Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Using FAFSA Against Students

American parents may find this story troubling:

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/...ents-and-potentially-lower-financial-aid
Using FAFSA Against Students
By Ry Rivard
Inside Higher Education
October 28, 2013

Woah, woah, woah... why would a college admissions dept have access to a student's FAFSA application???

Some schools are need-blind, others are not. Most state which they are on their websites, though there was a recent article on GW that indicated that they outwardly indicated they were need-blind, when in reality they were not.

Ah, the power of information.

Data mining is going to happen.

I don't see the point in bemoaning it at this point. What REALLY sucketh about this practice is that students may or may not actually list schools in order of preference.

But that's what the statistics suggest most students/families are doing, so outliers beware.

I don't understand your question.

Jon - Why does the admissions team receive the student's financial information? I wouldn't have thought that was an admissions criteria at all. I mean, I applied to several schools, knowing full well I wouldn't be able to afford them, just to see if I'd get in. I never would have thought my financial status was a factor in my acceptance/rejection.

Okay-- pragmatically, unless they specifically STATE that they are "need-blind" the institution must make sure that they are admitting a sufficient percentage of a freshman class which can (and will) pay full tuition...

otherwise, they are dipping into the endowment year after year, and will eventually run the well dry. Well, okay-- places like Harvard can afford that given their portfolio, but those places can AFFORD to be 'need-blind.'

Most can't. Not really.

Secondarily, there is also a push to create DIVERSITY on a campus-- and this is a real thing which is not nefarious in its intentions, but is actually something that administrators and faculty do in an attempt to create a broader, richer LEARNING environment for potentially sheltered students who may only have encountered others of their own race, religion, and SES up until now.

SES is a part of that diversity.

That's not quite what the article is saying.

It's saying that that FAFSA asks you to list the schools you're applying to. If you don't list them in alphabetical order, the admissions folks can infer that you're listing them in order of which schools you like best. THIS is the point.

Some colleges use your list in admissions decisions. Say you apply to Far North College and list it 7th. The admissions folks there will infer that you are merely lukewarm on Far North. They may reject you because you put them so far down on your list. You may ask, "Who cares if I don't accept Far North's offer?" They care, because the percentage of accepted students who enroll affects those insane US News rankings.

Alternatively, say you put Midwest College in position 1. The folks there may decide to offer you LESS aid if they accept you --- this is because if you love them so much, you must surely be willing to pay extra to go there. OR, if you're on their list of student-types they want, they may offer you MORE.

Colleges also use data sold by the College Board and ACT in this way.

There are two problems with this system:

1. It is not transparent and people don't really even know it's going on or which colleges are using the data this way.

2. Students who list you near the bottom will be assumed to be in the high risk pool for saying "no thanks." Which increases chances for rejection.

3. It may reduce your chances of admissions to any college but your safety school if you don't get in to your higher-ranked colleges.

3. It puts wealthy students at an advantage. They don't fill out the FAFSA, and so the colleges don't know anything about their preferences.

The take-home message here is to list colleges in alphabetical order on the FAFSA and don't tick the "share my data" box when you register for the SAT and ACT.

Right. Val illuminates the PROBLEM here very nicely. My post explains why the institutions need to have the data included in the FAFSA (in some legitimate sense).

There is still a huge problem with transparency and potential for abuse no matter how legitimate the interest in the data might be, however.