<p>Amherst generally knows the socioeconomic status of low-income students because of where they live and where they go to school. If you recruit students from Roxbury in Boston or Harlem in NY, or kids at various low-income high schools, you know their socioeconomic status.</p>
<p>Even schools that are “need-blind” do consider socioeconomic status (Amherst is need-blind). They don’t consider it in terms of saying, “Oh, you need aid, so we won’t admit you.” Rather, they “consider” it when evaluating the opportunities that are available to the student and what that student did with the opportunities. They will consider that, for example, the student needed to work to help support a family; that the student couldn’t get SAT tutoring or take a prep class; that music, dance, art lessons may not have been available; that the student rose to the top of an underperforming school and exceeded expectations.</p>
<p>No, they don’t look at the FAFSA, but they look at the whole student and the environment that he or she is in.</p>