How Do Universities Treat Self-Funded Applicants?

[callumabernathy]

Just hypothetically, if there are two students with the exact same profile. The only difference being one of them is capable of self-funding his MPP/MPA et al. It's quite clear for this case that the university will pick the student who's able to self-fund.

My question is how far does this "advantage" extends in terms of admission? I know for undergraduate schools, being able to self-fund really doesn't mean anything (it might, I'm not entirely sure). For graduate schools, especially for "cash cow" programs (I don't know exactly which ones these are), does it matter if you can pay for the entire program yourself? 

[MD guy]

How would they know? They would just be guessing based on demographics, which make for pretty inaccurate guesstimations. Financial aid is often completely separated from the admissions offices.

[MD guy]

Also, every single U.S. citizen can pay for the entire program themselves. It's called guaranteed federal loans. "Cash cow" programs are those that are widely known to not give out any aid precisely because there is little excuse for anyone to say they cannot afford it; the answer is to go into debt. It's not necessarily that they're making estimations as to who will pay the cost and who will not. They just don't give out aid and you can either suck it up or go for the degree. Plenty of people prefer the degree.

[callumabernathy]

2 hours ago, MD guy said:

How would they know? They would just be guessing based on demographics, which make for pretty inaccurate guesstimations. Financial aid is often completely separated from the admissions offices.

Hey, thanks for replying. I just figured since many applications requires applicants to indicate their interest in financial aid somewhere, it must have something to do with preference for self-funded applicants. Anyway, hypothetically again, if there is an option to indicate interest in financial aid on the application (for admission), what then are the reasons for a candidate to not indicate interest? Since if, as you said, it doesn't matter. Also if it doesn't matter anyway, why would the option exist on applications? I know from some of my friends that many applications do require you to declare upfront whether you require aid.  love to hear your thoughts thanks so much!

[kb6]

You check something at some point saying "I would like to be considered for funding" but even if you were rich you'd be stupid not to check that. You can't even do your FAFSA until after most (if not all) of the apps are due, so they will have no idea of your personal background when making an admit decision. And yes, as MD guy said, everyone in the US can pay full freight technically speaking...which is another can of worms.

[MD guy]

Everybody checks the funding consideration box. You're looking for an explanation of something mysterious and ultimately non consequential.

[runjackrun]

I'm not sure this adds anything to the discussion, but one of the programs I applied to went out of their way to say their application process was "need-blind," meaning your application for admission was considered independently from your financial need. I thought this was a nice reassurance, but a bit bizarre, because that seemed it should be a given in my mind. 

But in general, I echo what has already been stated here: graduate programs--even cash cow programs--know most people can afford them because most people will qualify for loans up to the cost of attendance. They care about the money; they don't really care about where it's coming from.

Without actually being an admissions rep, I can guess that the question about need is for one of two things: 1) programs have a set amount of funding for fellowships/scholarships/grants and they simply want to know if you wish to have your application considered for those (many schools do this automatically) and 2) they need to know if they should be expecting a FAFSA from you and likely attach a note to your application. I do not think self-funding would ever give an applicant an admissions advantage. Graduate programs do not care if you are paying them with your hard-earned cash, a trust fund, a lawsuit settlement, or a loan from the government/a private bank. They just care that they get paid.