Best kept secret in international admissions: need-blind schools are for wealthy people

Student Lounge International Students
1

<p>Student W and Student P are in born in the same country, in the same year. They are both astoundingly intelligent, motivated, community-oriented, you get the blah. However, W's income bracket is five times that of P. P is not desperately poor(so they can't write an essay about it :) ) but still noticeably so.</p>

<p>Let's see how W's parents use their money. They pay tutors to improve SAT's and grades, but P is also brilliant and their SATs and grades will fail only slightly below(if at all). Same goes for essays. </p>

<p>Then when do money play a part? You guessed well: ECs. W is very careful not to burden their application with anything that sounds like privilege. They don't go to Uganda to build orphanages. Instead, they pay coaches to help them win the national debate competition. P must be happy with a mention at regional level. W hires the best tutors to help them win a silver medal at the IPhO. P gets a honourable mention if they're lucky enough to participate. And the list goes on.</p>

<p>Finally, W has a significantly better application than P, though they have roughly the same intellectual potential. </p>

<p>What will happen know?</p>

<p>NB College, a need-blind school, is like: "Wow! Silver medal at the IPhO! The best debater in the country! 2350 at the SAT! We need this guy NOW!!!!! " Since NB college seeks diversity, they are extremely unlikely to admit P as well, since they look basically like a weaker version of W.</p>

<p>NABG College, a need-aware but generous school: is like: "He went at the IPhO, had some experience with debating, got a 2290 at the SAT, and their parents make only 25000 $ a year! We need this guy badly!". Of course, they also have W's application, that could make them change their mind or not. At this point, they could admit both, only one, or nobody. What is certain, though, is that P stands a much better chance at NABG than he did at NB. Am I correct?</p>

2

<p>lol… NOT QUITE!!!
We can all come up with various theories on why admission boards make the decision they do… but the truth is that we might not get the full details.
Something close to this example was discussed in the “BEREA COLLEGE CLASS OF 2018”
When we have put forth our best application package, all we can do is, to just accept the outcome and move on… that’s why we all need more than one or two safeties when applying to colleges.
BEST OF LUCK TO YOU.</p>

3

<p>I don’t have a problem really with my decisions outcome, I did get into my “safety”(If I told anybody here which safety I had, I’d be perceived as absurdly arrogant, because almost everyone here calls it a reach. But I had real safeties closer to home. :slight_smile: )</p>

<p>What I have a problem with, at this point, is the way I made my list, which included two many NB’s and very few NABG’s. Of course, I can’t change anything about it, but I believe my theory will help future international applicants, as I believe there must be some truth to it.</p>

4

<p>Yes, I agree with you. There are some truth to your example and experience indeed. But the underline tone here is “MONEY and HARDWORK MATTERS”. i.e. both to the applicants and to the colleges that they are applying to. Now that the application is over, the same principle carries on even while in college and prospects after college. Therefore admissions are great, but “FIT & BALANCE” is what will determine the outcome in this case of the two students you gave as example. They might end up in the same school, but their experience and outcome might definitely not be the same.</p>

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<p>interesting</p>

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<p>good</p>

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<p>actually, the dirty secret (and it has nothing to do with internationals) is that there is no such thing as truly need blind. The applications are read by people who specialize in certain regions of the country. They know which schools are expensive, which neighborhoods are nicer. They ask for parental education and employment - both of which are correlated with money.</p>

<p>Also, very few schools are need blind for internationals to begin with.</p>

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<p>@i<em>wanna</em>be_Brown: Interesting point(if true), but I was talking only about intl’s here. Of course I knew that only six schools are need-blind for intl’s, but int’ls who apply to US univs often have a lower income than US students, so many of them apply mostly to need-blind schools.</p>

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<p>Same thing applies for internationals. If a school gets enough apps from one or two countries there are people devoted to this countries, but just as the person who does the north east US knows where the rich neighborhoods are, the person assigned to Asia knows to some extent what parts of a given country are wealthier than others - or if the parents are farmers vs. professors at the country’s major university.</p>

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<p>Well, in my country students from poorer regions don’t even know that they could study in the US. :slight_smile:
I guess you might be referring to the CommonApp(if I remember well, it asked for parents’ jobs). But for internationals, I think your argument works only for extreme examples, like tycoon vs unemployed. That’s because not every country has the same priorities, and an average job in one country may be exceptionally well-paid and respected in another. And I don’t think they bother to search about these differences.</p>

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<p>I don’t know. I had a friend who worked for a top school who would go on trips around the world to get kids interested in applying. I imagine after a few cycles of apps you can learn a lot more than you realize.</p>

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<p>Great points you have all shared, and that is why I shared that at the end of it all “MONEY & HARDWORK MATTERS” - Plus it does not end @ admissions, the trend continues throughout the entire college process and post graduation. Yes, both student (RICH & POOR) can be admitted. Some will offer the aid to make quota, but will they really care about your progress, guide and support you to harness your full potentials? </p>

<p>So it is important that students go for “FIT & BALANCE” because it might just MAKE or BREAK a student.</p>

13

<p>I would just like to add here…if the Ivies are need-blind, then why is there a box where you have to specify whether you need aid or not? Shouldn’t they admit the person without knowing this and then follow their procedure regarding aid?</p>

<p>Just asking</p>

14

<p>You make it sound as though the IPhO is easy. It’s not. If someone won an award at the IPhO, regardless of whether or not that person had access to tutors, he or she deserves to get into a top school. </p>

<p>@humblefool, only four of the Ivy League schools are need-blind. They need you to apply for aid on time, regardless of their policies regarding intl aid, because they want to give you a fin aid package on time with your admission decision.</p>

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<p>It’s not just for international admissions, and it’s no secret at all. Any basic education course will tell you that there is a very direct relationship between wealth and educational/academic achievement. More seriously, the same relationship exists for life expectancy, nutrition, medical care, adequate shelter, safety, clean water and things that are far more essential than going to a need blind university in the US. </p>

16

<p>@International95 Thanks for answering my doubt!</p>