<p>Obviously my D can't get financial aid without a social security number, but, frankly, that's the point: we want to telegraph in as many ways as possible that we don't need financial aid, if they take my D, the school gets a full-freight tuition for four years. So - in addition to the identity theft concerns - we have not added her SS# to the common app (or any other apps) because I feel that keeping it off might send the subtle message that we don't care about financial aid.</p>
<p>My question is: Will the schools just consider the lack of SS# an annoyance, since it might make it more difficult to match SAT scores, transcripts, etc.? Or do they have a way of handling this by name, so that the lack of an SS# won't hinder the application at all?</p>
<p>I realize that it's a long shot that an admission officer (rather than an office administrative assistant) will see whether the SS# is provided. And even if the officer does see it, it's a long shot that he/she will think, "Oh, good, full freight tuition for my school," rather than thinking, "over-privileged, spoiled kid whose daddy wants to buy her way into this school when she refused to study in high school." But you play the hand you've got in life (hey, I went to an Ivy on my own steam back in the 80s; it's not my fault that D is smart but lazy as sin), so assume that my single-minded, anti-social, not-a-good-citizen goal is to let the schools know that, by rejecting my D in favor of a more diligent but less-well-heeled student, they are passing up a few hundred thousand dollars in tuition and future donations from grateful parents. Will leaving the SS# off the app help to communicate this? Or will it just annoy the admissions office by creating extra paperwork?</p>
<p>Huh? How does not putting in SS tell them you don’t need aid?? There’s a box you check that says applying for aid or not. This all sounds convoluted. You need to see what the various colleges say about SSN and how the Common App discusses it.
Adcoms don’t guess. </p>
<p>The obvious signal that you don’t need financial aid is to either submit a FAFSA and/or CSS that clearly demonstrates you have no need or check the “I don’t need aid” box if one is provided.</p>
<p>However, a need-blind institution is in theory not supposed to notice when making admissions decisions. </p>
<p>Even at need-aware schools, the majority of admission decisions may in fact be need-blind, with need-aware consideration allowing the final 10-20% of the class to tap marginal applicants who can pay the full tuition.</p>
<p>Does your “lazy as sin” D have the stats to be a marginal candidate at a top need-aware school? If so, stop monkeying around with secret handshake stuff about the SSN and apply to those schools.</p>
<p>You asked: “Will the schools just consider the lack of SS# an annoyance, since it might make it more difficult to match SAT scores, transcripts, etc.”</p>
<p>My son did not provide his SSN when registering with CB to take PSAT, SAT, etc, his HS did not have his SSN and would not have included it on a transcript, and he did not use it when applying to college. I don’t think this created additional paperwork for anyone in admissions.</p>
<p>You are knotting yourself into a pretzel over nothing. Schools take your word for it… if you check the box saying you aren’t applying for FA, then they believe that. Don’t count on that as much of an admission boost, though. You would be much better off spending time finding schools where her stats are a match instead of hoping this will give her a boost.</p>