daughter has about 5 colleges who need a CSS Non Custodial Parent profile. We can’t provide one, so I e-mailed each school to find out their procedure to request a waiver. All but one school gave us forms to complete, asked for letters, supporting documents, etc. </p>
<p>Know that I’ve signed my e-mail of course, and I’m doubting there are two applicants with my non-generic last name in my state. So it would be pretty easy for them to look up the applicant’s status, if they so desired. This school accepts ten (?) or so applicants from our state. They just don’t love us. AND, it’s the ONLY school that did not request an interview from my daughter. So I’m feeling PRETTY darn confident she made it to the “no” pile quickly. I just wish there was someway to hear “no” - as soon as it’s decided. It would save SO many of us SO much time and wasted energy. This school has their OWN financial aid too (not FAFSA or CSS Profile). Ok, fine…that school which shall (previously) not be named is Yale. </p>
<p>It just seems like, in general, it sure would be nice to know earlier, if it’s a definite rejection. For so many reasons. </p>
<p>Luck to ya OP, I have no CLUE about the financial aid process. Sorry. Just rambling.</p>