Hi. Does anyone know if Andover is truly needs-blind admission? They claim to be, but I am wondering if that is the case. Obviously I will try to get as much financial aid as possible for my daughter, but I am wondering if that will hurt her chance of admission. And how would Andover know (in advance) whether or not we need financial aid?
Andover says their need-blind policy means that applications for admission won’t be disadvantaged by one’s FA need. They will make admission decisions first, and then process FA applications of those admitted. They also promise to meet 100% of FA need as determined by a combination of PFS report, your circumstances and the school’s discretion. There have been doubts and conspiracy theories over the “authenticity” of need blind policy since it was first invented in college side mostly as more colleges practice NB than prep schools. Here’s what I’d do. If you have means to pay, don’t apply for FA - better safe than sorry. If you don’t or absolutely are not willing to be FP, then believe them. Moreover, apply to schools with good FA programs but is not NB too. Good luck!
@panpacifc pretty such sums it up. Whether one believes in a “conspiracy theory” or not, unless your decision is to apply FP vs. not, I’m not sure what difference it makes. At the end of the day, it is what it is.
To answer your title question, Andover is the only BS that makes the claim to be need-blind, although there are certainly many schools that are not need-blind that are generous with FA.
I remember one of the Andover AOs explain this at an admissions event.
Imagine a football draft. You need to have a certain number of defensive players, offense, special teams and a quarterback.
If you are in need of a kicker than you might put 3 of your best kicking prospects on your list with the hopes that at least one will be available.
Andover gets to keep all of their first round draft picks. Other schools re-assess to make sure the FA budget isn’t depleted after the first round is selected.
Now during the first round the AOs can generally tell how well off an applicant is (zip code, parents job, etc). At Andover they emphasize that decisions are made without knowing who applied for FA.
I know there are a lot of conspiracy theories out there but I for one believe the admissions office at Andover.
I can at least attest that the Andover faculty and staff consider the school fully need blind. When DS1 went through the process the soccer coach who was actively recruiting him said - and I remember the words exactly - “Apply for aid, you’d be crazy not to.” We applied, I was hoping for ~25% FA and received closer to 50%.
Andover has so much money, I’m surprised it doesn’t fall from the rafters during PE classes. They are always trying to find good ways to spend it, too, what with need-blind FA, the Abbot Association, the Commons budget, and all the construction. What I am saying is that if Andover is not need-blind, it would have to be cruel.
@natakwali The construction never ends! Four year of endless construction alerts from Tom Conlon. It was the worst when they were finishing renovating Bulfinch during my freshman year, and we had to have English in the chapel.
I have several close friends who are receiving FA, and all of them received at least or much, or in many cases, more, than they required. Essentially, you should believe the statements from Admissions: If they take the time and effort to offer you admission, they will try as hard as possible to make it possible for you to come to the school.
Slightly off topic but think about any institution that has >$500,000 in their endowment per student. A 5% investment return covers half the cost of tuition. Many of the acronym schools have more than $1,000,000 in their endowment per student, and some Ivies have $2,000,000-$3,000,000 per student. These places can and should be generous. If they are not they should loose their tax exempt status.
There is no need-blind school. If Andover is need-blind and Exeter is not, why do they give out the same amount of money in financial aid? Need-blind is a marketing gimmick to get more people to apply, so that they can look more competitive in admit rate.
Because Exeter has very little need sensitivity. IOW, despite the fact that they are aware of student need they have a large enough budget that they’ve been able to admit almost everyone they want without blowing the budget. Both schools admit the same percentage of students on FA but Andover’s average grant is a bit larger, which one would expect under a need blind policy. That would indicate that PA is admitting more kids with full financial need while PE is taking a larger percentage of middle-class kids who need less financial assistance.
Brooks is not need blind and is more need sensitive than Exeter. That doesn’t mean a strong applicant wouldn’t get just a good a FA package as at PA or PE but it does up the odds they will end up waitlisted.
On a side note, it bothers me when people call the Directors of Admissions and Headmasters of schools liars on the strength of nothing more than a vague feeling that something doesn’t make sense to them instead of doing the work to figure out how what the school is claiming works.
Exeter talked about being needs blind from 2006 to 2008 then their endowment took a bath in 2008. They claim they want to enact a true needs blind admissions when they recover finacially.
I would interpret “needs blind” to be a relative term.
