Does Self-funding (1st Year) increase probability of admission

[asianeconomist]

Yup. UPenn had a huge class this time round.

On that note, would it be a good idea to mention it in my SOP (at the risk of appearing forwardly), or would it be better to just wait around till I receive some sort of news regarding admission/ wait-list...

[calchas]

On a similar note, does it reduce your chances of being funded for the first year if you mention NSF application or private funding like the OP ... which you otherwise might have been given anyway based on the strength of your profile ..

To be clear, will the adcom say : "Instead of admitting JUST this one guy who might already have funding for first year, let's admit him with no funding and admit someone else with the first year funding. That way, we can bring in two."?

[asianeconomist]

The intention of the adcoms is not to admit 'more' students but rather 'better' students. On that account, it is unlikely that adcoms would intend to increase the no. of students by offering funding.

However,this might be the case when they think that the person (whom they want to offer the funding to) will not be accepting an unfunded offer and is actually better than the self-funded applicant, then what you say might assume veracity.

[calchas]

I'm actually describing the following scenario:

Candidate A ranks higher than Candidate B, but not by a whole lot. Basically, if the adcom can only admit one person, they'll chose A.

Now consider the adcom has available funding for only one person. Under this current scenario, they'll admit A and give that person funding.

Now change the scenario slightly by adding that candidate A has applied for NSF.

Now the university CAN make offers to both A and B - an unfunded offer to A and a funded offer to B. Obviously the university can do both since they know that they'll make more offers than enrollments anyway, so making an extra admit/offer won't hurt them ..

Fast forward 3 months .. and person A doesn't get his NSF.. Look at his scenario now.. An unfunded offer in hand, no NSF money.

[asianeconomist]

Originally Posted by calchas

I'm actually describing the following scenario:

Candidate A ranks higher than Candidate B, but not by a whole lot. Basically, if the adcom can only admit one person, they'll chose A.

Now consider the adcom has available funding for only one person. Under this current scenario, they'll admit A and give that person funding.

Now change the scenario slightly by adding that candidate A has applied for NSF.

Now the university CAN make offers to both A and B - an unfunded offer to A and a funded offer to B. Obviously the university can do both since they know that they'll make more offers than enrollments anyway, so making an extra admit/offer won't hurt them ..

Fast forward 3 months .. and person A doesn't get his NSF.. Look at his scenario now.. An unfunded offer in hand, no NSF money.

Agreed. But it takes considerable imagination to convince yourself that something like this will actually occur in reality.