Is full pay really considered a hook?

[Anonymous]

I don’t know how much it plays into initial admission decisions, but I think it is a major factor in getting wait listed students into the school. In different years, two of my daughters were wait listed at different schools they each really wanted to attend. I wrote a letter thanking the school for their consideration and saying that I understood they might not know if they would be admitted until close to the time school started. I frankly just told them that we would not need to apply for student aid or ask for scholarships or grants, would pay full freight - so if they had a space open up, we were ready to go. I got letters back for both of them (different years, different schools) confirming they were accepted/admitted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know how much it plays into initial admission decisions, but I think it is a major factor in getting wait listed students into the school. In different years, two of my daughters were wait listed at different schools they each really wanted to attend. I wrote a letter thanking the school for their consideration and saying that I understood they might not know if they would be admitted until close to the time school started. I frankly just told them that we would not need to apply for student aid or ask for scholarships or grants, would pay full freight - so if they had a space open up, we were ready to go. I got letters back for both of them (different years, different schools) confirming they were accepted/admitted.

what 'tier' schools were these?

Northwestern/duke level?

Haverford level?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Somehow for all their ‘need blindness’ they regularly accept kids with very average records of achievement who come from money.
There’s definitely some kind of ‘looking’ going on.

I worked at Harvard. All of the seemingly "average" kids I came across were several generation legacies. So it's not just coming from money, but certain families, who also have money.

[Anonymous]

My daughter is still a sophomore in high school. For those of you who can full pay, do you still fill out the FAFSA form? I've heard that you are supposed to even if not expecting any aid because it might meet some merit awards. But what if your child truly is average and you don't expect any merit awards and won't qualify for aid, would are you still supposed to fill out FAFSA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is still a sophomore in high school. For those of you who can full pay, do you still fill out the FAFSA form? I've heard that you are supposed to even if not expecting any aid because it might meet some merit awards. But what if your child truly is average and you don't expect any merit awards and won't qualify for aid, would are you still supposed to fill out FAFSA?

We will be full pay so won’t fill out the FAFSA. The details of our personal finances will be irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Somehow for all their ‘need blindness’ they regularly accept kids with very average records of achievement who come from money.
There’s definitely some kind of ‘looking’ going on.

I worked at Harvard. All of the seemingly "average" kids I came across were several generation legacies. So it's not just coming from money, but certain families, who also have money.

Yup. Which is fine - private school, they can do what they want. It would be smart for people to realize that their regular very smart kid has a snowballs chance in hell of getting in. We saw that at our kids school this year specifically. It’s best to apply to a school that DC has a chance of being admitted to instead - especially if you get only one early admit card.