This is exactly how some schools protect their acceptance rate - flood the market for applications, regardless of whether a student is really qualified and then reject tons of them. Viola - low accceptance rate. Starts after your student fills out certain data on PSAT, etc. We got a ton of fee waiver and scholarship-eligible direct mail and email for schools that there was no realistic chance our student would be accepted into. The smaller private LAC’s are almost forced to do this each year based on declining enrollment numbers. From what I can tell, a student paying full boat to a private school is definitely the exception rather than the norm. Almost immediately they offer a tuition reduction to bring cost comparable to your in-state rates. And so many seem to confuse “eligible” with “offered” when it comes to scholarships.