<p>I was just wondering, if a college sees that your family has a pretty dang low EFC and that you are most likely going to need a lot of FinAid (21,000+) will they be more skeptical to accept you???</p>
<p>I feel I have pretty strong stats but my EFC is kinda low I think, will this hurt my chances, especially since they're facing such big budget cuts??</p>
<p>Of course I've heard that EFCs won't effect anything, but is this really true?</p>
<p>Should not at need blind schools. However, your question is very pertinent to need-aware school where your file can be marked with your low EFC on the folder cover.</p>
<p>Most private colleges that are need-blind state it clearly on their website. If they are need-aware, then yes, having a low EFC hurts kids on the bubble, since adcoms will usually accept a full payer in such cases, particularly if thier finaid target has been met for the year.</p>
<p>When adcoms look at their number of admits and look at yield ratio, do they it do seperately for full payers? Are need-aware schools afraid that the yield ratios will be scewed this year (as parents are broke), and more kids who dont get finaid will end up in public schools? Thanks in advance to any adcom people out here.</p>
<p>I can't speak for acoms bcos I'm not one. </p>
<p>But, I did speak to an adcom of a need-aware college last summer and he told me: 1) we meet full need for anyone we admit; 2) when our finaid budget is met, we unfortunately make our last "few" admission decisions based on financial need, with the tips going to those with less need. </p>
<p>I took that to mean that once the college is down to the bottom of its acceptance pile, they might admit 5 kids who needed a $5k grant per year over one kid who needed a full ride. Of course, if the finaid budget has been depleted for the year, then a full payor will be admitted over the kid who need $5k.</p>
<p>Another way to look at this is, does a low EFC affect getting off the wait list? My son was wait listed and got a spot. While our EFC was not extremely low, we did have considerable need of FA, which was fully met.</p>