I’ve heard it explained a few different ways but here is the best way I know to break it down. Before the admissions cycle even begins, the admissions office is told how much revenue they need to generate and how much aid they can hand out. It is expressed as a total and in other ways such as per student. For example “we need 40% of students full pay to be able to achieve an average of 50% discount for everyone else.”

The path may vary by school to reach those thresholds but the numbers act as a governor. The enrollment management systems they use include a financial component so a running total can be tracked actually. So some schools might use ED to fill up the full pay slots since many ED families waive aid. Or it might be by geography and family details, as the schools definitely have not only the fafsa materials but also have a detailed history of families by high school, household zip and other information easily obtained and used to build a model. For example, school X knows that if a family in Bethesda is offered $10,000 discount they accept 84% of the time.

Strong recommend here to learn more, detailed explanation for one school including the human side.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/09/10/magazine/college-admissions-paul-tough.html

At a speech we heard it helps for kids on the fringe at need aware schools. Full pay kids are never in a position to have to turn down a school they love for one that gives them more money. That is an advantage in matriculation, but not in admissions. So in need aware schools, this becomes a guess that helps yield -- we don't think the kid with need will matriculate because someone else will certainly offer a better deal. But now ED helps with yield, so that advantage is dwindling.

The other advantage is in having more flexibility in deciding where to apply, so the full pay kid may have more options in the end.

Some schools really like full freight suckers.

I have wondered the same OP. Many schools claim to be need blind but I wonder if they really are.

Does need-aware mean full pay helps?

Anonymous wrote:Wow. Obnoxious and illiterate.

OP again: sorry if I didn't phrase my question properly (amateur). If the very fact of filing the FAFSA or having a low EFC can increase chances of rejection at certain schools, I am just trying to find out which kinds of schools those might be. I just don't have a sense of which or how many schools are need-blind vs. need-aware anymore. When I was doing my own college applications pretty much everything was need-blind.

Anonymous wrote:Wow. Obnoxious and illiterate.

What is?

If paying full price for college means an advantage during the admissions process, I think we can discuss this objectively on DCUM, no?

Wow. Obnoxious and illiterate.

Aren’t most top schools need blind now ? It doesn’t seem like full pay helps at top schools

Anonymous wrote:DD got accepted at every need aware school and rejected at every need blind school. That could have been a coincidence, but she would have applied to better need aware schools (on the same level as the need blind schools) had we known what we know now.

Can you say this in English? Are you full pay and did it help?

Anonymous wrote:Full pay is an incredible huge advantage that must people who are full pay don’t like to admit.

Yeah I never even thought twice about it. We are full pay. I know/hope it is an advantage for my dcs. But the few time I have mentioned it here and other place I get 'flamed'. I don't get it. It is what it is.

Anonymous wrote:DD got accepted at every need aware school and rejected at every need blind school. That could have been a coincidence, but she would have applied to better need aware schools (on the same level as the need blind schools) had we known what we know now.

I take that back because I thought that Oberlin was need blind and was rejected (they’re need aware but meet all needs). She was accepted from every school that was need aware and didn’t meet 100% financial need. Basically private schools that don’t have super large endowments.

Full pay is an incredible huge advantage that must people who are full pay don’t like to admit.

DD got accepted at every need aware school and rejected at every need blind school. That could have been a coincidence, but she would have applied to better need aware schools (on the same level as the need blind schools) had we known what we know now.

When admissions aren't need-blind, how much of an advantage can full pay be? Does it differ at more competitive vs. less competitive schools? Is there an advantage to being able to pay more ( = having a higher notional EFC) even if not quite all?

Thanks in advance for any insights. As you can see here we are new to this.