<p>benevolent - Deerfield and SPS are also need-blind. Andover is not that unique.</p>
<p>I remember seeing a small catch on there financial aid website, small, but existent. Check out the link for Deerfield ([Financial</a> Aid Grants :: Deerfield Academy :: an independent, coeducational boarding high school](<a href=“http://www.deerfield.edu/Admissions/index.cfm?page_ID=6]Financial”>http://www.deerfield.edu/Admissions/index.cfm?page_ID=6)), when a school is NEED BLIND they brag about it like no other. </p>
<p>
If they were purely need blind, there would be a small catch after that line. Something like “You will be admitted regardless of your ability to pay”. This means the meet hundred percent need, but may not admit you if they cannot afford you. </p>
<p>This being said, they are still top schools and are leading in financial diversity.</p>
<p>Principal - Where’s the catch? Other than knowing that a candidate is FA, the adcom does not know the level of need. A separate financial aid committee determines the amount offered. What am I missing that makes Andover unique?</p>
<p>I did not word my sentence properly, sorry. For St. Paul’s, the “If admitted” seems like a catch to me, and for both schools, they would brag about it if they were need blind. Have you seen Andover? They use it as a huge propaganda device, they even made an article about it! </p>
<p>Oh well, how can I look into admission policies.</p>
<p>“My point is, what if Andover’s higher percentage of financial aid candidates are mostly partial financial applicants and Exeter has a higher number of full aid candidates?”</p>
<p>With 11% of Andover’s students on full scholarship (including tuition, r&b, books, spending money and a laptop) that is extremely unlikely.</p>
<p>"Where’s the catch? Other than knowing that a candidate is FA, the adcom does not know the level of need. A separate financial aid committee determines the amount offered. What am I missing that makes Andover unique? "</p>
<p>The admissions committee at most schools - even those that say they will meet full need of admitted students - is well aware of the financial aid budget and the typical financial aid profile. They can and do make a statistical assessment of how many FA students to accept (i.e. a cap on the number of FA students admitted). So while the admissions committee might not know the specific need of a given FA applicant, they are treating them as a member of a separate pool that will have stricter admissions requirements to fit the cap.</p>
<p>Agreed Padre…for most schools. What I am trying to ascertain is how is Andover’s FA process “unique” from Deerfield and SPS?</p>
<p>At each of these schools, you must be admitted before FA is awarded. The adcoms know whether or not FA is requested, but that’s all. I don’t understand the statement/argument that Andover is the only school to do this.</p>
<p>I do applaud Andover’s need blind policy. I wish all BS/colleges/companies were run completely on merit. Hoewever, even with need blind, Andover’s admission policy is not a meritocracy. Remember legacy preference? URMs? Geographic consideration? ect ect ect… So yes it’s a great step to remain need blind- just don’t let yourself think it’s a perfect system.</p>
<p>zzzzzzzz … this thread needs to die.
This Need Blind Utopia for smart poor kids exists only on occasion in history, and then it slips back into the fog of economics.</p>
<p>Ya know - and this is respectfully directed at you, Sarum - that not all FA kids are “poor.” You do know that, don’t you?</p>
<p>jedwards, THANK YOU.</p>
<p>Sarum, I often find your posts quite depressing. So many of them are very, very pessimistic - why such a negative outlook?</p>
<p>Pragmatic is the word.</p>
<p>By the same token not every FP applicant is rich. For many, living on that hundred and eighty thousand line is a fine line… Take tax and boarding school expenses out and you have a middle-class family.</p>
<p>No no, Sarum, they’re negative. Inject the occasional “might” or “probably” and they’d be pragmatic. But as they stand, they’re just down-putting. A little bit of positivity never hurt anyone. Look on the bright side from time to time.</p>
<p>PPV, you’re right, but those types of families will most likely always be able to afford boarding school. We that live in Sarum’s so-called smart poor kid utopia may not, when and if what Sarum suggests comes to pass.</p>
<p>By the same token, not all FP kids are rich! unfortunately!!</p>
<p>Wow, took the words right out of PPV’s mouth! ;)</p>
<p>Tom - where I’m coming from and where I’m going in the world of private schools “bums me out” alot. I have one graduating college and four still in the world of FP private schools. I wish the public school system in my area was as good as when my wife grew up here! The economy sucks and my wealth has decreased on par with the endowments of the HADES schools. Sometimes my pen is sharper at the time that I write, than what I live and believe as a moderate dad. I profusely apologize if I sound "down-putting and “negative” from time to time. I mean to be more pragmatic than negative in my heart, but sometimes the weight and responsibility of the times takes over. Please think of me on CC as no less than a well-meaning Curmudgeon.</p>
<p>No apologies necessary. The economy has been very, very tough on a lot of people and it must be a huge burden to be paying five full tuitions.</p>
<p>These are indeed brutal times economically. We are living through a hell not seen in over 60 years. If there are some folks attending, or sending their kids to, BS’s and colleges who don’t see or feel the deadly squeeze of this economy, they are most fortunate, most purblind or both. These are scary times. Many of the parents on CC know it. Many of the kids on CC need to start understanding it.</p>
<p>Most of us are 14 year old kids. Why should we bear the burden of our parents finances. While the CC kids may be guilty of many things, the CC parents are definitely guilty of treating their kids like full grown adults. Were not, I assure you. We can talk and write like adults, but there’s no reason for us to deal with a reality that we can’t even do anything about. Let the parents be miserable and shield their kids from it. If your kids are going to boarding school, I assure you, they have enough stress to deal with.</p>
<p>istoleyournose, thank you. Before now I felt like I was the only one who detected some sort of bitterness in the adults on this forum seemingly because of the fact that not all (and very few, in fact) CC kids act as if they have 40-50 years of life experience. For goodness sake, give us a break. As I said on another thread, toddle on over to an XBOX 360 forum to get a taste of what normal kids our age are like. Try to talk some sense into them, I dare you.</p>