I remember getting a deny/admit at GA Tech. I got a rejection letter, then later another letter congratulating me on receiving a President’s Scholarship to attend! Fortunately I ready to commit elsewhere or it would’ve been heartbreaking, but it was hilarious then and now.
Admit-deny is also used for legacy students when the school doesn’t want to upset the alum too badly.
One of the schools my daughter got accepted at CUNY-Baruch wants a housing deposit by May 1st to guarantee housing. However they will not give us financial aid info until mid to late May. Since we are not in a position to pay full price and my daughter loves a different school anyway she accepted elsewhere as much as she would love to be going to school in Manhattan. My daughter applied in October and we did the FAFSA in October and she was accepted late January so I wish we had known earlier about the late financial aid info.
“Admit-deny is also used for legacy students when the school doesn’t want to upset the alum too badly.”
Legacies usually get let down easily via a wait list or a deferral. Legacies typically have higher SES demographics (which is a prime reason why schools have legacy policies). So a money-based policy isn’t the best tool for managing the legacy pool.
Schools do admit/deny because they have to. They all want to say that they are need-blind for admissions, but they also have to meet a revenue budget. Since the school isn’t allowed to manage the financial budget through the admissions decision process, they manage it through the FA process.
Admit/deny isn’t really nefarious. Every school has to meet budget – even Harvard – and they figure out ways to do it. Harvard doesn’t do admit/deny, but they ration their ample (but still limited) financial aid in other ways. Legacy admissions, athlete admissions, SCEA, and (the big one) sky high admission standards all tend to skew their enrolled student population towards the wealthier demographics that Harvard needs to enroll to meet budget. There’s just not enough poor kids with high stats and great ECs to make it a problem for Harvard’s budget.
It would be more honest for schools to say that they are “need aware” when it comes to admissions, but the market seems to prefer to keep the gritty details of finances away from the admissions decision. With the increased transparency from NPCs, you’d think/hope that admit/deny is less of a thing than it used to be.
It is great for schools to be need blind for admissions. They should not be considering finances when determining which students get accepted. It is the student and his/her family that determines whether the costs are doable. It can happen that someone- a rich relative perhaps- is willing to help the student attend college X. They may not make their offer until they know the student is accepted and what the difference in ability to pay is. The schools should not be in the game of only admitting students based on affordability. There is a reason students get accepted after others decline the offer for whatever reasons.
“Need aware” would discriminate against students who find resources and can attend. Presumably the students give financial info to be considered but must also realize the school may run out of funds before their turn at any.
Students should only apply to schools if the possibility (not probability) of affording the school is there. It is an ego stroke to know one was academically acceptable to a dream school.
I do not consider it a denial from the school at all. It just means the student is not so perfect that the school feels it owes that student a paid for education.
I don’t think schools think they “owe” applicants anything----even those they lavish with financial aid, whether it’s merit or need-based. It’s not given as a reward for the student’s accomplishments or promise of future performance…It’s offered as an inducement to help the school land the class it wants. If a school doesn’t meet full need for a student it simply means they either don’t have enough money to ensure that attendance is affordable for all those with need, or they have the money but other priorities outweigh it. In such cases, some applicants with need will lose out. End of story.
@gallentjill here is the issue…schools do not have the same financial resources, or formulas for computing need based aid. They have different criteria for awarding merit aid. Some schools meet full need for all…most don’t. Some schools are need blind for admissions…and some aren’t. Some practice enrollment management and some don’t.
Your sentence quoted above is not ever going to happen because of the wide variation in all things related to financial aid and different colleges.
BUT…those net price calculators can tell you an approximate net cost for each college if you have simple income and finances.
@ucbalumnus are you suggesting that the schools should just have all the questions on the Profile…if the use it…on their net price calculators? Sorry, but I don’t agree.
Some applicants have well-to-do relatives whose money doesn’t show up on FAFSA/PROFILE.
A lot of financial aid applicants have resources that might not show up on FAFSA or Profile - so the admit/deny approach probably does work for the colleges in that some admitted students do find a way to fill in the gap and do enroll. The downside for the college is that widespread use of the practice will cut into yield – as many admitted students who would otherwise have attended will go elsewhere.
Yes- if asked we would have gladly helped nieces and nephews. Grandparents could also be in a position to help if they think the school worth it.
Given how many marriages end in divorce (some claim that as many as half of children see parental divorce), the very least colleges can do is clearly state how they handle divorced parent situations, and how to use their net price calculators in those situations. Princeton does a good job here (but note that how it handles some parent situations may not be the same as how other colleges handle them): https://swebapps.princeton.edu/FinAid/finaid_form.pl
Regarding the more unusual types of income that can be problematic with NPCs and FA calculations, a college can at least state on its web page that leads to the NPC appropriate disclosures about accuracy or lack thereof when such income exists, if it does not want to implement an NPC that handles those types of income in a way that gives an accurate estimate of its actual FA.
@ucbalumnus Yes! My D and I searched and searched for information on what to expect with a non-custodial waiver combined with step-parent income. Two complications, not just one, but even getting a straight answer on step-parent income wasn’t all that easy. A few of the calculators outright stated how they use it (or if they do) but it was definitely a murky thing. D got differences in financial aid from full-pay to a 58K grant. I wasn’t super supportive of her sending out 22 applications, but she was right to do so because she had options from excellent state to mid-tier LAC with merit, to need-based only schools.
deferral/wait lists pi$$ off some legacies. Some that may be an initial admit/deny may scrounge up the funds and attend. And families continue to donate.