Our family is/was unhooked when we applied last year, requesting financial aid from the three schools we were interested in attending. My DS was accepted at two schools, and “waitlisted” at one. We received FA from the two schools he was accepted to. We were applying for pre-K, so theoretically will be asking for FA for 10 years (preK-8th).

This forum seems to have many people searching for an angle, a secret passage into the financial aid fund.

They don’t give the school credit. These people deal with this stuff every year. They are the professionals and the applicants are the amateurs in this realm.

Anonymous wrote:This is not the same at every school. Some will make admissions decisions separately and then have a waitlist for aid if they can't award it to everyone they admit. Just ask admissions whether they are need-blind in their decision making (or check the website).

Need blind admissions policy is a nice idea, but completely impractical.

There’s a certain amount of tuition revenue (net of financial aid) the school needs to operate.

So the Admissions people have to have one eye on the total amount of financial aid they are potentially doling out as they go through their process of deciding who to offer admittance.

Anonymous wrote:This is not the same at every school. Some will make admissions decisions separately and then have a waitlist for aid if they can't award it to everyone they admit. Just ask admissions whether they are need-blind in their decision making (or check the website).

I worked in admission at a DMV private that claimed to be need-blind. They really aren't, as much as they might like to be.

What school is this?

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So a strategy is to apply no aid year one ( and gain admissions) and then apply for FA in proceeding years.

Some schools will not let you apply for aid right after you are admitted without aid. I know of at least one school that says you have to be there for two years before applying of you start as full pay.

This is not the same at every school. Some will make admissions decisions separately and then have a waitlist for aid if they can't award it to everyone they admit. Just ask admissions whether they are need-blind in their decision making (or check the website).

Anonymous wrote:Does applying for financial aid ( just to see if we qualify) typically factor negatively in admission decisions?

I just answered "yes" above.

A few years back - the only student from our K-8 who was very strong and didn't get into a top X school was someone who needed aid. They ended up at a next tier school that wasn't a perfect match, but they made the best of it, did great, and stood out enough to get into a T20 college.

yes

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So a strategy is to apply no aid year one ( and gain admissions) and then apply for FA in proceeding years.

No. Unless there is a dramatic change in circumstances, they are not going to give you aid if you have already demonstrated that you can pay full price without aid.

no, you can say that you're finding you can't afford it after all. We did this and were granted aid. We did not apply for the first year but applied for the second.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. So a strategy is to apply no aid year one ( and gain admissions) and then apply for FA in proceeding years.

No. Unless there is a dramatic change in circumstances, they are not going to give you aid if you have already demonstrated that you can pay full price without aid.

Most schools have rules on that.

OP here. So a strategy is to apply no aid year one ( and gain admissions) and then apply for FA in proceeding years.

Yes

Does applying for financial aid ( just to see if we qualify) typically factor negatively in admission decisions?