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?
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2 answers
This is a difficult assessment to make because there’s no real objective answer to the question you’re posing (sorry about that). Not every part of a college application can be quantified—for 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’s no clear magic number that would put a student with financial need on par with a student who doesn’t. 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’ve 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—generally need-aware schools see financial need as more of a binary; either a student applies for financial aid (and has need) or they don’t. 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.
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and having good recomendations essays and ECs help
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