<p>I do understand this is frustrating for kids and their families. But if the money isn't there, it isn't there. Many in America are living a financial reality they couldn't have imagined 6 months ago. This really isn't about honor, it's just dealing with reality as best they can.</p>
<p>On the flip side the schools have a lot of applications in hand from kids who thought they could pay and no longer can. Almost everyone's financial reality changed in a flash.</p>
<p>Yeah actually good point in the last part! I didn't think of that. :-P</p>
<p>I actually feel really bad for the schools. I imagine that they are making some really heartbreaking decisions now. </p>
<p>I won't be bitter if my son is denied due to FA reasons. It is reality, as hmom5 states. And as happykidsmom says, "No private school 'owes' my son an education."</p>
<p>I would be really really REALLY grateful if he were accepted with aid, of course. I don't think anyone has any IDEA how grateful I would be. (Maybe a few of you do ;) )</p>
<p>Wait, if they changed the need-blind policy 4, 5, 6 days before they notified the students, and since the decisions were already made, wouldn't the non-need-blind policy only start to affect applicants starting next year?</p>
<p>Because the money issues are there now.</p>
<p>I know nothing of Exeter's policy. Do they promise to both be need blind for admissions and meet 100% of need? The vast majority of private schools I know of do not promise more than to do their best to meet need.</p>
<p>thingslost, Exeter needs no official announcement that they are no long need-blind. As brutal as it sounds huge schools like these in an economical down turn are businesses. As someone said before..they don't OWE us anything and have to look out for themselves and current students before us. Especially if they have enough qualified full-payers. Yes, even Exeter.</p>
<p>I'm just trying to be positive! It seems as if you find fault with everything I post.</p>
<p>I wasn't criticizing you I was just saying. It sounded like you expected better from exeter compared to the other HADES or boarding school. It's just not the case, everyone gets affected equally.</p>
<p>Has anyone else found a copy of the article the OP referenced? I checked Exeters web site and their FA info is the same as it has always been.</p>
<p>I think people should read the article before reaching the conclusion that they are no longer need blind, what ever that means. As people have pointed out before, even with the "need blind" policy they have managed to keep the FA levels at about the same percentage year after year. I think they have always been aware of an applicants ability to pay and made their decisions with that knowledge in mind and been able to keep the FA at a sustainable level. It sounds like they are just going to adjust their admissions decisions to reflect the current financial reality, and I bet they continue to maintain their need blind policy in word, if not in deed. </p>
<p>Also, interestingly, the Choate article claims that Exeter and Andover continue to be need blind.</p>
<p>Don't confuse need blind and meeting need, they are two different things. Schools often are need blind but practice what is called admit-deny, they admit students without offering adequate aid which has the effect of denying the child admission.</p>
<p>I did some research and it looks as though Exeter only in the last few years moved to fully meet need for all admits. I would guess the wording they use like that of many schools would not be an absolute guarantee of meeting everyone's need.</p>
<p>I am a trustee of a day school where we are facing the same problem as Exeter and every school that relies on their endowment for a significant part of their budget. We need to raise the FA budget now to just accommodate the kids already enrolled. So on top of having deep budget deficits, schools have to get dollars from somewhere to meet their current commitment to their students and staff.</p>
<p>Knowing this is a likely prolonged recession, schools need to be very careful how much aid they are promising looking out. It would be a massive problem if the economy stays bad, as it may well, and students' parents continue to lose jobs resulting in even more need. Schools don't want to accept kids and watch them have to leave because of money. And this will happen next year at most schools which can't find the money because they don't have the substantial resources Exeter and other big endowment schools have. Schools are trying to be fair to everyone.</p>
<p>At my school we are not changing our need blind policy, we will, however, have to enroll more full pay students until our endowment can produce enough income to cover higher budgets. This pains everyone.</p>
<p>I realize that a lot of this is speculation, but will the advantage conferred on full pays be sufficient that they will even overlook relatively weak SSAT scores, like say an 80%ile overall? Again, I know we are all speculating.</p>
<p>I guess I mean to ask: how far into the barrell of full pays will they dip in order to meet the needed critical mass of full pays????</p>
<p>It's got to be a subjective answer Pan, from school to school it will be different, any other answer is pure conjecture.</p>
<p>80% on the SSATs is not a weak score. 80% , with respectable grades from a trusted school, and good recs, is a candidate with a reasonable chance of admission, at any school, in any year. </p>
<p>I presume that Andover and Exeter are in the same position as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Dartmouth. If they so desired, they could fill next year's class with full-pay candidates who satisfy any admissions criteria. Yes, there is a terrible economic climate, but the schools perceived to be the very best at what they do will still appeal to the wealthy. </p>
<p>The danger really lies in the effect this might have on other schools. They also need full-pay candidates. If Andover and Exeter take a greater share of the pool of full-pays, what happens to the schools which are further down the pecking order? At those schools, where will the admissions committee draw the line?</p>
<p>As a parent, I'm really not worried about the kid who will receive Cs and Ds. So long as the parents and child have no illusion about the academic difficulty, it's not a problem to have a somewhat broader range of ability in the classroom. As a parent, I'm worried about the full-pay kids with a bad attitude, whose behavior can negatively influence other children. </p>
<p>The stereotype of a prep school student as rich, not very bright, and snobby is a stereotype. I am very afraid that current economic conditions may lead schools back to selecting more of that sort of candidate.</p>
<p>I would like to stress a point and that is that the approximately $40,000 a year a school receives from a "full pay" student pales in comparison to the money that flows into the endowment coffers. Even with the economic downturn, these schools are committed to looking at students as people and not wallets or dollar bills. Because we have been involved with this as a family over the past several years and currently, if you are not accepted to a school, although it is easy to blame it on the fact that you applied for FA, I know several admissions officers, and it really does not matter about your ability to pay. They do not know and do not care if you can pay. They are looking for a match of student to school. They want to retain students and they work hard to find the students who will do well and thrive in their particular environment. These TSO schools do have differences, even subtle ones, and they just want you to fit.</p>
<p>The admissions officers may not care about ability to pay while they are deliberating (which is great!) but once the file goes to FA they DO care and may moves the admit to a WL depending on the school's policy.</p>
<p>From another thread on CC here is a quote from the brooks website:Because we cannot aid all of our qualified applicants, Brooks will wait-list an applicant who qualifies for financial aid if we do not have both financial aid and a place available. Once an applicant who qualifies for financial aid has been wait-listed, both a place and financial aid must become available before that applicant will be taken off the wait-list. This policy is different from school to school. Please ask each school that you are applying to about their policy.</p>
<p>My kid was accepted to Exeter as a boarder a few years back. Even then, it was clear that full pay day students trumped FA day student applicants and full pay boarder students had an edge on FA boarder applicants when equal qualifications and diversity expectations were accounted. She did not attend Exeter because the FA was not great and tuition/ board would have impoverished our family. Middlesex was much more generous and we will always be thankful for that gift. However, another great kid, single mom, got in to Exeter and went with amazing FA. All you can do is wait and see how it all works out.</p>
<p>At the top schools, they really do not have to bend standards to get more full paying students. As the ranking/popularity goes down, those schools will have trouble finding enough full pays to be fully enrolled.</p>
<p>Here's an article about colleges, but describes well what we'll see outside of the top few schools. They will actually offer upper middle class families more discounts to get their children to enroll. So the good part for students is some schools will become cheaper:</p>