Ability to pay?

Many colleges state they do not look at financial materials, etc. when making decisions, but how true is this, especially for an OOS school? Everyone says OOS wants your money, which I’m sure is true, but how much truth to it?

You need to look at whether the college says they are need blind in admissions. Not all colleges are. And even if they admit you, few “meet need”. They will let you in, but give you too little or no aid. Most public colleges give no aid need based aid to OOS students.

Most places don’t look at your ability to pay in admissions. If you are admitted, and you don’t get enough aid to be able to attend, well then you don’t attend.

http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2010/03/23/colleges-where-need-for-aid-can-hurt-admission-odds

also


Name of School    Need-Blind(Domestic)    Need-Blind(International)   Need-Blind(Transfer)    Need-Blind
(Wait List) 

Adrian College  Yes Yes Yes<br>
Amherst College Yes Yes Yes Yes
Babson College  Yes Yes Yes Yes
Barnard College Yes No  No<br>
Baylor University   Yes Yes Yes Yes
Biola University    Yes No  No<br>
Boston College  Yes No  Yes ?
Boston University   Yes No  No<br>
Bowdoin College Yes No  No<br>
Brandeis University Yes No  Yes<br>
Brown University    Yes No  No  ?
California Institute of Technology  Yes No  Yes<br>
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo    Yes No  Yes<br>
Carnegie Mellon University  Yes No  Yes<br>
Chapman University  Yes Yes Yes<br>
Claremont McKenna College   Yes No  Yes<br>
Columbia University Yes No  Yes<br>
Cooper Union    Yes No  No<br>
Cornell College Yes No  Yes<br>
Cornell University  Yes Yes Yes<br>
Dartmouth College   Yes No  Yes<br>
Davidson College    Yes No  Yes<br>
Denison University  Yes No  Yes<br>
DePaul University   Yes No  Yes<br>
Duke University Yes No  Yes<br>
Elon University Yes No  No<br>
Emory University    Yes No  Yes<br>
Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU)    Yes Yes Yes<br>
Florida State University    Yes No  Yes<br>
Fordham University  Yes No  No<br>
Georgetown University   Yes Yes Yes<br>
Grinnell College    Yes No  Yes<br>
Hamilton College    Yes No  Yes<br>
Harvard Business School Yes Yes Yes<br>
Harvard College Yes Yes Yes<br>
Harvey Mudd College Yes No  Yes<br>
Haverford College   Yes No  Yes<br>
Hiram College   Yes No  Yes<br>
Holy Cross  Yes Yes Yes<br>
Jewish Theological Seminary Yes ?   Yes<br>
Johns Hopkins University     Yes    No<br>
Julliard    Yes ?   ?<br>
Lawrence University Yes No  Yes<br>
Lehigh University   Yes No<br>
Lewis & Clark College   Yes No  Yes<br>
Marist College  Yes No  No<br>
Marlboro College    Yes No  Yes<br>
Middlebury College  Yes No  Yes<br>
Mills College   Yes No  No<br>
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Yes Yes Yes<br>
Mount St. Mary’s College  Yes No  No<br>
North Carolina State University (NCSU)  Yes No  Yes<br>
New York University (NYU)   Yes No  Yes<br>
North Central College   Yes No  Yes<br>
Northeastern University Yes No<br>
Northwestern University Yes No  Yes<br>
Olin College of Engineering Yes No  Yes<br>
Penn State  Yes No  Yes 
Pomona College  Yes Yes Yes<br>
Princeton University    Yes Yes Yes<br>
Providence College  Yes No  Yes<br>
Randolph College    Yes ?   ?<br>
Rice University Yes No  Yes<br>
Salem College   Yes No  Yes<br>
San Jose State University (SJSU)    Yes No  Yes<br>
Semester at Sea Yes Yes NA<br>
Soka University of America  Yes ?   Yes<br>
St. John’s College    Yes Yes Yes<br>
St. Olaf College    Yes No  ?<br>
Stanford University Yes No  Yes<br>
State University of New York (SUNY) College of Environmental Science and Forestry   Yes No  Yes<br>
Swarthmore College  Yes No  Yes<br>
Syracuse University Yes No  Yes<br>
The College of New Jersey (TCNJ)    Yes No  Yes<br>
Thomas Aquinas College  Yes Yes Yes<br>
Trinity University  Yes No  Yes<br>
Tufts University    Yes No<br>
Tulane University   Yes Yes Yes<br>
University of Chicago   Yes No  Yes 
University of Illinois at Chicago   Yes Yes Yes<br>
University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business   Yes ?   Yes<br>
University of Miami Yes Yes Yes 
University of New Hampshire Yes Yes Yes<br>
University of North Carolina    Yes Yes Yes<br>
University of Notre Dame    Yes No  Yes<br>
University of Pennsylvania  Yes No  Yes<br>
University of Richmond  Yes Yes Yes<br>
University of Rochester Yes No<br>
University of Southern California (USC) Yes Yes Yes<br>
University of Vermont   Yes Yes Yes<br>
University of Virginia  Yes No  Yes<br>
University of Washington    Yes Yes Yes<br>
Ursuline College    Yes Yes ?<br>
Vanderbilt University   Yes No  Yes<br>
Vassar College  Yes No  Yes<br>
Wabash College  Yes No  Yes<br>
Wake Forest School of Medicine  Yes No  NA<br>
Washington University   Yes No  Yes<br>
Wellesley College   Yes No  Yes Yes
Wesleyan University Yes No  Yes<br>
Williams College    Yes No  Yes<br>
Yale University Yes Yes Yes<br>
Yeshiva University  Yes Yes     

Just because a school doesn’t look at need for admissions decisions does not guarantee that the school will give the student sufficient aid to attend if accepted. There are notable exceptions (ex. UAlalbama) but many public colleges don’t give a lot of aid to OOS students.

I haven’t double-checked all of it, but this seems to be an updated list, and it includes need-aware colleges that meet need: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-blind_admission