Should I say I'm applying for financial aid?

<p>I've been reading A is for Admission lately, and in the book it says that if you come from a wealthy background you're likely to be held to a higher standard and judged more harshly. It seems to suggest being as vague as possible about your parents' occupations/financial background, and also says that although people believe being able to pay your own way will give you an advantage, that's not necessarily true unless your parents have donated a building to the school or something like that. </p>

<p>Now I know most top schools are need-blind so your financial situation shouldn't factor into their decision, but I'm a bit skeptical about how truly need-blind they are since you have to check whether or not you're applying for financial aid on the application. Hernandez talks about how checking "no" for the "Are you applying for financial aid?" box might not necessarily work to your advantage since that shows that your family has enough money to pay full price, and you will be judged more harshly against that background. So it seems like you should check "yes" unless it's totally obvious that your parents have enough money to pay (like they're doctors/lawyers graduated from Harvard living in New York). </p>

<p>However, even though Hernandez says being able to pay full price would not be an advantage, the book The Gatekeepers says it would because "To help offset their financial losses due to increased costs for financial aid, colleges initiated an intense search for other 'customers' who could pay full price, whether from the U.S. or abroad." </p>

<p>With this kind of conflicting info, I'm not sure what I should do in regards to applying for financial aid (or at least checking the box). My dad is a chemist, and I'm not sure what his exact salary is, but I know it's more than $100,000 a year. My mom does not work, and hasn't ever since having kids. I'm not entirely sure why my parents are convinced we won't qualify for any aid since I've heard of people with incomes of $100,000+ getting aid, but I suspect it's because of the money we made from selling a house we used to own in California for quite a bit of money. My parents think being able to pay full price will be an advantage, but as cited above, info on that is conflicting. </p>

<p>If checking "no" for the financial aid box really puts you on a higher standard though, I'd rather not check it. I don't want to be misjudged as someone who's come from a very advantageous background because I don't feel like I come from that kind of background at all. For one, I don't live in a particularly good school district: my school is poor and severely overcrowded (with 900-1000 kids in each class), sends less than 50% of graduates to a 4-year-college, and is on academic warning right now for not meeting No Child Left Behind standards. And secondly, I've never had SAT prep classes or been on a $5000 summer program because my parents simply refused to pay for things like that. Also, my family did not have that much money until we sold our house in CA just two years ago, so it's not like I've been wealthy my whole life. Without the money from the house we would likely have trouble paying for my college education since I still have a sister who needs to go to college three years after me. </p>

<p>So... should I say that I'm applying for financial aid or not?</p>

<p>Unless your parents are actually in the postition that they can pay the 45K + that it now cost for a private education, if you need FA, check the box stating that you will be applying for FA. </p>

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My dad is a chemist, and I'm not sure what his exact salary is, but I know it's more than $100,000 a year. My mom does not work, and hasn't ever since having kids. I'm not entirely sure why my parents are convinced we won't qualify for any aid since I've heard of people with incomes of $100,000+ getting aid, but I suspect it's because of the money we made from selling a house we used to own in California for quite a bit of money.

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<p>I personally am of the mind set that you should never eliminate yourself from FA. At worse, you would be eligible for unsubsidized stafford loans, plus (parents loans). </p>

<p>Even at need blind schools all that checking the box means is that you have need; that need could be $1 or the need could be full freight. Yes, if your parents have the $$ from the sale of their house, the money is an asset and FA offices will determine that it is a resource where some of it should be used to finance your education (the same would hold true if they kept the house and had equity)</p>

<p>Since at most selective universities, especially Dartmouth, which Hernandez bases her experience on, Admissions and financial aid operate as 2 separate entities, in many schools, the 2 offices are not even in close proximity to one another.</p>

<p>At best, depending on what your situation is : the age of your parents, if you have siblings in undergrad, if your parents are taking care of elderly parents, medical bills not covered by insurance, etc. you could very well find your self in the postion where you can get FA (it won't be a full ride) but it could be soem money and every bit heps.</p>

<p>What I would recommend, is to sit down with your parents and use some of the financial aid calculators. Use both the federal methodology (basically the numbers you would be using for the FAFSA) and the institutional methodology- which schools use to distribute their institutional aid.</p>

<p>Another reason you should apply for FA is that life happens. Not ot wish anything bad on you, if your family should have a financial set back, it is easier to go to the FA office and inform them of your change in cirucmstance where they can adjust your aid accordingly, instead of having to wait until the next school year to apply for aid.</p>

<p>hope this helps</p>

<p>Thanks for the advice. That's mostly what I had figured, that it's better safe than sorry. I just need to convince my parents that not applying for aid isn't really going to help at need-blind schools.</p>