Asking for financial aid may or may not affect your chances of getting into private school. There are two types of financial aid processes that schools use. The first type usually involves the admissions director, the head of school and the finance director. And they sit around a table and make decisions about who is getting in based on the applicant and based on how much money they are asking for. If your application is not a really strong one, then asking for financial aid may actually kick you into the non accept pile. That is the first process. The second process is called a need blind process. And that means that your child´s application is accepted simply on the merits of the application. The need for financial aid is not weighed. After you are accepted, your application then goes to the financial aid community. And it is there that they award the funds. On a need blind process, sometimes families will ask for $10,000 but only get $8,000 dollars. The one thing I want to really stress here it´s really super important that you go check with the school and find out what kind of process they need. When you are looking at their website, some key phrases to look for are: asking for financial aid will not affect your child´s chances of getting in. If that is a phrase that is on their website, they are using a need blind process.