Purposefully & strategically leaving blanks in the Common App

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:if you don't apply for financial aid when applying, most t50 will NEVER allow you to apply for financial aid. Not when you lose your job or when a sibling goes off to college. Don't be foolish.

Need blind colleges are need blind. Need aware are need aware.

if you're mom or dad has been in CS for an entire career, believe me .. all schools are totally okay with that. even if you do want to go into CS. It may show "lack of creativity" but it also shows a depth of understanding. Colleges can also wonder if you come from a artsy family or finance family and want to go into engineering, do you really know what an engineer day to day life looks like? And where pay tops out?

Don't over think this stuff.

Is this really true? I went to a T20 full need (and I think need blind, they are now, I don't remember) university without financial aid. By the beginning of my junior year, my Dad had cancer, my younger sibling was in college, and my sibling had been in a psychiatric hospital for over a year. My university stepped up and I got significant aid.

[Anonymous]

I hadn't heard not to put SSN in order to signal full pay. We are full pay and my kids did not include SSN simply to avoid giving SSN where it is not needed.

Two JD family and we put employment. It is already obvious that we are full pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:if you don't apply for financial aid when applying, most t50 will NEVER allow you to apply for financial aid. Not when you lose your job or when a sibling goes off to college. Don't be foolish.

Need blind colleges are need blind. Need aware are need aware.

if you're mom or dad has been in CS for an entire career, believe me .. all schools are totally okay with that. even if you do want to go into CS. It may show "lack of creativity" but it also shows a depth of understanding. Colleges can also wonder if you come from a artsy family or finance family and want to go into engineering, do you really know what an engineer day to day life looks like? And where pay tops out?

Don't over think this stuff.

If you really don't need aid, there's absolutely no reason to complete the SSN. That's a personal family decision, dictated by finances. No one can answer that one for you.

I think your reasoning on occupation works for state flagships. Its naive for top tier schools. This is not how AO at selective privates think when they are looking for a "compelling" (not just a competitive) candidate. Your kid is not compelling if he's following in your footsteps and will be a hard story to sell at the AO table. At the end of the day, its about creating an interesting unique overarching compelling story.
Yes, the kid has a depth of understanding. Yes, kid is a smart kid who knows what day to day engineering life looks like and where pay tops out. But that is not what gets you in to a selective college. At all.

Again - this is only relevant at private T20/T30 for the most part. Everyone should get educated about how this REALLY works. And then make your own personal educated decisions. There's a ton of information out there if you are willing to read up and learn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have heard on various podcasts not to put SS# or parent occupation. But parent’s education IS required, so not hard to figure out you have two lawyers for parents when you both have a JD. Some of this advice is just silly.

+1

parent occupation is also required.

any college counselor who tells an aspiring family doctor to put down NIH researcher instead .. is just telling your kid to lie with a lot of specificity. Which is weird to me.

That's not lying if kid has an interest in medicine and public health.
Pre-med is not a major. Should never be put that down if Asian. Ever. It is disadvantageous in the review process.

Again, its about the overarching creative narrative of the applicant.
If you don't have a narrative that you are weaving through the application and are applying to T20, its hard to create a multi-dimensional compelling case for the kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have heard on various podcasts not to put SS# or parent occupation. But parent’s education IS required, so not hard to figure out you have two lawyers for parents when you both have a JD. Some of this advice is just silly.

I agree, I heard the same podcast, and thought it was silly also.

Take a look at who’s attending selective colleges. It’s the children of affluent professionals. Lots of attorneys, doctors, and executives in finance, real estate, insurance, Pharma, biomedicine, technology. It’s a plus.

It’s fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if you don't apply for financial aid when applying, most t50 will NEVER allow you to apply for financial aid. Not when you lose your job or when a sibling goes off to college. Don't be foolish.

Need blind colleges are need blind. Need aware are need aware.

if you're mom or dad has been in CS for an entire career, believe me .. all schools are totally okay with that. even if you do want to go into CS. It may show "lack of creativity" but it also shows a depth of understanding. Colleges can also wonder if you come from a artsy family or finance family and want to go into engineering, do you really know what an engineer day to day life looks like? And where pay tops out?

Don't over think this stuff.

Is this really true? I went to a T20 full need (and I think need blind, they are now, I don't remember) university without financial aid. By the beginning of my junior year, my Dad had cancer, my younger sibling was in college, and my sibling had been in a psychiatric hospital for over a year. My university stepped up and I got significant aid.

NP it's true and it's usually stated on websites. people for many years were not applying for FA for real admissions boost, paid full fare for one year and then applied and received FA for three years.

those days are over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have heard on various podcasts not to put SS# or parent occupation. But parent’s education IS required, so not hard to figure out you have two lawyers for parents when you both have a JD. Some of this advice is just silly.

+1

parent occupation is also required.

any college counselor who tells an aspiring family doctor to put down NIH researcher instead .. is just telling your kid to lie with a lot of specificity. Which is weird to me.

That's not lying if kid has an interest in medicine and public health.
Pre-med is not a major. Should never be put that down if Asian. Ever. It is disadvantageous in the review process.

Again, its about the overarching creative narrative of the applicant.

emphasis on creative.

I think we all get the packaging. It's just if a kid wants to be an MD, that's very different than wanting to be a NIH researcher. That's beyond packaging.
If you don't have a narrative that you are weaving through the application and are applying to T20, it's hard to create a multi-dimensional compelling case for the kid.

[Anonymous]

I heard this podcast because you guys told me to listen. This guy is selling a lot of bullshit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if you don't apply for financial aid when applying, most t50 will NEVER allow you to apply for financial aid. Not when you lose your job or when a sibling goes off to college. Don't be foolish.

Need blind colleges are need blind. Need aware are need aware.

if you're mom or dad has been in CS for an entire career, believe me .. all schools are totally okay with that. even if you do want to go into CS. It may show "lack of creativity" but it also shows a depth of understanding. Colleges can also wonder if you come from a artsy family or finance family and want to go into engineering, do you really know what an engineer day to day life looks like? And where pay tops out?

Don't over think this stuff.

If you really don't need aid, there's absolutely no reason to complete the SSN. That's a personal family decision, dictated by finances. No one can answer that one for you.

I think your reasoning on occupation works for state flagships. Its naive for top tier schools. This is not how AO at selective privates think when they are looking for a "compelling" (not just a competitive) candidate. Your kid is not compelling if he's following in your footsteps and will be a hard story to sell at the AO table. At the end of the day, its about creating an interesting unique overarching compelling story.
Yes, the kid has a depth of understanding. Yes, kid is a smart kid who knows what day to day engineering life looks like and where pay tops out. But that is not what gets you in to a selective college. At all.

Again - this is only relevant at private T20/T30 for the most part. Everyone should get educated about how this REALLY works. And then make your own personal educated decisions. There's a ton of information out there if you are willing to read up and learn.

This is an incredibly uncompelling argument. By the way, we’ve worked with four different college counselors, two at the different single sex privates our kids attend, and a different private counselor for each one, and none made this suggestion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this SSN thing is a myth according to Yale FA department. they say it's used if two kids have same or easily mixed up names, which happens more than you'd think. and only in double checking stage.

Its a myth at Ivies and T10.
But its real at other T25 privates (you can guess which ones).
And its irrelevant at publics.

For T50, its best to omit SSN and not complete FAFASA for these schools if you are full pay - it doesn't matter anywhere else in the T50:

UChicago
Rice
Vandy
ND
Georgetown
Emory
WashU

USC
NYU
BC
Tufts
BU
Lehigh
Wake

interestingly some of the schools with the most affluent student populations (and some of the most expensive colleges)

[Anonymous]

The truth in our family is that both parents are retired. Seems to signal rich, no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if you don't apply for financial aid when applying, most t50 will NEVER allow you to apply for financial aid. Not when you lose your job or when a sibling goes off to college. Don't be foolish.

Need blind colleges are need blind. Need aware are need aware.

if you're mom or dad has been in CS for an entire career, believe me .. all schools are totally okay with that. even if you do want to go into CS. It may show "lack of creativity" but it also shows a depth of understanding. Colleges can also wonder if you come from a artsy family or finance family and want to go into engineering, do you really know what an engineer day to day life looks like? And where pay tops out?

Don't over think this stuff.

Is this really true? I went to a T20 full need (and I think need blind, they are now, I don't remember) university without financial aid. By the beginning of my junior year, my Dad had cancer, my younger sibling was in college, and my sibling had been in a psychiatric hospital for over a year. My university stepped up and I got significant aid.

NP it's true and it's usually stated on websites. people for many years were not applying for FA for real admissions boost, paid full fare for one year and then applied and received FA for three years.

those days are over.

I'm asking if it applies when there is a major change in circumstances? In my case, at the time I applied, we anticipated that I'd be full pay all 4 years. 2 major illnesses that came up within 6 months of each other changed that. My parents still paid in full my sophomore year, but when another college tuition was added they needed help. That's not gaming the system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this SSN thing is a myth according to Yale FA department. they say it's used if two kids have same or easily mixed up names, which happens more than you'd think. and only in double checking stage.

Its a myth at Ivies and T10.
But its real at other T25 privates (you can guess which ones).
And its irrelevant at publics.

For T50, its best to omit SSN and not complete FAFASA for these schools if you are full pay - it doesn't matter anywhere else in the T50:

UChicago
Rice
Vandy
ND
Georgetown
Emory
WashU

USC
NYU
BC
Tufts
BU
Lehigh
Wake

Citation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if you don't apply for financial aid when applying, most t50 will NEVER allow you to apply for financial aid. Not when you lose your job or when a sibling goes off to college. Don't be foolish.

Need blind colleges are need blind. Need aware are need aware.

if you're mom or dad has been in CS for an entire career, believe me .. all schools are totally okay with that. even if you do want to go into CS. It may show "lack of creativity" but it also shows a depth of understanding. Colleges can also wonder if you come from a artsy family or finance family and want to go into engineering, do you really know what an engineer day to day life looks like? And where pay tops out?

Don't over think this stuff.

Is this really true? I went to a T20 full need (and I think need blind, they are now, I don't remember) university without financial aid. By the beginning of my junior year, my Dad had cancer, my younger sibling was in college, and my sibling had been in a psychiatric hospital for over a year. My university stepped up and I got significant aid.

NP it's true and it's usually stated on websites. people for many years were not applying for FA for real admissions boost, paid full fare for one year and then applied and received FA for three years.

those days are over.

I'm asking if it applies when there is a major change in circumstances? In my case, at the time I applied, we anticipated that I'd be full pay all 4 years. 2 major illnesses that came up within 6 months of each other changed that. My parents still paid in full my sophomore year, but when another college tuition was added they needed help. That's not gaming the system.

The second added tuition was the most predictable circumstance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this SSN thing is a myth according to Yale FA department. they say it's used if two kids have same or easily mixed up names, which happens more than you'd think. and only in double checking stage.

Its a myth at Ivies and T10.
But its real at other T25 privates (you can guess which ones).
And its irrelevant at publics.

For T50, its best to omit SSN and not complete FAFASA for these schools if you are full pay - it doesn't matter anywhere else in the T50:

UChicago
Rice
Vandy
ND
Georgetown
Emory
WashU

USC
NYU
BC
Tufts
BU
Lehigh
Wake

interestingly some of the schools with the most affluent student populations (and some of the most expensive colleges)

Especially true not to complete the FAFSA for these schools .. since they take the CSS profile