Can Andover be truly need-blind in admission even if it wanted to be?

Prep School Admissions
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<p>I do. But this thread is not about Andover, nor about Andover vs. Exeter. As I have repeatedly stressed throughout this thread, Andover has my utmost admiration for its generosity and efforts to reach out to students of every SES.</p>

<p>I just used these two schools simply because they have very different admission policy toward FA applicants, yet produce remarkably similar admission profiles and stats. In other words, we have witnessed a rare social experiment, where a “need-blind” admission policy did NOT make any meaningful differences.</p>

<p>If you care to read the OP:</p>

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<p>I hope you understand that the whole intention of mine was to help future FA applicants enlightened about what a “need-blind” admission policy means for them. What did it mean for this year’s admission? Andover had 3,049 completed applications. Many BS application pools consist of 1/3 FP and 2/3 FA applicants, and I would think, thanks to its well publicized admission policy, Andover probably had more FA applications. For the sake of argument, though, let’s just assume the same ratio for Andover: ~1,000 FP and ~2,000 FA applications. It has admitted 274 FP and 153 FA applicants. These numbers translate into admission rates of 27.4% and 7.7% for FP and FA applicants, respectively. </p>

<p>To summarize, here’s my advice for Andover FA applicants:</p>

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<li>Your application will be evaluated in a single pool of combined FA and FP applicants. </li>
<li>So if your qualifications are as good as/better than those of FP applicants, your chance of admission is good.</li>
<li>However, Andover often looks for the qualities that are less common among middle/lower SES families. </li>
<li>Therefore, your overall chance of gaining Andover admission as an FA applicant is significantly lower compared to an FP applicant. </li>
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<p>I have seen so many FA applicants on this board dream up false hopes for Andover admission on the premise of its “need-blind” policy, whether they really understood what it means or not. Eventually, most end up with puzzled minds and broken hearts. This thread would serve its purpose if we see one less misinformed and disappointed soul.</p>

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<p>@cptofthehouse‌, @classicalmom‌ - What is/was your affiliation to A?</p>

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<p>In my experience, with both these sort of schools and colleges, that policies do not make a huge amount of difference in terms of applicatons. Exeter and Andover get a lot of kids applying to both schools and also like schools. The acceptance rates as well as the chances for aid are small enough that those wanting seats for their kids in such schools have to cut a wide swath. And the results can vary. One has to be accepted in order to get any aid, and that is often the big stumbling block, </p>

<p>I know of a young woman who applied to a a dozen of these schools and got into half of them. Was accepted to Choate Rosemary Hall with some aid, but turned down by both Andover and Exeter and a whole lot of other schools. </p>

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<p>@SharingGift wrote:</p>

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<p>And what is your basis for this statement? Do you have anything to back this up?</p>

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<p>I thought I had a better chance at Andover because it’s need-blind. Since they didn’t know my socioeconomic status, chances are that it hurt me. </p>

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<p>@cptofthehouse‌ It’s a common misconception that Prep and ABC are primarily targeted toward low-income students. However, I cannot find an income cutoff for either, although someone posted on here that Prep has a cutoff of $250,000. </p>

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<p>@cptofthehouse‌ - There you go again, making statements without any backing (other than this ambigious ‘experience’ that you refuse to clarify)</p>

<p>“In my experience, with both these sort of schools and colleges, that policies do not make a huge amount of difference in terms of applicatons.”</p>

<p>I dont buy it.</p>

<p>Sharing’s data shows the marketing of FA policies appear to make a significant difference. Can you address that?</p>

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<p>@SharingGift - Have you ever noticed the increase of people buying lottery tickets when the prize exceeds a certain number? A NB assertion and a 100M lottery prize have a lot in common. </p>

<p>It drives the numbers up.</p>

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<p>Jersey: All my loyalty goes to Exeter, where my kid will be graduating this year. </p>

<p>I think it’s far more likely that Andover’s increased applications are due to its adoption of the common app. and Exeter’s old-fashioned requirement of a handwritten essay. I suspect that few kids apply to Exeter on a whim–too much effort. Exeter is more interested in attracting the right applicants than winning the admssions rate race on March 10. A search of the Exonian archives will turn up very clear statements from the Admissions Office on all of this stuff. </p>

<p>It’s true, as Sharing Gift points out, that need blind does not really mean that FA students have a better chance at being admitted to Andover than to Exeter. As I’ve stated, it has more relevance to FP students. But…while good FA is a must for many of us, no student should be applying to a school primarily because the school is need blind. I guess I just don’t see what all the fuss is about. </p>

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<p>If you ever read the paragraph above the numbered list, you’ll know. BTW it was in bold face. </p>

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<p>To weigh in on the speculation about whether or not need blind and/or generous FA policies attract more applicants, I can tell you that in our case they absolutely did. </p>

<p>I don’t need to remind folks on this list how time-consuming the application process is. I would posit that it is even more challenging to manage (logistically) for families with lower incomes.</p>

<p>When you are in no position to hire a consultant to help with the application, when your middle school doesn’t have a guidance department that assists with these types of endeavors beyond forwarding school records (ours doesn’t), when both parents are working so have less time in general to assist, when you can’t afford test prep classes and so you undertake that prep yourself, etc. You get the idea.</p>

<p>To take all that on when your local public district is not a bad option would not make sense if you thought you were not going to be able to finance the education even if admitted.</p>

<p>Exeter and Andover both have day student areas that include communities with school systems that are above average, but with incomes that fit the profile above.</p>

<p>I can tell you from my own experience that a great number of students apply to these institutions who promise a lot of aid, because they think “why not? There’s no harm in trying.”</p>

<p>I do not think we would have gone through the process had we thought <em>both</em> admissions and aid were extreme long shots. It just wouldn’t be worth the time commitment.</p>

<p>So, to agree with @Sharinggift, I absolutely do think that the need blind marketing generates more applications.</p>

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<p>^^ Now the follow up question…</p>

<p>Do you feel Andover’s need-blind claim is disingenuous?</p>

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<p>You’re describing an ideal, and I agree. But the reality is many do. Many middle/working class families and students do apply to Andover because of its “need blind” policy. </p>

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<p>No. I don’t question its good intention. Unless we see material evidence.</p>

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<p>I wouldn’t use the word disingenuous, as that implies some sort of malice of forethought. I do think it is misleading, however. Like @stargirl3‌ said, she genuinely believed that she was being evaluated in a different way that she probably was. I don’t think than she is unique in thinking that, when the school touts the need blind label.</p>

<p>I don’t believe that Andover intends to deceive. I’m also not naïve enough to think that they are not aware of need blind as a marketing tool.</p>

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<p>@SharingGift: wrote</p>

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Where did you get the above information from? I can’t find it anywhere on Andover’s website. </p>

<p>The only information that has been published is that 427 students were accepted on Mar 10. Nothing is mentioned about the % of students who were accepted on FA/FP. The projections that you make afterwards (27.4% vs 7.7% admission rate for FP/FA) are quite ominous, but it appears to me that you are simply basing this on your best guess. If you have the breakdown for % of FA and FP students who applied, were accepted and matriculated, then post your source.</p>

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<p>While everyone seems to focus on the “need-blind” moniker as the primary driver for Andover’s high number of applications relative to it’s academic twin, Exeter, I think you should consider the fact that Andover opted to use the Gateway portal for admissions and Exeter did not. It is very easy to push the Gateway button to add an application to Andover, but applying to Exeter is like starting from scratch.</p>

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<p>Until last year, Andover had published FA figures for both admitted and matriculated students. This year they stopped publishing admitted FA student number, but you can still get matriculated FA student number, here:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.andover.edu/About/Newsroom/Pages/Andover-announces-record-admission-results-for-237th-incoming-class.aspx”>http://www.andover.edu/About/Newsroom/Pages/Andover-announces-record-admission-results-for-237th-incoming-class.aspx&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>There you can see 153 FA matriculated. You may argue this is not the same as FA admitted, but historically almost every Andover FA admit did matriculate. Furthermore, the number is consistent with published FA admit figures that were actually published (148, 155, 169, 161, 159). </p>

<p>If it makes you feel any more comfortable, here are last year’s hard numbers published by Andover:</p>

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<p>Now, it’s a simple matter of subtraction (402-148) to get FP admits at 254. And we can infer FA admit rate to be ~7.4% (=148/2,000) and FP admit rate to be ~25.4% (=254/1,000). These are not that different from this year’s figures: 7.7% and 27.4%.</p>

<p>Finally, Andover must have had 150 FA matriculated to be consistent with 47% FA students among all matriculated, which corroborate my earlier assertion on a historic trend that almost every FA admit decides to matriculate.</p>

<p>Hopefully this is not too much number crunching… 8-} </p>

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<p>@SharingGift, your numbers imply the differences in admit rates for FA and FP are consequences of each category’s yield rate. PA admits more FP students, but the FP students don’t commit at the same rate. </p>

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<p>Of those that are attributing A’s higher number of applicants due to </p>

<p>"… the fact that Andover opted to use the Gateway portal for admissions and Exeter did not"</p>

<p>Should attempt to back this up with data.</p>