Financial Aid consideration - check yes or no?

[Anonymous]

If we are certain that we will not qualify for need-based financial aid, is there any harm in checking the "we are not applying for financial aid" box?
Does it have any bearing on merit scholarships (thinking no).
Does it have any bearing on admissions chances (thinking maybe, in ED especially)
Appreciate your thoughts, thank you

[Anonymous]

I haven’t been able to get a firm answer to this. If you might need FA in later years, you should apply now because some schools don’t allow later year applications. A few schools require the forms for merit aid. Admissions I can’t get an answer to - box checked or not. Or say it showed you qualified for $2000 in loans - is that much different from full pay. Reading Jeff Selingo’s book, it wouldn’t seem to matter to Lafayette’s process as described. It only separated out applications with high need. If you’re on the wait list, maybe they want a full pay - does it matter if you checked box? I don’t know. Do any schools distinguish between full pay applicants with box checked vs not? Does it affect Likelihood to Enroll if you apply for aid but don’t get any?

[Anonymous]

I've been wondering this too. I know we won't quality so I was planning to check 'no'. I know they ask for a ton of personal info and I'd rather not give all that out if I'm just gonna be told I don't qualify.

[Anonymous]

Don't overlook the PP's comment about if you may need aid later. Some folks have tried to game admissions to competitive schools by dumping all the money they have saved into covering the first year, then applying for aid starting sophomore year. Schools don't like that and some no longer provide aid when families do so.

Better to apply to a LAC with a rep of giving out robust merit aid, than end up out or deep in loans for the remaining three years.

[Anonymous]

If you are applying to a 'need aware' school, not checking the financial aid box can be an advantage in admission. For a 'need blind' school it won't matter (they have to separate out that info from what the reviewers see). Technically it shouldn't matter for merit aid consideration, but confirm with your particular school whether you need to check the FA box to be considered for merit awards. Run the NPC for the school to make the decision whether or not you will receive aid--they are usually pretty accurate, and can vary widely by school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are applying to a 'need aware' school, not checking the financial aid box can be an advantage in admission. For a 'need blind' school it won't matter (they have to separate out that info from what the reviewers see). Technically it shouldn't matter for merit aid consideration, but confirm with your particular school whether you need to check the FA box to be considered for merit awards. Run the NPC for the school to make the decision whether or not you will receive aid--they are usually pretty accurate, and can vary widely by school.

Are you distinguishing between full pay students who do and do not check the box? Have you heard this from an AO?

[Anonymous]

If I knew we were comfortable paying the full amount without any federal student loans for all children that might be in college at the same time, the NPC said we wouldn’t likely qualify for aid, and the school either doesn’t give merit or the merit doesn’t require us to file a FAFSA - there would be no point in applying for financial aid.

Although the NPC for various colleges said we wouldn’t qualify with one in college we applied for aid anyway because we knew we couldn’t comfortably afford two in college full pay with no student loans. Some schools as pp mentioned required you to apply freshman year if you would seek aid at all during time there and we knew we would apply (and likely qualify for some aid) when we would later have two in college. Most merit scholarships at the places my child applied didn’t require a FAFSA unless financial need was a component of the merit scholarship.

[Anonymous]

This is mostly likely a school-specific thing. It may be really important at some and meaningless at others. Best to call each school and ask. No one here can answer this with certainly for every school.

[Anonymous]

If you want the benefit/boost (negligible in some schools and yet still very real in others) of being considered Full Pay, you Do Not check the Financial Aid box.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want the benefit/boost (negligible in some schools and yet still very real in others) of being considered Full Pay, you Do Not check the Financial Aid box.

Why is it different from someone who applies for FA but ends up with a full pay EFC?

[Anonymous]

We did not request aid at reaches where we were unlikely to get anything and were willing to pay. Requested aid at safety schools and places we were hoping to get merit. You can have different approaches to different schools.

[Anonymous]

If your kid wants work study or federal student loans, they have to check yes and fill out a FAFSA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want the benefit/boost (negligible in some schools and yet still very real in others) of being considered Full Pay, you Do Not check the Financial Aid box.

Why is it different from someone who applies for FA but ends up with a full pay EFC?

The Admission Committee and Financial Aid Committees are separate processes.
Ad Com only sees your kid's Common App submission, not the EFC calculation, meaning they only see whether you checked Need Financial Aid? box. If you check it, you're in one pile (need financial aid). When you don't check it, you're in another pile (full pay)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are applying to a 'need aware' school, not checking the financial aid box can be an advantage in admission. For a 'need blind' school it won't matter (they have to separate out that info from what the reviewers see). Technically it shouldn't matter for merit aid consideration, but confirm with your particular school whether you need to check the FA box to be considered for merit awards. Run the NPC for the school to make the decision whether or not you will receive aid--they are usually pretty accurate, and can vary widely by school.

Are you distinguishing between full pay students who do and do not check the box? Have you heard this from an AO?

Yes, at one need aware school. So policies may differ of course. They said though they are need aware, admissions and financial aid offices are separate so they use the "box" as an initial indicator. I don't remember the exact words, but I interpreted them to mean that you go into the pile of apps that don't need financial aid for review and that is advantageous. I think full pay students who DID check it but were determined to not have need might have an advantage over another considered student who did have need--but they would have to make it to being in the considered pile without that advantage to have FA calculated.

I was asking for this very question of whether there was any downside of not checking it for merit consideration (there wasn't). They recommended not checking it if DD was sure she wasn't going to apply for FA, but not to check it if we were going to apply but didn't think we'd get any. I tried to get her to tell me how much of an advantage it was to be full pay, but no dice--she said ability to pay was considered, but less so than all other factors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are applying to a 'need aware' school, not checking the financial aid box can be an advantage in admission. For a 'need blind' school it won't matter (they have to separate out that info from what the reviewers see). Technically it shouldn't matter for merit aid consideration, but confirm with your particular school whether you need to check the FA box to be considered for merit awards. Run the NPC for the school to make the decision whether or not you will receive aid--they are usually pretty accurate, and can vary widely by school.

Are you distinguishing between full pay students who do and do not check the box? Have you heard this from an AO?

Yes, at one need aware school. So policies may differ of course. They said though they are need aware, admissions and financial aid offices are separate so they use the "box" as an initial indicator. I don't remember the exact words, but I interpreted them to mean that you go into the pile of apps that don't need financial aid for review and that is advantageous. I think full pay students who DID check it but were determined to not have need might have an advantage over another considered student who did have need--but they would have to make it to being in the considered pile without that advantage to have FA calculated.

I was asking for this very question of whether there was any downside of not checking it for merit consideration (there wasn't). They recommended not checking it if DD was sure she wasn't going to apply for FA, but not to check it if we were going to apply but didn't think we'd get any. I tried to get her to tell me how much of an advantage it was to be full pay, but no dice--she said ability to pay was considered, but less so than all other factors.

Thanks! What is the rough usnwr ranking of this slac (or something comparable)?E.g., More Colby level or Conn Coll or Dickinson?