Here is why: My sister wants to apply for financial aid and her son is applying to a couple of schools that claim to be need blind. The NPC on the schools’ websites are saying that they wouldn’t get much if anything. However, they were hoping to write a letter of special circumstances. But if all that is going to affect their kid’s chances of getting in without them really getting much in the end, then they may rethink the whole thing. (Of course that means they may not be able to swing it in the end, but I think they still hope that something may change at some point. Don’t want to argue their strategy, but do want to know if anyone thinks the article above has any truth to it.)
Interestingly, the schools who are claiming to be need blind ask right on the application if the student will be applying for financial aid, and not all schools do. This made them especially concerned.
The schools who are need blind ask about the need for FA on the application so that IF the student is accepted, THEN the appication is immediately forwarded to the FA office so they can come with a FA package to present WITH the letter of acceptance.
How else would the FA office find out or even know that FA is needed if they dont ask on the application??
Its a 2 step process, and at NEED BLIND colleges the FA office has NO input into the decisions of the admissions committee.
So tell your sister to relax…
Most can colleges actually are need blind. But most of them do not offer very good financial aid.
Colleges can also be need blind in the reading of individual applications, but certainly can and presumably do design their admissions reading criteria to get an overall class which fits within the financial aid budget and other class composition criteria that they want.
Even if the college is looking (when they say they aren’t) it is likely that how much aid a kid needs matters. Someone who needs a lot of aid might have their chances reduced, but someone who is only eligible for a small amount may not be. Sounds like they can’t swing it without FA anyway, so what good does it do if they check no and the kid gets in? I hope the kid has affordable schools on their list and will be happy to attend one, though, as letters of special circumstance don’t usually get much.
If the NPC says they won’t get much or anything, you need to figure whether its because the school simply doesn’t have much to give. Or they prioritize, say, in-state kids at a public U. The school I work for is sincerely need blind for US kids. No financial details appear on the app reviewed by admissions. No one goes off calling FA, to find out.
My experience is the special circumstances letter is something written after the financial aid award is made, a separate form and/or process schools have. (But there is some room on the CSS Profile to explain some details.) You can check the college’s FA pages and see how they handle the letter, what and when.
Even if a school asks if you’re applying for aid- or a waiver- that still doesn’t mean the answer is among the downloaded info an adcom sees when reviewing.
IOW, you have to know first whether there is a shot at getting aid, in the first place- ie, whether the college is able to be generous. You have to have realistic expectations if the NPC isn’t a good number. And you have to have happy safeties that the family can afford.
ps. beware even HuffPo articles written by professional counselors who want to make you nervous enough to seek out their services. Colleges set their upcoming FA budgets, the amount to be pulled from their endowment funds, plus a pad, in advance of the app season.
Beware anything written by HuffPo. They used to be pretty decent and now they are one step above the National Enquirer in some of their reporting. Their science reporting is so abysmal it tells me nothing in that site is decent quality.
there are not that many colleges that are both need-blind in admissions and meet full need of all students. (US citizens)
Perhaps ~30 Unis, and a smaller number of LACs, for perhaps 50-60 total out of 3000?
btw: I agree that the result of college admissions makes it appear that colleges favor the middle class/wealthy and that is due to the EC’s that are essentially required for admissions. Poor kids generally don’t participate successfully in Intel competitions, for example. Its a result of the admissions process – disparate impact – if you will.
You must mean at the most selective colleges, where ECs matter the most due to little differentiation between applicants on typical academic measures (high school courses, grades, and test scores). Less selective colleges can rely more on the typical academic measures, and may not consider ECs at all. However, it is true that opportunity to reach higher grades and test scores is greater for those from higher income families, though perhaps not as much as ECs that are expensive or otherwise mostly accessible to higher income families.
Of course, a college can adjust the weighting of ECs, first generation status, essays about overcoming poverty, etc. in its admission reading criteria to target a given SES mix of students, depending on what it sees as its mission and what its financial aid budget is. Whether or not to require SAT subject tests, CSS Profile, recommendations, etc. can also affect the SES mix.
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THEN the appication is immediately forwarded to the FA office
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I don’t think that is true. I think that the FAFSA and, if required, CSS Profile, is sent to the FA office. Probably they wait for some computer notification that a student has been accepted and then they prepare the FA pkg, or maybe they do some preliminary work. I don’t think a student’s school admission application gets forwarded to the FA office. Why would it?
There used to be a mom who posted here on CC whose kids went to a variety of Ivy League schools. They were very high income full pay. She used to insist that being full pay and not applying for aid was a plus, even at the so called need blind schools. She didn’t believe that they were truly need blind. She said that the consistent numbers reported by these schools detailing how many qualified for aid was a strong indication that these schools werent’ really need blind, otherwise the numbers qualifying for aid would swing from year to year.
She also would argue that often a student’s ECs and zip code were revealing, as well as their essays.
I don’t know either way, but I would find it hard to believe that Adcom’s can’t tell from an app who really doesn’t need aid and who really does.
Those schools that admit they are not need blind (like Reed) state they only really take finances into account at the cut line. Those students they really want make it in first and those who are border line are evaluated with the FA impact at the end of the admission timeline. So if your nephew is awesome he should be safe regardless.
Yes, you are correct…I was referring to those colleges that are both need blind and meet full need – all of which are highly selective.
Again, it is really disparate impact. Harvard, for example, has one of the broadest of D1 athletics programs in the country. Of course, it takes talent to be recruited at that level. But, the vast majority of sports for which a H coach can tip a student are the so-called country club sports. How many public high schools have fencing. How many inner city schools have competitiveswim teams?
The same is true for other EC’s. It takes money to play the admissions game to highly selective colleges, but the $$ becomes irrelevant once the application is in.
All need blind means is that colleges do not consider your ability to pay when your application for admissions is reviewed.
So what if admissions knows you are applying for financial aid? Admissions at need blind schools,do NOT know how much aid you need…because they are NEED blind. As noted, the financial aid office crafts your financial aid package after you have been accepted, based on the data provided.
Schools that are need aware…admissions KNOWS the level of aid you need. Many of these schools practice enrollment management. Some can’t provide a high level of support to all accepted students…and the admissions folks need to leverage those who can pay more…at times.
My kids both applied for financial aid…and indicated so on their applications. They did this solely to get the Direct Loan.
Your high school counselor will also submit, or make available, the HS profile. This document is very revealing as to the socioeconomic status of students at that high school in general (although it does not, of course, address individual socioeconomic status).
It can tell the adcom how many APs are offered by the HS, the colleges attended by recent grads, the percentage of students on free/reduced price lunch, and sometimes even a description of the socioeconomic area. These are “tells” as to the general wealth of the student body of the HS.
I am one of those suspicious people who believes that even “need blind” adcoms do parse applications to shape their classes. A school with a healthy endowment looking for socioeconomic diversity might bump up, rather than discard, a poorer student’s application. OTOH, a school with little aid to give might give the nod to the wealthier applicant. But I think they have all the info they need from the app itself; no need to dig into the actual individual financials.
For some colleges (Yale for example), you don’t have to check the box at the time of application for admission. It’s optional. Financial aid application has its own deadline. You may apply after you are admitted.