Would rescinding my request for financial aid help me get off a waitlist?
If this action is deemed good or bad specifically for a school and you guys want to know where they are, the schools are UC Berkeley and NYU Stern.
I don’t think you need to “rescind” your request. If you can pay the entire cost of attendance, you probably weren’t going to receive a meaningful aid package in the first place. You can indicate your desire to attend the college, regardless of cost, in a correspondence requesting a place on the waitlist. Generally, it’s presumed that colleges won’t offer much aid to students admitted from a waiting list. Be sure that your parents stand behind you on this, and that they understand the full cost of attendance. Most colleges offer a very limited window of opportunity to accept their offers, and so you will not have time to begin thinking about finances if accepted.
It’s only good if you actually have the money. I’m guessing that if you actually had the money, you wouldn’t have applied for FA.
Being full pay is a way to get off the waitlist, yes.
Note that UCs are in particular situation wrt WLs this year.
@MYOS1634 Hey, thanks for your reply. You too @woogzmama. MYOS, do you mind explaining to me a little bit more in detail about the “particular situation” UCs are in with WLs this year? Maybe with a focus on Berkeley?
There is a budget standoff. CA now has a budget surplus. When CA had huge financial problems, the UC budgets took a huge hit. Mde sense. Now that there’s a surplus, the UC chancelor wants the per-student budget to be returned to what it used to be pre-crisis. The governor thinks things can be optimized with online learning and having the same budget as before, but with more students. Classrooms are at capacity, so, no. And parents aren’t really sending their kids to UCs for online learning (although here and there, an online course is not a problem - but it can’t be the miracle solution and that’s not why people attend UCB so it’d decrease its brand value; ASU has used that strategy successfully, but let’s face it, there’s no comparison between the caliber students at ASU and at UCB). There are negotiations, for example the number of OOS and internationals at UCB and UCLA will be capped at 20% (since the UC really are at capacity right now, and in fact, over capacity). Anyway, the chancelor decided that if the per student budget remains the same, the number of admitted students should remain the same. Therefore, qualified students for whom there’s no space are on the waitlist. If the budget issues are resolved and the UCs get a better budget, more students will be admitted. So, it’s not a typical WL situation: here, students are reasonably hope to get in.
BTW, I typically like the governor and dislike the UC Chancelor, but right now she’s doing her job.
@MYOS1634 I initially had a little trouble comprehending what you wrote, but after perusing it it makes more sense. You said that if “the UCs get a better budget, more students will be admitted.” Is there any chance that the budget can get better for the waitlisted students this year? Or will it get better most likely in the future?
It’ll probably be resolved by be way or another by June, but you must deposit somewhere by May 1st
- in one way or another (phone wouldn't let me correct!)
@MYOS1634 what do you think is a method of indicating that i want to pay full pay? if the university has a separate section for waitlist letters, should i write it there? or email them just to make sure they catch the detail?
If u can pay, then why did u ask for FA???
^I agree, if you could be full pay, why did you ask for FA from universities that are need-aware? It’s not like they give you money just for the asking, there’s an evaluation process to determine whether you should be given something and how much…
You email to reiterate your interest, update your achievements, indicate that thanks to a relative’(s (or sponsor’s or …'s) generosity you can be full pay, and hope you get off the wait list. At the college that’s your 1st choice, say so, and say you’ll definitely attend (but ONLY if you plan to attend!)
You can call the admissions office and ask straight out if they are need aware for the waitlist. You don’t have to id your self.
A lot of students “on the brink” do apply for financial aid. NYU and Cal are need blind for most of all their students, as are most schools. I would encourage anyone to apply for financial aid if they are on the border of qualifying even if the parents can “afford” to pay. Afford can have a lot of conditions to it. One can qualify for aid for some schools and not others and even running NPCs is not accurate when you are close.
Now that OP is on the WL, and feels that these two school are worth paying fully,perhaps has gotten aid packages and they are not that large from other schools, if it helps to get off the WL, yes, going full pay could help. It helped a friend of mine’s DD when she was WL for a boarding school. THe admissions office was very clear that fin aid was what had her on the WL. The Mom said she was able to come up with the money, and she was admitted. It’s usually not that quick for colleges, particularly large ones like NYU and Cal.