Full pay made a difference in admissions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One T20 called us to ask if we truly didn’t need FA, we said we didn’t, week later kid got acceptance from deferral.

That’s not how deferrals work. You’re put back into the regular decision pool when acceptances are all announced at once at a much later date in the spring. But go on with your tale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have written this several times on here but a family member of mine is the Director of Financial Aid at a top10 school and says that "need blind" at their school is indeed 100% need blind. Their office is handed a list of accepted students and they match aid packages to the students.

Development cases (giving above the cost of attendance) is a different situation as is the admissions committee preferentially admitting from private schools or expensive zip codes.

How do you reconcile this with what Lee Coffin says about Dartmouth's AO review process, labelling an application as "NN" = no need? It's just so AO are aware?
https://admissions.dartmouth.edu/admissions-beat-s8e9-transcript

Or with this? Which apparently shows the B = budget positive (wish there was some evidence for this)?
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1315307.page

I do think not needing need, plus 2 other institutional priorities (legacy + undersubscribed major), can be a bump.

[Anonymous]

Opposite experience: DS is Pell-eligible and was accepted everywhere he applied except need-aware schools.

[Anonymous]

Seems like full pay can’t hurt you. We know a kid this cycle - in ED at Ivy - full pay + ED + undersubscribed major + private counselor + attended private HS that is known feeder to Ivy
All strategic factors helped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seems like full pay can’t hurt you. We know a kid this cycle - in ED at Ivy - full pay + ED + undersubscribed major + private counselor + attended private HS that is known feeder to Ivy
All strategic factors helped.

What major?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have written this several times on here but a family member of mine is the Director of Financial Aid at a top10 school and says that "need blind" at their school is indeed 100% need blind. Their office is handed a list of accepted students and they match aid packages to the students.

Development cases (giving above the cost of attendance) is a different situation as is the admissions committee preferentially admitting from private schools or expensive zip codes.

How do you reconcile this with what Lee Coffin says about Dartmouth's AO review process, labelling an application as "NN" = no need? It's just so AO are aware?
https://admissions.dartmouth.edu/admissions-beat-s8e9-transcript

Or with this? Which apparently shows the B = budget positive (wish there was some evidence for this)?
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1315307.page

I do think not needing need, plus 2 other institutional priorities (legacy + undersubscribed major), can be a bump.

Wow, so AOs are need aware even at need blind schools? Dartmouth is no need blind then?

[Anonymous]

At any and every school, full pay is gold. Hands down.

BUT, it matters a lot more as you go down the list to schools that don't have $500M+ endowments.

So, does it matter at a T20? In the long run, probably not materially. And it won't make up for any deficiency in the application.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have written this several times on here but a family member of mine is the Director of Financial Aid at a top10 school and says that "need blind" at their school is indeed 100% need blind. Their office is handed a list of accepted students and they match aid packages to the students.

Development cases (giving above the cost of attendance) is a different situation as is the admissions committee preferentially admitting from private schools or expensive zip codes.

I don't doubt what you said. But there are many ways to do it before this step. A kid who spent most time taking care of 5 sibling and working 2 part time jobs vs one practicing equestrianism, who will need financial aid? I don't think they need to specially mark out who need who don't need. But most school will balance the backgrounds of selected students. That's how they can guarantee enough full pay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have written this several times on here but a family member of mine is the Director of Financial Aid at a top10 school and says that "need blind" at their school is indeed 100% need blind. Their office is handed a list of accepted students and they match aid packages to the students.

Development cases (giving above the cost of attendance) is a different situation as is the admissions committee preferentially admitting from private schools or expensive zip codes.

I don't doubt what you said. But there are many ways to do it before this step. A kid who spent most time taking care of 5 sibling and working 2 part time jobs vs one practicing equestrianism, who will need financial aid? I don't think they need to specially mark out who need who don't need. But most school will balance the backgrounds of selected students. That's how they can guarantee enough full pay.

This. "Class shaping" might not be explicitly about financial need, and the schools that say they are need-blind are not being dishonest.
And also, it's a mechanism that tends to favor full pay applicants, along with a small but significant subset of low income students -- even at need blind institutions.

[Anonymous]

For the ‘what major’ question. Student was initially bio/premed - private independent college counselor said to switch to medical humanities or some version of that (history of medicine, society and medicine, etc) - still needed to make sure ECs aligned.

[Anonymous]

It definitely can for waitlist, even at need blind schools.

If schools are need to reach a certain $ they can use the full pay on the waitlist to fill out the class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have written this several times on here but a family member of mine is the Director of Financial Aid at a top10 school and says that "need blind" at their school is indeed 100% need blind. Their office is handed a list of accepted students and they match aid packages to the students.

Development cases (giving above the cost of attendance) is a different situation as is the admissions committee preferentially admitting from private schools or expensive zip codes.

I don't doubt what you said. But there are many ways to do it before this step. A kid who spent most time taking care of 5 sibling and working 2 part time jobs vs one practicing equestrianism, who will need financial aid? I don't think they need to specially mark out who need who don't need. But most school will balance the backgrounds of selected students. That's how they can guarantee enough full pay.

I’ll bet being full-pay matters a lot more for students from households with income over about $150,000 than under.

Everyone in the admissions office will respect the kid who gets great stats while taking care of five siblings and holding a part-time jobs. That will be at least a little bit of a hook at any T30 school.

But the admissions and aid people might not have much pity for ordinary good students, who had ordinary nice lives in moderately high-income homes, but who just have parents who weren’t great savers. The admissions people may figure those students will get good aid at JMU or UMBC and pick a full-pay student with similar stats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have written this several times on here but a family member of mine is the Director of Financial Aid at a top10 school and says that "need blind" at their school is indeed 100% need blind. Their office is handed a list of accepted students and they match aid packages to the students.

Development cases (giving above the cost of attendance) is a different situation as is the admissions committee preferentially admitting from private schools or expensive zip codes.

I don't doubt what you said. But there are many ways to do it before this step. A kid who spent most time taking care of 5 sibling and working 2 part time jobs vs one practicing equestrianism, who will need financial aid? I don't think they need to specially mark out who need who don't need. But most school will balance the backgrounds of selected students. That's how they can guarantee enough full pay.

I’ll bet being full-pay matters a lot more for students from households with income over about $150,000 than under.

Everyone in the admissions office will respect the kid who gets great stats while taking care of five siblings and holding a part-time jobs. That will be at least a little bit of a hook at any T30 school.

But the admissions and aid people might not have much pity for ordinary good students, who had ordinary nice lives in moderately high-income homes, but who just have parents who weren’t great savers. The admissions people may figure those students will get good aid at JMU or UMBC and pick a full-pay student with similar stats.

Yes that is true. It's why you should always apply ED if the NPC works for your family.
RD is not your friend if you need aid because of "class shaping".

[Anonymous]

Might help for waitlist but otherwise no from my experience

[Anonymous]

It helps around the edges, so among a pool of equally admittable students, the full-pay students will be more likely to get an acceptance.