I have read this Q&A “word by word” and wonder if anyone else is wondering what I am. Are they saying “Since admission is a separate issue, all families who are interested in financial aid are encouraged to apply.”, but if you do apply for FA you’d have a lower chance of getting admitted because of the lack of FA money? I didn’t see the latter part of that statement. It sounds more like they are saying based on their analysis of the admissions data, it so happens a higher percentage of people who don’t apply for FA get admitted “year to year”.</p>
<p>D’Andrew: I think the wording leaves it open to interpretation, doesn’t it? It could be that the FA applicants are that much less qualified–though I doubt it. If I’m remembering correctly, a differently worded statement on the website a few years ago stated more explicitly that it is more difficult to get into Groton as an FA candidate. Here’s another statement from the page: </p>
<p>Only George School and Phillips Andover Academy have that mandate.</p>
<p>I would assume most legacy applicants wouldn’t need financial aid. Also, many of the non-FA candidates would hail from pre-preps. </p>
<p>I read the statement to mean that the Admissions Committee admits without considering finances, but the Financial Aid Committee may not be able to fund those students.</p>
<p>All I can do is reiterate that in our experience, which includes an insiders view of the admissions process, the decision to admit a student is made independently of their ability to pay their way. There are indeed more legacy admits there than most other schools. One would hope and assume that a Groton grad would be wealthier than someone from the general population.</p>
<p>I honestly don’t know how this could be read to mean anything other than what it says.
Since they don’t make the decision based on ability to pay; please feel free to apply for financial aid.</p>
<p>“During the regular admission season, decisions regarding admission to the School and eligibility for financial aid are made independently by the Admission and Financial Aid Committees respectively. Since admission is a separate issue, all families who are interested in financial aid are encouraged to apply”</p>
<p>There are parents on this board who have gotten clarification from schools about what this wording means. Generally at boarding school, that language means that students are not evaluated by the Admissions Committee based on their financial need (or lack of need.) However, once Admissions has put together their list of admits, that list gets forwarded to financial aid. Financial aid looks at who from that list needs aid and how much. Since it’s highly unlikely that they will have enough aid in a given year to cover all of that need, they must then begin to weed out some of those admits. Since Groton guarantees aid to everyone they admit, they cannot admit without aid as some other schools do, so at some point the decision of admissions and of FA have to come together. I suspect that some of those admits (based on our personal experience with Groton) end up on the waitlist, rather than being admitted. </p>
<p>Obviously some candidates–like BigBlueGirl–get aid; that doesn’t mean that everyone does. If Groton gave aid to everyone they admitted, they would state on the website that they have “need blind” admissions, not that admissions and financial aid decisions are made separately.</p>
<p>Today is the day all the kids offered admission have to send in their replies (due tomorrow). Once the schools know what their “yield” of accepted students is, they will know if they can go to their waitlist. All waitlisted applicants are “admissable”, and if they get a lower enrollment than expected from their initial round of admissions, the school will fill in the gaps not by pulling from a rank-ordered list, but by making sure the incoming class has the right combination of students (gender, athletes, academic interests, music/dance/theater/arts interests, racial/geographic diversity, payor mix, etc) that they want in order to build the community.</p>
<p>As for the community… it is wonderful. We just went to re-visit day last week, and I can vouch for the beautiful, intentional, intimate community at Groton. Loved the faculty, administration, other parents, etc. Good luck to all who are on the wait list. My son is not accepting his offer at Groton (sniff), as he felt more inspired at another school. He is very excited, but we hate to let Groton go. Hopefully his spot will go to one of you!!! Best of luck!</p>