principal, I fully agree with Andover’s practice of meeting 100% need of every admitted student. You know why? Because if a school admits you and denies/waitlists you for financial aid, that’s basically denying you. From where would you get the money to go there? The sky? </p>
<p>[Back in my day, I was admitted to a particular college (let’s call that Boo U.) but they did not offer me any financial aid. The university I ended up attending offered me an extremely generous scholarship package. To me, that said, they really wanted me there. Because they knew I needed that money to go there. At Boo U., however, it felt like a slap in the face. “Yay, we like you, but not enough to give you money, so we’ll admit you so we can SAY we admitted you, but we’re not going to give you money, so we don’t really want you.”]</p>
<p>Need-blind admissions means TWO things, and they’re equally important. </p>
<p>Need-blind means #1) The school will admit students without regard to their families’ financial need. Most b-schools are actually need-blind up to a certain point. Andover’s not unique in trying to meet the “need-blind” ideal. The first round of reading apps at any school, is need-blind. Honestly, I have no idea how much money a family requires when I read applications. Sure, I can look at their parents’ occupations and make an educated guess, but I make no assumptions, and I’m not privy to their financial aid applications anyhow (that all goes to the director of financial aid). So as we read apps, we admit, deny and wait-list without having ANY knowledge of families’ financial situations. At the end of all the reading, schools then have to figure out if they’ve overspent their financial aid budgets. If they have overspent, then they need to pull out some admits (either by waitlisting them or denying them, depending on the school) and that makes them NOT need-blind. If they have not overspent and end up within their budget, then they ARE truly need-blind. </p>
<p>Did you read the profiles of the newly admitted class at Andover? Goodness, gracious me, it’s a good thing I went to Hogwarts because I never would have gotten in there. Given the sound of those kids, I imagine it was super-competitive for ANYONE to have been admitted there, whether their parents could pay full tuition or not. That is why I do believe that no one is trying to pull the wool over your eyes, principal. That talented an applicant pool with that big of a financial aid budget–no doubt those who were not accepted were not accepted due to (a) the competitiveness of the pool and (b) space limitations and not (c) financial aid limitations. </p>
<p>And need-blind means #2) The school will meet 100% of a family’s financial need.
A school cannot call itself need-blind if it doesn’t. Because otherwise, they’re simply not!</p>
<p>Yield protection and financial aid are two separate issues. If I work for School X and four generations of your family has gone to ABC Academy, and I have no good reason to think you would ever come to School X, why would I admit you? That has nothing to do with your parents’ ability to pay and everything to do with the fact that I have a limited number of people I can admit and everyone I admit I really want to come to School X.