<p>Fauve, your comments don’t reflect reality. Just as an example, funding for summer research travel is totally unrelated to your personal financial situation. The grants are made on the basis of the seriousness of your project, not your financial means. The wealthiest students receive the same research stipends as the poorest students.</p>
<p>Physics, the short answer to your question is “no”. In fact, no one is likely ever even to ask you whether you are on financial aid. </p>
<p>According to the Common Data Sets for the Ivy League Schools, here are the current percentages of students on financial aid at each school. I could not find the CDS forms for Penn or Columbia so have substituted the percentage of first year students on financial aid at each.</p>
<p>The range is from a low of around 40% to a high of around 60% so even at the schools with the largest percentage of students on financial aid more than 40% don’t need aid.</p>
<p>% of Undergraduate Student Body on Financial Aid
(from most recent Common Data Sets)</p>
<p>57% – Harvard
56% – Princeton
55% – Dartmouth</p>
<p>51% – Yale</p>
<p>48% – Columbia
46% – Cornell
44% – Brown
43% – Penn</p>