[quote]
Some colleges are denying admission and perhaps reducing financial aid to students based on a single, non-financial, non-academic question that students submit to the federal government on their applications for student aid....</p>
<p>They have discovered that the order in which students list institutions corresponds to students’ preferred college.
Now, some colleges use this “FAFSA position” to deny students admission, said David Hawkins, director of public policy and research for the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
<p>I think students can submit FAFSA one at a time. List a school, submit, remove name, add new name, submit, remove name, and so forth. I think students can do this if they want. Not sure. Others will chime in.</p>
<p>I have long suspected this. The only way around it would be to submit the FAFSA separately for each college - which could be problematic and after you have submitted would the college be able to see where else you submitted anyway?</p>
<p>Even if they could see, they wouldn’t know the order.</p>
<p>That said, for those who submit FASFA in two or three batches of lists, the school on the top of the second or third batch would think that they’re number one.</p>
<p>I guess market studies show that people list the schools in order of preference more times than not. When we’ve done school lists, that’s not been the case.</p>
<p>I won’t speak for Kelsmom…but I recall her saying that as a finaid officer, the LAST thing she had time to do was look at what other schools kids were applying to. It did NOT matter at all to her.</p>
<p>Also…regarding admissions…your FAFSA is in the financial aid office and your application for admission is in the admissions office. In the vast majority of cases, I would seriously doubt that the admissions officers are contacting financial aid to ask what schools are listed on the FAFSA. At need aware schools, those finaid officers are looking at student NEED. I doubt they have significant time to return calls to admissions about the list of schools.</p>
<p>Just my opinion.</p>
<p>But if you are concerned…just submit one FAFSA at a time.</p>
<p>You do realize that colleges KNOW that most students apply to more than one college, and many apply to peer institutions.</p>
<p>Most schools are need blind and they don’t care. It’s that niche of selective schools that try to meet need for the students that they accept and can only do so when they watch the dollars carefully (and even then cannot) and are very yield conscious that resort to these measures. Franklin and Marshall was even holding it against students who were applying to coleges more selective that themselves, they were so need conscious. So yes, it happens, and there are always the Admissions Directors who are not so smart, and not ethical, as it happens in all fields. Most that I have met, in fact all but not even a handful, or that I have even read about, do make every attempt ot hold a high standard.</p>
<p>We didn’t fill out FAFSA, but for some reason any time my D had to list her schools, she listed them not by preference but by distance - the closest one was first and the one the greatest distance from home was last. She’s currently attending the school that was always last on the list (she got into all of her schools, so it obviously wasn’t the school she liked the least). It sounds like they have data that indicates that more kids list in order of preference than not, but I think they could easily make some bad individual calls by relying on that.</p>
<p>I imagine that the use of this information might be a lot more subtle than the way it is presented in this article.</p>
<p>For example, if a student applied to MIT, Tufts, Caltech, Columbia, and Northeastern, it would be reasonable for Northeastern to conclude that it’s the safety school. </p>
<p>If a student has parents who went to Ohio State, grandparents who went to Ohio State, uncles and aunts who met at Ohio State, and an older brother who is at Ohio State, but is nevertheless applying to Denison, Loyola, Bucknell, and Gettysburg, the admissions officers at the latter schools may rightfully conclude that this kid has zero interest in attending Ohio State. </p>
<p>A student might claim in an essay and an interview to really want school X because of its football team, but is applying to five other schools without football teams. The admissions officers may then think, “You’re really not interested in playing football, are you?”</p>
<p>I guess I was naive and didn’t realize that some colleges offer smaller aid packages to students who they think are the most interested in attending their college. This is contrary to what some students have been told - to show a strong interest in a college to increase your chances of admission. </p>
<p>So now, they are supposed to show a strong interest until they get admitted, and then pretend they are not interested until they get an aid package? These games are getting ridiculous.</p>
<p>I did hear about one university last year that waited to see who put down deposits after admissions offers, and then only offered merit aid to the students who had not put down a deposit by February. As a result, some students with the same grades and test scores received merit aid, and others did not.</p>
<p>Yet another way one has to game “level of applicant’s interest” at college that consider that.</p>
<p>Perhaps an applicant should list a “level of applicant’s interest” college first, then list as the second school a peer college that is known to give good financial aid or large scholarships (so that the first school will have incentive to make a competitive financial aid or scholarship offer), even if the real top choice is another school listed further down that does not consider “level of applicant’s interest” and has a relatively transparent financial aid policy.</p>
<p>Yes, much of “enrollment mgt” is counter-intuitive which is exactly what they are going for. The more you want them the less they think you need to seal the deal. Those on the fence who are still net positives financially for the school get a boost in their deal to get them onboard. Very interesting applied consumer behavior theory.</p>
<p>Well we never would have anticipated that but it worked to our advantage.
Oldest listed her reach ( both financially & academically) first. It was a school that met 100% of need but also need aware.
They offered her a package that covered up to FAFSA EFC.
:)</p>
<p>Do you think they do this at HYPSM+ type schools or mostly just schools like Tufts, NE, etc? This has me a little worried as a student who will file FAFSA soon.</p>
<p>Make sure to alphabetize the list, I guess. I suppose one could manipulate this to one’s advantage, if it is true that colleges do X, eventually students will do Y…put a first choice down low on the list to maximize aid offers or whatever.</p>
<p>In the end, I think it’s ridiculous that colleges will see a list of other colleges applied to ONLY for those applying for financial aid. I can’t imagine why that list is shared with all the schools on it.</p>