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Do Financial Aid Questions from Need-Blind College Mean that Acceptance is Pending?

Written by Sally Rubenstone | Dec. 5, 2011

Question: If a need-blind school is sending requests for missing financial aid information just days before they send their admissions notifications... is this a sign you've been accepted?

Although an acceptance may indeed be pending for you, the request for missing financial info doesn't necessarily mean this. At need-blind colleges, the admission office and the financial aid office usually operate as different entities. So, while the admission folks are going through their checklist to make sure your admission application is complete and then evaluating your candidacy, the financial aid officials are concurrently ticking the boxes on their own checklist to see if any financial aid materials are missing. Then, if they get the word from admissions that you have been accepted, they will be prepared to add your financial need with that of the other accepted students in order to see how much the whole group of new students will "cost" and where this figure fits into the college budget.

So, although it would be comforting to think that an 11th-hour follow-up query from a financial aid office is a harbinger of good news ahead, this is not usually the case.

But I do hope your news is good anyway! :)

(posted 12/5/2011)

Sally Rubenstone

Sally Rubenstone knows the competitive and often convoluted college admission process inside out: From the first time the topic of college comes up at the dinner table until the last duffel bag is unloaded on a dorm room floor. She is the co-author of Panicked Parents' Guide to College Admissions; The Transfer Student's Guide to Changing Colleges and The International Student's Guide to Going to College in America. Sally has appeared on NBC's Today program and has been quoted in countless publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Weekend, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek, People and Seventeen. Sally has viewed the admissions world from many angles: As a Smith College admission counselor for 15 years, an independent college counselor serving students from a wide range of backgrounds and the author of College Confidential's "Ask the Dean" column. She also taught language arts, social studies, study skills and test preparation in 10 schools, including American international schools in London, Paris, Geneva, Athens and Tel Aviv. As senior advisor to College Confidential since 2002, Sally has helped hundreds of students and parents navigate the college admissions maze. In 2008, she co-founded College Karma, a private college consulting firm, with her College Confidential colleague Dave Berry, and she continues to serve as a College Confidential advisor. Sally and her husband, Chris Petrides, became first-time parents in 1997 at the ripe-old age of 45. So Sally was nearly an official senior citizen when her son Jack began the college selection process, and when she was finally able to practice what she had preached for more than three decades.