<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>