I know it’s rare and we are thankful to not need any financial aid when my son applies to colleges this fall. I am wondering if anyone has any first hand knowledge about whether or not it helps your chances of getting into your college of choice if you are not applying for any aid.
some colleges are need-blind and at those it won’t matter. some do consider need and there it may matter, but even then it may not. At many schools that consider need, adcoms start the admit season without paying attention to need and at some point they start running low on available aid. That’s when the need component starts to kick in. As for how much of a bump it can provide, that depends too on how many apps they get from students who do not have need. hard to say on a general basis. you have to look at this on a school by school basis.
Actually , MOST schools operate as need-blind through the admissions process. Those that are not need-blind are the 5% of colleges that have committed to meeting a certain level of aid based on family income b/c funds are limited.
Short end of the stick, there is extremely little benefit to telling an admissions office “we can pay top $$.” Most simply dont care… They’re admitting students based on their merit, not ability to pay.