Frequently Asked Questions: Regular Decision
Q. Does my financial aid application have any bearing on my
admission?
A. No. The Admission Officers do not know an applicant's need or even
that the student has applied for aid when they make an Early or
Regular Decision. In other words, Haverford's admission process is
"Need-Blind" for U.S. citizens and permanent residents.
Q. Do my grades, activities, or other personal attributes gathered
as part of the admission application process have any bearing on the
aid decision made by the Financial Aid Office?
A. No. All Financial Aid Office decisions are made solely according
to the need-based allocation formula developed by the College. The
College does not have any "merit" aid programs or aid which is not
based on need.
Q. What forms are Regular Decision students required to file to
apply for financial aid and what are the deadlines?
A. Complete information on Early Decision financial aid forms and
deadlines is available at
Filing
Deadlines and Applications.
Q. When do I receive information on financial aid?
A. Financial aid decisions for those who have submitted complete
applications by the established deadlines are usually released by the
middle of April (or slightly earlier if we can get everything done
more quickly).
Q. How important are the deadlines?
A. Unfortunately, they are very important. You should file by our
deadlines. The problem is that it can take a month in a good year for
information to reach us from all of your FAFSA and/or your Profile
applications and/or IDOC. That gives us just the month of March to make all the
aid decisions so we can have everything out to you by mid-April or
earlier. We are not going to penalize you if you file a couple of
days late, but, the demands on our aid funds are so great that there
are some years when we cannot promise aid to someone who is later
than that.
Q. Should I wait until my family's tax returns are filed to fill
out the FAFSA and the Profile applications?
A. Submit the FAFSA and the Profile to the Federal
Government and the College Board by February 1st
whether or not you family's tax returns are completed. Even the
Federal Government allows you to file the FAFSA before the tax
returns are filed by allowing you to indicate that the information
you are providing is estimated.
Q. Do I have a better or worse chance of receiving financial aid
from Haverford when I apply under Regular Decision?
A. It makes no difference whether you apply Early Decision or Regular
Decision. The financial aid decisions are the same. The amounts and
types of aid are the same. The chances of receiving or not receiving
aid are the same. We use the same procedures to determine the
parental contributions for Early Decision students, Regular Decision
students, and returning students who reapply for aid.
Q. Must I apply for aid in my first year before I am admitted to
be eligible to apply for aid in a subsequent academic year?
A. If you are a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, you may apply for
aid in any year whether you applied for aid in your first year or not
and without regard to the outcome of any previous aid application.
Limitations on College funding for international students require
different procedures and policies.
Q. What kind of guarantee can you give us that aid will be
consistent year to year?
A. Aid is reassessed each year according to the procedures outlined
in the "Policies and Procedures" section of this website. It is vitally important that you and your parents read and
understand all of the policies and procedures covering our financial
aid program before you apply to the College. Our policies are
consistent year to year. For example, if you should submit an
application for your second year which shows the same income, assets,
family size, number in college, etc. as this year, we will have the
same parental contribution. If your application shows an increase in
income or assets or a decrease in the number in college for instance,
you can expect an increase in the parental contribution. Student's
assets will be evaluated according to our procedures each year based
on the amount of assets you report on each year's application.
Self-help expectations generally go up each year (i.e. the loan, job
and summer savings expectations made of all students applying for
College aid-starting with the Class of 2012, there is no loan expectation) and these increases will reduce Haverford Grant aid
since they are subtracted from need. The expectations in effect for
each class at the time we published the Admission application are
printed in the "Policies and Procedures" section of this website. Costs go up each year and increase aid since they increase
need. Outside aid can reduce Haverford College Grant according to the
procedures outlined in "Financial Aid at Haverford." All of these items (family
contribution, self-help, costs, outside aid) are used to determine
the final amount of the College Grant according to the following
formula: Total Costs minus Family Contribution minus Self-Help minus
Outside Aid according to our formula EQUALS Need.