<p>The short answer to your first question is yes. Everything else being equal you are much more likely to get accepted at almost any school if you do not need FA. If a school has a “need blind” or similar policy it will be a more fuzzy situation, but in general it is true.</p>
<p>The answer to your second question is a lot more complicated, and it is worth searching for and reading in their entirety previous threads on the subject. Certainly they do need a minimum level of full pay families, but beyond that they can be a creative with their FA as any other school. I started our search with the assumption that applying to the better endowed schools was the way to go if you needed a good aid package. I used this forum extensively (though I did not post at all) and doing so really helped my family narrow down the list of schools and get a better understanding of how to think about FA. I cannot get into all of my thoughts here, but here a couple of points I found helpful. All the below is recycled form the good advice I got on this site:</p>
<p>Your chances of getting FA will depend on how much a school wants you. Sure, St. Paul’s, St. Andrews, and a handful of others have a guaranteed FA policy for certain income levels, but this does not mean that all such school remain blind to your need prior to admission. If they cannot fund you fully, some will simply not accept you. This is the difference between “need blind” and “guaranteed full FA if admitted.” So in this sense, your chances of being admitted and given aid may in fact be higher at a “hidden gem” that really wants you. You are much more likely to stand out as unique and desirable at school where there is less competition, fewer people similar to you, etc. </p>
<p>Bigger endowments do not mean better FA. Some schools with significantly smaller endowments offer the same or almost the same overall as some hugely endowed schools FA (both in terms of total dollars or in other cases in terms of per student FA). As many have discussed here, there are a few good reasons that applying to a wide range of schools, and deliberately seeking out a few well matched, less competitive, less well endowed schools, will greatly increase your chances of both acceptance and FA.</p>
<p>Do not base your list on schools that have those full aid income levels or need blind admission policies of one sort or another. Certainly never cross a school off your list because you think they do not have the wherewithal to give you enough FA.</p>
<p>A corollary to all the above: getting aid is first dependent on getting accepted. In the end, you have a much better chance of getting sufficient aid at a less well endowed school school that admits you than you do at a school where aid is certain but rejection is almost as probable.</p>
<p>The most important point is that if you are not locked into a rich, big name school (which we hope you are not), start from scratch and create a diverse, viable list of where your child will be comfortable and which have a varying chance of both admission and good FA packages. Sure, Hotchkiss and Deerfield might be your dream schools, but you might equally enjoy and thrive at Pomfret (or - depending on what it you like about the dream school - Westminster, Berkshire, Millbrook, Blair or any other more poorly endowed, “less selective” school). Pomfret et. al. might also be a whole lot more excited about you – either because you stand out more in their applicant pool or because you have made clear to them how much you want to go there and why - and go out of their way to try to get you there. My son applied to a lot of schools, and we knew he would likely get rejected from a good percentage. He did get rejections, and he also got acceptance with no FA. And waitlists. I am also guessing one or two rejections/waitlists had as much to do with FA as anything else. We had built a pretty good list, though, and as it turns out he was accepted at his first choice school with enough aid to make it doable. I cannot imagine him being happier, or even as happy, anywhere else.</p>