<p>Does applying for merit scholarships or not applying impact your chances of getting admitted regular decision, meaning do they frown upon "not applying" for a merit scholarship?</p>
<p>I can’t think of a reason that it would make you less attractive as a candidate. In fact, schools are accused of being more likely to accept students who won’t be needing financial aid. Maybe I’m misunderstanding something and you could clarify?</p>
<p>I think it hurts more if you are a high stats who applied but did not get called for an interview.</p>
<p>If you don’t apply, you are saying you will pay for it. Can you do that?</p>
<p>We will apply for financial aid, but 99.9999% sure we will not qualify, even though this will be my 2nd child in college and another in a private grade school that costs as much as college. I do the financial aid app just in case we qualify for a low interest federal loan that we may choose to take advantage of.</p>
<p>So, yes, we can and will pay full price. </p>
<p>My son is a strong student (top 10% in tough college prep HS), an AP Scholar who will have 8 AP exams under his belt by the time he graduates, a transcript that shows he has taken the most rigorous curicculum possible, a 33 Super Scored ACT (but only 8 on essay), SAT 2s - Chem: 780, Eng Lit: 720. </p>
<p>He has done a reasonable amount of community service, he is a co-senior editor of the news paper, a school civility leader and ambassador, and a bball co-captain. But he has not won any major regional or state awards for debate or art, he doesnt have a perfect ACT, etc. He doesn’t know what he wants to be or what he wants to major in, he hasn’t done research every summer, etc.</p>
<p>So while he is a very strong and viable candidate who would add a great deal to the community, I don’t think he is going to win any major merit scholarships. Maybe I am wrong? Should I make him do the extra essays just for good measure? I am worried they will think he is less interested if he doesn’t do them and write more essays. </p>
<p>He did visit and had an on-campus interview. Ironically, his school advisor nominated him for the Danforth Scholars program back in October, but he incorrectly thought it required you to apply ED and he was still exploring, not ready to commit yet to ED. </p>
<p>Any advice would be appreciated.</p>
<p>WashU tries to package merit and need together and they pick some candidates to do this to get the candidates they target. However, the merit seems to be tied to very high stats and the last person who was offered a merit scholarship whom I know (I know only one) had perfect ACT and did not qualify for need. </p>
<p>Although they do not bill themselves that way, some people have concluded that the school may be need aware. So not asking for money may play to your advantage or it shows up that you applied but don’t qualify.</p>
<p>So applying for financial aid can hurt your chances, is that what you are suggesting? I was wondering about that as well.</p>
<p>Yes and no. If you apply and don’t qualify, I don’t see how it can hurt. If you apply and have a full need, then they will probably do a tradeoff between 1 full need with 3-4 partial needs.</p>
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<p>IMO, if you are convinced that you won’t qualify, it MIGHT help if you don’t apply for aid. It is not something to be proud of, but it’s reasonable enough that a school would like having some full-freight students.</p>
<p>
That’s not true. WUSTL has always admitted to being need aware. [Across</a> U.S., colleges turn toward need-aware policies to manage financial shortcomings - The GW Hatchet](<a href=“http://www.gwhatchet.com/2013/10/24/across-u-s-colleges-turn-toward-need-aware-policies-to-manage-financial-shortcomings/]Across”>Across U.S., colleges turn toward need-aware policies to manage financial shortcomings – The GW Hatchet) 5th to last paragraph, as an example. They obviously don’t like to make that front page news, but it is a fact that they are need aware.</p>
<p>I think it is safe to say that anytime a school does not claim to be need blind, you can assume they are need aware. Unfortunately some like GW lied about being need blind and that hurts everyone.</p>
<p>I’m pretty convinced I won’t qualify, so I am going to give my son every shot I can, I will not apply for financial aid…thanks for the advice</p>
<p>I think at WUSTL that does improve one’s chances, Bighurt. Best of luck to your son.</p>
<p>I think a school’s being need aware or need blind should be irrelevant to applicants. It doesn’t affect how much you like a school, but rather only the chances of admission, and that only for a few on the cusp.</p>
<p>^^^ vonlost, how would “only the chances of admission” be irrelevant to applicants, especially one (OP) who started this thread wondering if it would affect the chance of admission?</p>
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<p>^ In the sense that it doesn’t affect the actions of applicants, and barely affects the chances of admission. But you’re right in terms of the OP’s question, that paying list price might slightly increase that chance of admission at a need-aware school, but that info is not useful.</p>
<p>"That’s not true. WUSTL has always admitted to being need aware. "</p>
<p>Even better. It has nothing to do with truth or dare only facts. </p>
<p>People have been to presentations where they don’t come out openly claim to be need aware. I have attended at least 4.</p>
<p>“I think at WUSTL that does improve one’s chances, Bighurt.” </p>
<p>Fallenchemist. Do you think not applying for financial aid would also improve one’s chances at a school like ND? I believe they are need blind but not sure. Thanks.</p>
<p>
Frankly that makes no sense. It does affect the actions of some applicants; they either take the action of applying for financial aid or they don’t. That isn’t “slight”, it could be highly significant if it keeps secret the family income which in turn makes WUSTL assume the family has sufficient resources to pay full freight. How do you know that “barely affects the chances of admission”? The information could be exceedingly useful.</p>
<p>rubyred8: If any school is truly need blind then applying for financial aid shouldn’t matter. The question is, and unfortunately it turns out to be a tough one to answer based on actions of several schools like George Washington, if the school in question is being honest in their claim. So I guess it depends on how much of a cynic you choose to be.</p>
<p>
But the issue is, did they actually deny it if/when it was asked directly? As I said earlier, I wouldn’t expect any school to make it a focal point of their marketing. That is a different thing than lying about it.</p>
<p>^ I was describing another case: deciding whether to apply to a school or not based on need aware/blind. Usually those who need aid have no choice but to ask for it; those who don’t need aid but ask for it won’t get it, so few are affected by the question (perhaps those with hidden assets who take aid from someone who needs it).</p>
<p>At some of the WashU presentations I have attended, the admissions officer has been asked if they are need-blind and he/she has explained their policy and how it’s not 100% need blind. I don’t remember their exact wording, but they did take the time to fully explain how it works and didn’t beat around the bush.</p>
<p>I would call it suppression of information for the lack of a better term if I were to name it. I did not say they were lying, but you told me I did not have the truth.</p>
<p>I just noticed the link you provided is a news item rather than documentation on the WashU website. </p>
<p>[Financial</a> Aid | Undergraduate Admissions | Washington University in St. Louis](<a href=“http://admissions.wustl.edu/scholarships-financial-aid/Financial-Aid/Pages/default.aspx]Financial”>http://admissions.wustl.edu/scholarships-financial-aid/Financial-Aid/Pages/default.aspx)</p>
<p>I am looking at this and I went through the admissions site and can’t locate anything that ties to the statement made by Mark Wrighton in your article. The FA link is clear that they try to eliminate loans for lower income students. However, I can’t find anything that says they will admit or reject some based on need which is what need aware should mean.</p>