<p>Do most universities, even some of the top ones, reject you based on your inability to pay/being financially weak? I got rejected from Rice and UT Austin and don’t know what went wrong.</p>
<p>If you “can’t pay” (at all), how do you expect them to admit you? … I’m confused. You’d be going there, attending* their* classes, using their facilities, etc. It can’t come free.</p>
<p>I would think that most colleges and universities are need-blind (I think that’s the term??) when it comes to admissions. Something always works out financially even if that means the admitted student might have to take out a huge loan for the total cost of attendance -that’s highly improbable though. </p>
<p>It must have been something else, maybe their admission percentage dropped this year? Essay? Stats? Too many good apps??</p>
<p>Anyways, hope you applied to other schools. Oh, and if you really think they might have messed up, maybe you can call them and ask politely? Idk…It’s 5 AM…</p>
<p>Good luck :)</p>
<p>^ Actually, not most of the colleges are need-blind. Even those colleges who claim themselves to be need-blind are sometimes told to be need-based. We never know what is happening behind the admissions CURTAIN.</p>
<p>I think the main reason you got rejected from both schools is your financial situation. Well, there could have been other factors. But I doubt it.</p>
<p>admitman: if that was the case they wouldn’t need a department of Financial Aid and as far as I know all schools have one.</p>
<p>The vast majority of schools are not need-blind; only the most selective schools are. Most are “need-aware”: at the margins of accepted students, how much need the students have for financial aid may tip the scales in favor or against admissions. Colleges do have to keep within their financial aid budgets, after all.</p>
<p>But it is rarely the only factor in rejections. It is impossible to tell if the OP was rejected solely for financial reasons.</p>
<p>Pick really really rich schools. I picked Grinnell and got ~40k in grant aid because of my financial situation. Now I get to go to one of the top LACs in the country for only three thousand this year.</p>
<p>NYU also accepted me, but due to their really bad endowment and even worse FA, I don’t think I’ll be attending. Just choose schools that are well-known for generous FA.</p>
<p>If the colleges are need-blind, then you were rejected for other reasons.
I am not aware of any public university that considers financial need as part of admissions. With the exception of recruited athletes, public universities virtually universally make decisions based on stats and state of residence.</p>
<p>According to a top administrator at Rice, whom I know personally, Rice has a longtime commitment to offering college educations to low income and first gen students.</p>
<p>This is the most competitive year in U.S. college application history (a trend that is expected to continue for the next several years). Consequently, virtually all colleges will be rejecting many students who in past years would have gotten admissions.</p>
<p>I applied for financial aid to both of the schools you mentioned, UT-Austin and Rice, and was accepted to both. I don’t know your financial situation, but my parents earn I think about 150k+ but not much more than that.</p>
<p>I highly doubt UT and Rice rejected you simply based on your financial situation. Your application was lacking in other aspects (GPA/SAT/extracurricular activities, etc). </p>
<p>Colleges would never reject you outright simply because you can’t fully pay your way into college without financial aid. That would be completely unfair and ludicrous.</p>
<p>There are colleges that are need aware and do reject students who have high financial need. To my knowledge, no public institutions do this (though they may end up giving even high need students no financial aid). Few of the top universities do this either because they tend to have high endowments and better financial aid than do many other universities.</p>
<p>It depends. At Harvard or Yale, they have the money to through around from donations an endowments so they can be truly need-blind. But a smaller LAC might find a person who can carry their own financial weight more attractive.</p>
<p>It wouldn’t instantly break you, but it didn’t tip it in your favor.</p>
<p>It depends on the LAC, actually. Basically, if the school says htey are need blind, I think you should trust that they are in fact need blind. Yes, wt can’t know for sure, but probably they are. So, what do Rice and UT Austin say?</p>
<p>Do a google search for “admit deny.”</p>
<p>Also, Rice and UT are extremely tough to get into this year. It’s probably not an indication of your financial position.</p>
<p>Rice admitted me yesterday and they are in fact need-blind. I remember reading in one of the Fiske’s Guide versions that Rice’s 3.2 billion endowment is very committed to keeping tuition low for its students, as Rice is relatively cheaper than its other elite private university counterparts.</p>
<p>To briefly quote from their online decision: “The Class of 2012 will be diverse. Our need-blind, nondiscriminatory admission policy ensures that your classmates will come from a variety of socioeconomic, cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds. You will enjoy the advantages of a small, close-knit community and expand your knowledge of the world in which we live.”</p>
<p>UT-Austin’s acceptance letter makes no mention of being “need-blind” or anything. It was very brief.</p>
<p>If the web pages of the Undergraduate Admissions office do not explicitly say that they are need-bllind, then I think you’re pretty safe in assuming they will look at your financial need (to what degree it matters tho can vary). Generally only the really really rich colleges can afford to be completely need-blind b/c they have so much money in endowments.
I used to think that most college admissions were need-blind, but then I learned that if they don’t say they’re need-blind, they’re probably not. this translates to the fact that if only one of 2 equally-qualified applicants can be accepted, teh college will prbly accept the 1 w/ less need.</p>
<p>i’m an international student and i got rejected from lafayette because of my financial situation…my parents can only afford to pay $10k per year …it was specifically mentioned in the rejection letter “And although you were clearly
admissible, we simply don’t have the financial resources to offer to all
of the outstanding applicants.”</p>
<p>I think schools do look at whether you need financial aid. I have heard that this is especially true for borderline candidates. I think my s was accepted to a school recently partly due to not needing aid.</p>
<p>I don’t think, however, that public schools do that – at least not for in-state applicants. I doubt that their states’ residents would tolerate students being rejected solely because of finances.</p>
<p>tanveer, the situation is very different for international students. The funds available for FA for internationals is much smaller than for US students, and there are only a handful of schools that are need-blind for internationals.</p>
<p>I’m sorry you didn’t get into Lafayette, and I hope you have a fine place to go next year.</p>
<p>^thanks though i’m not really complaining because I did ask for a very large amount of aid.</p>