<p>From some CC posters, I've heard that not requesting fin aid (even at need-blind schools) can marginally help your chances. After all, education is a business and college institutions want students who can pay themselves, especially in current economic conditions and college endowments are shrinking. If this is true, is this also true for need-blind schools?</p>
<p>On the other hand, I've heard that applying for fin aid can help your chances because top schools want to reach out to less financially advantaged students to increase diversity. The same students are also more likely to face challenges that financially secure students would not have to face, thus fin aid applicants come a farther way to reach where they are now.</p>
<p>Can you confirm either sides of the question? Both arguments sound logical, but surely they cannot coexist.</p>
<p>I recruit for a school that practices need blind admissions. I have not seen any reason to believe that they have do anything otherwise. It’s a policy to attract applicants from middle to lower income tiers – plus they have a huge FA budget to boot.</p>
<p>On the other hand,only the few top schools really can be concerned about economic diversity with any real effect (i.e. giving out tons of FA dollars). Yes they want “diamonds in the rough” but the # of colleges you’re referring to here is very small.</p>
<p>The answer to your final question is that they do co-exist but only extensively at the few mega rich schools and in lesser amounts for a select few others.</p>
<p>Many colleges admit that they seek students who can pay sticker price when they look through the waiting list to decide who to admit. In that case, these applicants on the margin are given a big advantage. By that point, the financial aid budget has probably already been commited.</p>
<p>I don’t know this for a fact, but I have a theory about other applicants for most colleges (other than the richest ones). I’m guessing there is a huge difference between students who can pay 1/2 of tuition plus room and board, vs. students who need a full ride to attend that college. This is where savings for middle income families come into play (despite the people who falsely claim that they are penalized because they saved for college). After all, the marginal cost of one additional student is much less than the full sticker price of a private college.</p>
<p>Most private colleges realize that there are few applicants who can full sticker price, and they expect half of their enrolled students each year to receive substantial tuition discounts. However, the typical college doesn’t have enough resources to pay for all of the tuition (and possibly some of the room and board) for many students, so I’m guessing those people are the most affected by need-aware admissions.</p>
<p>The “truth” is, it does not matter whether applying for aid affects your “chances.”</p>
<p>If you can afford to attend without aid, don’t apply for aid.</p>
<p>If you cannot afford to attend without aid, what would be the point in saying you do not need aid??? If accepted, you would not be able to attend.</p>
<p>Every year on the Financial Aid forum, kid after kid posts asking how they will pay for their “dream school” when they decided not to check off that they need aid. The result is always that they can not attend.</p>
<p>So if you need aid to attend, but choose to say that you don’t in hopes that will improve your “chances,” consider your application fee a donation to the school. All you will have in the end is an acceptance letter to hang on your wall. There is no “tuition fairy” who will magically pay your way.</p>