<p>This is more of an admission strategy question than a financial aid question. Assume the following: you're applying to a need-aware, tuition-driven school. Your stats are near the bottom of what they might take. You haven't filed the FAFSA, but it's very clear to you (and your accountant) that your EFC will well exceed the full freight. You are expecting to pay the full freight if you get in, and prepared to do that. A discount would be nice, even a small discount, but your overriding goal is to maximize your chances of getting in.</p>
<p>Are you more likely to get accepted if you simply say "not applying for financial aid"?</p>
<p>Let's also assume that you're not in the financial category where you can afford to "work with the Development Office" and dicker with them over a significant gift that will accompany your kid. You will pay the full freight, and that's about it.</p>
<p>None of the 8 Us S applied to had a “box” you checked about whether or not you wanted aid. Most of his Us did allow all applicants to compete for merit-based aid and required you to complete FAFSA & often one other form (think it may have been Profile or similar) to decide your FAid eligibility. We did NOT complete any forms but were pleased that S was offered merit awards at several Us. Possibly his not applying for FAid may have been a boost in need aware Us, but have no way of knowing for sure. He did select a U that offered significant merit aid, from which he happily graduated recently.</p>
<p>Some folks say to complete forms, just in case your finances change while your child is in school and/or you want work study and/or loans guaranteed by federal government. It’s up to each family as to how much paperwork they’re willing to complete and turn over for what benefit. According to calculators, we wouldn’t qualify for anything, even when we had 2 kids at expensive private U, so we didn’t bother completing the info; no regrets. My sister completed the paperwork because she had one kid in law school & 2 kids in college. She only got work study for the youngest kid & loans; she declined them.</p>
<p>One warning, it is emotionally tough when you allow one of your kids to attend a U because they got good merit award & then your younger kid gets in to same U with NO merit award. At that point, you have to decide whether your younger kid can go with NO merit or not. This may appear theoretical but happened to us and a friend, so it is not really as theoretical as it may sound. Was great getting merit for older kid but not so wonderful paying full freight for younger sib. I know families can set a ceiling on how much they will pay toward each kid, but each family has to make these choices down the road & they are tougher in real life than in the abstract.</p>
<p>Applying for aid is not the question for a need-aware school. The school cares about how much aid you are seeking. If you apply for need but the need is 0, that’s the same as not applying for need.</p>
<p>However, failing to file a FAFSA means that you also do not get Stafford loans. (Need-aware schools don’t consider these loans as an issue because they don’t come out of their pocket.)</p>
<p>You need to be sure, however, that you don’t need either the loans or any aid before taking this route. Getting into a school you can’t afford is no gift.</p>
<p>The definition of need-aware is that the school may sometimes include need as a factor, schools vary in how much, and when it is considered as a factor, but they leave the door open.</p>
<p>So yes, if you state that you are not going to apply for FA, the school assumes that you will be full pay if accepted, and that might tip an admissions decision in your favor. Does that mean that an unqualified applicant will be accepted? Unlikely.</p>
<p>Sure, why not? I say work it if you’ve got it. It’s not going to resurrect the dead, but I see no need not to play a card that you have - whether it’s ability to be full-pay, legacy, athletic ability, specific talent, whatever.</p>
<p>Full pay is a hook. If you would only be eligible for few thousand $$ FA, I would rather borrow that money on the side than to apply for FA. I would be very hard press to disclose my full financial situation unless I know I would be getting a boat load of money.</p>
<p>"you’re applying to a need-aware, tuition-driven school.
Are you more likely to get accepted if you simply say “not applying for financial aid”? "
yes. plain and simple.</p>
<p>We knew we wouldn’t get any need-based aid and so did not apply for any. My son was such a good candidate that he got the maximum merit aid from schools that offered merit aid. I think it was a plus on his app that he didn’t need aid, but obviously he was wanted for other things he had to offer.</p>
<p>Pretty sure if you make over $150,000/yr regardless of expenses you won’t qualify for financial aid. Do that little calculator thing on the schools website and see if you come close to qualifying. </p>
<p>I agree with oldfort - I’m not interested in the development office getting a gander at my financial situation when I know in reality we won’t qualify for aid, and if we did by some miracle it wouldn’t be much. </p>
<p>Of course schools will have an eye on how many students they’re letting in who need FA and will be a consideration for the lower stats applicants.</p>
<p>For those schools who separate the apps into “applying for aid” and “not applying for aid”, and are need aware, yes, it would be an admissions advantage to not to check the “applying for aid” box. However, for some schools, the amount of aid the student needs comes into play. If your student is eligible for $5K, for example, that would have a negligible or no effect on his admissions chances whereas a larger need figure would. You have to ask admissions if they operate that way on their need aware process. </p>
<p>If you know that you truly will only be eligible for a tiny bit or no aid, you can still later apply and get federal Staffords, PLUS,etc monies and state funds too. IT’s the college money you are not going after.</p>
<p>Be aware that these need aware schools often have policies in place so that if you later decide to change your mind and apply for aid, your student may have a “sit out” period or you have to show a change in financial circumstance before you can be considered for aid. THey are wise to those who try to get favorable admissions that first year, by not putting in for aid, and then trying to take advantage of their full need met or other generous aid policy in subsequent years.</p>
<p>If you do not apply for FA (disclosing your full financial situation), the school wouldn’t know whether you could afford to pay 50k or 1 mill. But by filling out FA application, they would possibly know that you could barely afford it. So how would you like your kid’s top choice school to percieve you? You could barely afford it or you could potentially be a major donor?</p>
<p>Knowing that our EFC would be sky-high my daughter checked not applying for aid on all her applications (I think it was on the common app as a question). Don’t know if it helped get her accepted at the one school she applied to which is need aware and does not offer any merit aid (Tufts). When she got merit aid at Fordham which then required a FAFSA, we filled it out and only had it sent to Fordham (and sure enough our EFC was ridiculously high). The other schools were never aware that we had even gotten an EFC. She did receive nice merit aid from all of the schools she applied to which give merit aid, so I don’t think they limited the merit aid because we were not seeking financial aid.</p>
<p>If your kid has high enough stats, there are plenty of schools which would be more than happy to offer merit aid. They are paying for your kid’s stats, hoping it would bring up their school’s stats.</p>
<p>I agree with oldfort completely. If you can be full pay, why would you file an FA form at all? I never touched an FA form in the entire process. If they choose to believe “they can swing 50k and that’s it” or “they could swing a lot, lot more” - let 'em think it.</p>
<p>Actually it is on the first page of the common application, " do you intend to apply for financial aid?"
Maybe I’m cynical but I think that even those schools that don’t claim to be “need blind” peek at a family’s ability to pay. My older son got into schools that better students didn’t. Was it because we didn’t apply for aid? Who knows but it does play a role…</p>
<p>Most schools are need blind in admissions. The admissions offices have their hands full just picking the students to accept with the academic profiles and what the school needs without trying to guess financial status. It’s really just for a small number of school that checking that little box makes a difference…</p>