George Washington University recently revealed that it places hundreds of applicants on the waitlist each year because they cannot afford the tuition. For many families, this just exacerbated their fears that applying for financial aid will somehow hurt their chances of admission. For those families, please see what Kal Chany, author of Paying for College Without Going Broke, has to say in this article (his take: if you need aid, you should always apply for it).
I’ve also addressed this topic here several times, often with some insights from Mark Kantrowitz—a trusted, nationally-recognized financial aid expert. If your family is wrestling with the “Will applying for aid hurt our chances of admission?” question, those past posts are here, here and here.