Does full pay make a difference?

[Anonymous]

Title says st all. Curious. Don’t collages all say they are needs blind admissions?

[Anonymous]

No. Not all schools are need blind. And even those that supposedly are have been accused of giving preference to affluent kids.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/01/10/university-financial-aid-lawsuit/

[Anonymous]

And a follow up (warning = even more cynical) do parent donations to high school play any role? (Ie would colleges weigh this bc it implies parents would give to colleges too??). I’m being to figure out how rigged the system is…

(Of course grades/test score/accomplished matter and there’s a bar that needs to be reached but once that bar is reached, then there must be other factors at play? I’m remember the post about a student with a 4.6 gpa - ??? This is numerically impossible in my DC’s school -‘ who was applying to good but not top 10 schools and concerned about getting in).

[Anonymous]

How and where do you tell colleges that your parents donate to HS?

[Anonymous]

OP, search the archives. There are tons of discussions on this. Some schools are need-blind, some are need-aware. Some meet full need for all accepted applicants. Most of the things I've read suggest alumni giving isn't a factor unless you're in the range to name a building. And I've never heard it suggested that giving to a HS would have any impact on college admissions.

And btw on your question about someone's else's kid's 4.6 GPA, every school system handles GPAs differently and the college admissions process recognizes that. In MCPS a 4.6 is not an unusual weighted GPA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How and where do you tell colleges that your parents donate to HS?

There is no place on the app for this and it would not fit in nicely as an answer to any of the essay questions I have seen. Perhaps your counselor recommendation might say something, but you will never really know that.

[Anonymous]

Sure it does. Schools need to get money not give money to survive. If you get rejected even with full pay, you were pretty far down the pole.

[Anonymous]

Didn’t for my kid. We’re full pay and she got waitlisted at several schools where she was well above the median sat/gpa.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How and where do you tell colleges that your parents donate to HS?

There is no place on the app for this and it would not fit in nicely as an answer to any of the essay questions I have seen. Perhaps your counselor recommendation might say something, but you will never really know that.

If your parents give enough they will have a relationship with he development office and the development office will let admissions know. At elite schools, this is a very select group, and this question is best answered by the snarky comment “If you gotta ask…”. But I do not mean to be snarky so please forgive it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How and where do you tell colleges that your parents donate to HS?

There is no place on the app for this and it would not fit in nicely as an answer to any of the essay questions I have seen. Perhaps your counselor recommendation might say something, but you will never really know that.

Do you actually know ANY counselor has done this, or this is just your guess?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How and where do you tell colleges that your parents donate to HS?

There is no place on the app for this and it would not fit in nicely as an answer to any of the essay questions I have seen. Perhaps your counselor recommendation might say something, but you will never really know that.

If your parents give enough they will have a relationship with he development office and the development office will let admissions know. At elite schools, this is a very select group, and this question is best answered by the snarky comment “If you gotta ask…”. But I do not mean to be snarky so please forgive it.

Do you actually know ANY development office has done this, or this is just your guess?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Title says st all. Curious. Don’t collages all say they are needs blind admissions?

I think it really must, anywhere outside of the top 20 richest schools. I don’t think the admissions need to see any specific thing to tell if students are likely to be full-pay. I think the real point of holistic admissions and the focus on activities is that the typical kid with spectacular or unusual activities will be full pay.

Also, even if a school is need blind in terms of admissions, the financial aid structure will usually favor full-pay students. Full-pay students can go to a school without getting merit aid so is more like to be able to afford to attend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Title says st all. Curious. Don’t collages all say they are needs blind admissions?

I think it really must, anywhere outside of the top 20 richest schools. I don’t think the admissions need to see any specific thing to tell if students are likely to be full-pay. I think the real point of holistic admissions and the focus on activities is that the typical kid with spectacular or unusual activities will be full pay.

Also, even if a school is need blind in terms of admissions, the financial aid structure will usually favor full-pay students. Full-pay students can go to a school without getting merit aid so is more like to be able to afford to attend.

Colleges are business so it won't happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How and where do you tell colleges that your parents donate to HS?

There is no place on the app for this and it would not fit in nicely as an answer to any of the essay questions I have seen. Perhaps your counselor recommendation might say something, but you will never really know that.

If your parents give enough they will have a relationship with he development office and the development office will let admissions know. At elite schools, this is a very select group, and this question is best answered by the snarky comment “If you gotta ask…”. But I do not mean to be snarky so please forgive it.

Do you actually know ANY development office has done this, or this is just your guess?

Preparing her excuses ahead of time when her kid doesn’t get in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How and where do you tell colleges that your parents donate to HS?

There is no place on the app for this and it would not fit in nicely as an answer to any of the essay questions I have seen. Perhaps your counselor recommendation might say something, but you will never really know that.

If your parents give enough they will have a relationship with he development office and the development office will let admissions know. At elite schools, this is a very select group, and this question is best answered by the snarky comment “If you gotta ask…”. But I do not mean to be snarky so please forgive it.

Do you actually know ANY development office has done this, or this is just your guess?

Yes.

You can try reading a book about admissions if you are interested. There are plenty. The Price Of Admission by Daniel Golden is a good one to start with as it focuses exclusively on this stuff.

Or you can continue to be naïve and gently insult and accuse others of posting stuff they pull from their bottoms. I understand that is commonly done here so I guess I can't blame you too much.