<p>got an email from haverford saying they needed me to fill out an extra in-house Haverford form so they could process my financial aid application. not the normal FAFSA, Profile, or IDOC, but an extra form projecting my family’s 2011 income.</p>
<p>so…a positive sign maybe?</p>
<p>at least an indication that i am not in the immediate rejection pile?</p>
<p>do they figure out financial aid packages for all applicants, or just the ones they might accept?</p>
<p>I’m not going to call you delusional, but it’s not a good sign (nor is it a bad sign).</p>
<p>Haverford is need-blind. The request for additional information was made on the basis that they need more information; not that the financial aid office learned that you were admitted. The financial aid office isn’t interested in who’s admitted; they want to know who’s matriculating. Until then, they need to come up with numbers for everyone. They will then finalize numbers for those who decide to matriculate. Under your scenario, they would make the initial determination, make an intermediate, extra-refined determination for the pool of accepted students, and then make a final, fully-refined determination for matriculating students. The step that you believe may be taking place – in which they’re seeking out additional information to make an intermediate calculation because they learned that you will receive an acceptance letter – is extra busy work that I’m sure, at this time of year, they’re not inclined to take on. Most importantly, you cannot do anything about your suspicion. You can’t tell people you were accepted based on your suspicion (without risking grave embarrassment if you’re wrong). And you definitely shouldn’t decline other offers of admission based on your suspicion. So the smart move is to avoid trying to divine what may be happening and just wait until the actual, take-it-to-the-bank (or loan officer, as the case may be) decision is sent to you.</p>
<p>This isn’t like the admission process where they take a holistic approach and sweat over nuances and compare how one student’s well-crafted essay stacks up against another applicant’s impressive recommendations. This is a numbers operation; no alchemy required. They take the numbers, plug them in and they’ve got your number. Most colleges will tell you that the number you get with your offer of admission is not final. They finalize it later, after they go over your final, signed 1040 and any other verifying information they need. They assure you that nearly all awards are unchanged, but they reserve the right to make adjustments. But for the bulk of the applicants, they have what they need by plugging in numbers and letting the computer spit out the family contribution. Did you see how long it took for FAFSA to come up with a number for you? You had that number pop up on your computer even before FAFSA processed it for the colleges. So it’s not a subjective process, like admissions. It’s an objective process, as is the process for determining whether additional forms are needed.</p>
<p>Again, if you want to read something into it, go right ahead. To what end that serves you is something you can answer for yourself. I don’t think there’s much exchange going on between admissions and financial aid. If they need a piece of paper, I believe it’s because they see that it’s missing as a matter of procedure. Others believe that it’s because the admission office alerted them to pay extra attention to that particular file…and that’s their prerogative. Hope springs eternal.</p>
<p>EDIT: FWIW, I hope that you are accepted and we remain left to our own opinions as to the deeper, hidden meaning of that e-mail.</p>
<p>It is true that the finaid office does the numbers for everyone, but having dealt with finaid for the past four years (my S is a senior) I do know that they take family circumstances into consideration and that it is not just that they plug in the numbers.</p>
<p>I hope you get in AllGood! When is the notification date this year?</p>
<p>hey guys, i was really kind of asking in a playful way, whittling away the time until letters come out. it was just a ‘wonder if’, i didn’t mean for it to get so serious. just a question from someone who’s tired of waiting.</p>
<p>d’yer maker: thank you for the time you spent responding to my message, and the honesty you wanted to share. in turn, i would also like to be – respectfully – honest with you. you probably meant well, but i felt that you really jumped all over me, tried to make me feel small and embarrassed for even posing a random question on a message board. your tone was pretty intense and borderline judgmental. what you said but mostly how you said it…read like being scolded. since you seem to value being frank in opinions i thought i would share this feedback with you.</p>
<p>also, i don’t know if you work in admission or fin aid, but some of your info was not at all what i have come to understand from a family member who works at another highly selective college (not Haverford!). but all schools can be different, so maybe where you work the process runs differently. do you work at a college? just curious.</p>
<p>we might have to agree to disagree, d’yer, in terms of how to best engage here. all the best to you.</p>