<p>FYI,
Last year, GWU finally admitted publicly that it had been lying for years about being need blind
<a href=“George Washington University Has for Years Claimed to be 'Need-Blind.' It’s Not. — ProPublica”>http://www.propublica.org/article/george-washington-university-has-for-years-claimed-to-be-need-blind.-its-no</a>
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<p>@starzevMom: I have no hard and fast data, sorry. This is based upon my own impression of Andover after having several discussions with the admissions staff over the past year while my son was applying. He was accepted so I had a chance to visit the school and speak to Ad Officers several times. I even got a chance to meet John Palfrey and speak with him.</p>
<p>A vast majority of schools make it known that FA plays a role in admissions (Exeter, Deerfield, Lawrenceville, etc). But I honestly and truly believe at Andover they are committed to being need blind. They are only human, but are trying their best to make this as equitable as possible.</p>
<p><a href=“The Illusion of Need-Blind Admission | HuffPost College”>HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost;
<p>Replace “Brown” with “Andover.”</p>
<p>I’ve been calling bs (and i don’t mean boarding school) on this for a while. Because even those non wealthy kids who manage to score at 99th percentile, have high ability at an instrument(s) without lessons, and exhaust all local resources still somehow end up with a string of waitlists when the dust settles.</p>
<p>I’m considering taking up heroin just so my daughter can write about it on her college apps. (Just kidding)</p>
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<p>Where’d you get this information? I don’t think this is accurate. I mean, sure, there are middle class families with generous financial aid packages, but there’s not any indication that these are the ones that gain full aid. </p>
<p>I could be wrong, but I’m skeptical.</p>
<p>@mrnephew, I’m so glad you asked.
From the Exeter website: “In November, 2007 Exeter announced a new financial aid initiative that offers an Exeter education free to any accepted or current student whose family income is $75,000 or less.” $75K is above the median US income.</p>
<p>I meant to write that most could be middle class, not that most are middle class. The point is that none of the schools provide information which would indicate how many poor students are offered admission.</p>
<p>@mrnephew, as u are in int’l student, I am curious what your income definition is of “middle class” in the U.S. </p>
<p>As I’ve noted before, when I saw that St. Andrew’s had “scrubbed” its public-facing marketing materials (like the website) of “need blind” language, I called to ask the reason (I forget now if it was this fall or last fall). </p>
<p>And they explained that they had come to realize that it was IMPOSSIBLE to be truly need blind…for many of the reasons noted by others above. While I always liked that SAS could match Andover in this claim, I understand and appreciate their POV.</p>
<p>I still believe (though have never discussed this with the AOs) that if you can get in to SAS, they will make it possible for you to attend — regardless of your family’s ability to pay.</p>
<p>@mrnephew, There’s also no indication that the middle class kids aren’t the only ones getting full aid. I would love to see questions on the application such as: did you take a prep class for the SSAT? did you get any help on your essays? what was the cost of your extra-curricular activities/ lessons/ sports? Did you use a consultant? These kinds of questions would help address the current opportunity gap.</p>
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<p>You are a believer!!</p>
<p>Folks there are a couple of articles in the NY Times about college financial aid and FP students given greater consideration off the wait list compared to FA. <a href=“Colleges Accepting More Students Who Can Pay Full Fare - The New York Times”>Colleges Accepting More Students Who Can Pay Full Fare - The New York Times; Here is the one on FA <a href=“What You Don’t Know About Financial Aid (but Should) - The New York Times”>http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/13/education/edlife/what-you-dont-know-about-financial-aid-but-should.html</a> Many of these articles were cited on the college part of CC.</p>
<p>I think you can say that Andover and most of these BS have financial constraints and try their best but money does play a role. The NY Times illustrated how when when school dropped the “need blind” facade admissions for FA students increased. </p>
<p>Running a high quality BS or college is an expensive enterprise. All have to be sensitive to money at some level. The rising cost of college exceeds inflation and I am sure that the same holds true for BS. Tuition cost goes up every year. </p>
<p>SSAT scores like SAT scores correlate with family income so using these scores for admission gives FP students an advantage right out of the starting gate. BS and colleges still give weight to these scores despite the fact that they do not correlate with success. </p>
<p>I seem to be very dense on this issue, because the very fact that Andover’s FP/FA ratio seems to magically hover in the same range as all the other non-need-blind schools year after year says to me that either they are not need-blind or I simply don’t understand what need-blind means.</p>
<p>Maybe I’m just making this up, but I always thought need-blind meant absolutely no consideration or knowledge of ability to pay when building the “yes” pile and then sending the “yes” pile to the FA office and saying, “please buy this class for us, whatever the cost.” Under those circumstances, you could conceivably have a class of ALL FA or ALL FP students, but you certainly wouldn’t have a ratio that remains relatively stable year to year.</p>
<p>So, my conclusion is that perhaps the “yes” pile is built under need-blind circumstances, but there is still some hard limit to the amount of FA dollars that Andover is willing to spend each year, and it’s that hard limit and the way it’s spread that doesn’t fluctuate much, thus maintaining that curiously stable ratio.</p>
<p>So, need-blind when building the “yes” pile does not translate to need blind when allocating a limited amount of FA dollars. Only if a school is willing to spend ANY amount necessary to buy EVERYONE in the “yes” pile, and the “yes” pile is truly unbiased, would you have an honest need-blind scenario. No?</p>
<p>It is unimaginable how these private schools that run on tuition dollars can ever be need-blind unless they want to go the way of the dinosaurs!!</p>
<p>They could be need-blind if they told FA applicants they didn’t have a chance. Fewer would apply and it would cost less. :)</p>
<p>I’ve lived in the US for seven years. I don’t think that there’s a difference between my view and other Americans view on middle class. </p>
<p>Also, making 75k a year is considered middle class. But, after taxes, there is no way you can afford a 50k boarding school education without a full ride or substantial aid, particularly if you have other children or travel expenses. That’s probably the maximum income Exeter felt would never or rarely be able to offer funds at all. It doesn’t mean they think they’re below the poverty level.</p>
<p>I didn’t mean to imply that 75K shouldn’t be a full ride, I just know they shouldn’t be compared to people who are economically disadvantaged. </p>
<p>Oh, no, I completely realize that. Sorry if that came off as harsh- I was just clarifying that someone making 70k and someone making 60k need (for the purposes of boarding school only) around the same amount of financial aid, most likely.</p>
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<p>I can claim priority and stick to my current one, but @squashisawesome would be a Lville student and doesn’t look like go away from CC anytime soon. So I yield to him. 
Now searching…</p>
<p>Will you share your donut?</p>
<p>I do believe that Andover exercise its need-blind policy in a sense that they pool all applications together (FP+FA in a big gigantic pile), and that AOs read files without “explicit” knowledge of FA request. It just happens that, to the eyes of these AOs, FP applicants look more interesting and likely to succeed at Andover than FA applicants, two out of three times.</p>