To get into a need-aware college with a substantial amount of aid, how much stronger does one's profile have to be?
Many colleges are need-aware in the admission process, but if accepted, they promise to meet the full demonstrated need of all the students. That means the more financial aid an applicant needs, the more competitive the admission process becomes for them. If someone needs a large amount of aid and applies to these colleges, how strong does his/her application have to be in comparison with those who don't need aid? For example, if A can pay 80% of the college costs and B can pay only 10%, how much ahead of A does B have to be in terms of GPA and SAT to make the admissions committee choose B over A?
Earn karma by helping others:
2 answers
This is a difficult assessment to make because there鈥檚 no real objective answer to the question you鈥檙e posing (sorry about that). Not every part of a college application can be quantified鈥攆or example, essays would absolutely matter in most of these cases, as well as extracurriculars, and with those the kind of connection you can make to the school. There鈥檚 no clear magic number that would put a student with financial need on par with a student who doesn鈥檛. It also can come down to the school; some may be a slightly higher academic threshold, or might have a limited number of spots for students with financial need that they allocate after they鈥檝e read all applications. A difference in GPA and SAT might matter in some places, but in others it might not.
One thing I can clarify though鈥攇enerally need-aware schools see financial need as more of a binary; either a student applies for financial aid (and has need) or they don鈥檛. The difference between affording 80% and 10% might actually be smaller in some places than the difference between affording 100% and anything less than 100%, if that makes sense.
Try to be in the top 25 percentile prepscholar has a breakdown for most colleges search "college name" prepscholar
and having good recomendations essays and ECs help
Your chance of acceptance
Your chancing factors
Community Guidelines
To keep this community safe and supportive:
- Be kind and respectful!
- Keep posts relevant to college admissions and high school.
- Don鈥檛 ask 鈥渃hance-me鈥� questions. Use 黑料不打烊鈥檚 chancing instead!
also apply for every applicable grant scholarship scholarowl and scholarships.com are fairly good resourses