<p>I have always had this thought on my mind. Like schools such as harvard, princeton, and etc it seems as though they dont want to offer much aid to families especially those who need it tremendously and also it seems as though these schools accept students form families that they know have money and not students from families that are poorer. Am I over thinking this or is there other people that have thoughts that are in the same range?</p>
<p>On the contrary. The Ivies have some of the best aid packages out there for low-income families. Do they also admit many students who can pay in full? Yes - and those tuition dollars help to support others:</p>
<p>[Harvard</a> College Admissions § Financial Aid](<a href=“http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/financial_aid/index.html]Harvard”>http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/financial_aid/index.html)
</p>
<p>[Yale’s</a> Financial Aid Philosophy](<a href=“http://www.yale.edu/admit/freshmen/financial_aid/philosophy.html]Yale’s”>http://www.yale.edu/admit/freshmen/financial_aid/philosophy.html)
</p>
<p>[What’s</a> Great About Princeton’s Financial Aid](<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/admission/financialaid/whats_great/]What’s”>http://www.princeton.edu/admission/financialaid/whats_great/)
</p>
<p>For course they do! Although they all say that they’re need-blind, but do you honestly think that’s the case? I think not!</p>
<p>@swiftjab, why do you think that?</p>
<p>If anything, being low-income would help you (especially among the elite colleges) since many of them are striving for diversity. Many schools like Amherst have outreach programs targeting low income families.</p>
<p>Actually, they discriminate against White/Asian Higher income families.</p>
<p>Because if they’re really need-blind, they won’t be making any profit and will be bankrupted in no time.</p>
<p>@swiftjab,</p>
<p>I believe most universities’ funds come from alumni contributions, not tuition. </p>
<p>@sstewart,</p>
<p>If there’s any discrimination going on in the elite colleges, it’s the opposite of what you just proposed. There’s a reason colleges ask the level of education your parents achieved. It’s seen as more impressive if you succeed while living in a poor, underprivileged community. </p>
<p>Don’t sweat it. You’re at an advantage.</p>
<p>Harvard can well-afford to be need-blind. Even with the economic downturn, their endowment is unbelievable.</p>
<p>swiftjab: the HYPs spend combined hundreds of thousands of dollars each year sending recruiters to under-represented areas such as urban and rural districts. Their endowments allow them to surpass the need to offset losses to FA. They HYPs have the most generous FA policies extant. They honestly wish to get the diamonds in the rough and money isn’t an object. Really.</p>
<p>For instance, Yale put out a report saying that it costs them approx $90K to educate each student per year but they only take in about $40 from full paying families. So even with the millionaire’s kid, they lose $50K. Yale’s response? They want to expand to admit more kids.</p>
<p>An $18 Billion dollar endowment will allow you to make decisions like that (and this is down from $22Billion). It’s a great point of pride for the university and the alumni.</p>
<p>So swiftjab: the scale of money we’re speaking about here means little compared to the generous FA they award each year.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Another 1.8 bln just lost. They say that they are need-blind, but every year they put exactly the same percent of students on their budgets. Like flip a coin, even you have 50% chance to get either side, they can always guess which side faces up. I am wondering why.</p>
<p>While I am skeptical to a point where I doubt the truth in a college claiming that it is need-blind, being lower-income is nevertheless a big disadvantage when it comes to elite but non-need-blind schools.</p>
<p>I think they favor lower income more than middle class. </p>
<p>I told my daughter not to even apply to Harvard, Yale, etc because they only give out need based and not merit . Middle class or even upper middle class, esp in places where the cost of living is high --like bay area, southern Calif, NYC-- are at a disadvantage at these kinds of colleges.</p>
<p>Very few middle class or upper middle class can afford to pay the 43k plus living expenses on their own. . .no matter what the Finan aid calculator says.</p>
<p>well my parents make under 90k a year plus they have all these responsibilities to our family members in jamaica,our home country; in all honesty there is no way my parents will be able to pay anything, not even a little. They are struggling like crazy to keep up with the bills. So when I start applying to college and for financial aid, next year btw, I will most likely have to pay it by myself, so I thought if an elite college saw my app they would assume that I would need lots of aid( I most def will) and so they would not want to give all that aid out, when they could look at the other applicants that make over 200k
a year, and can afford to pay everything with no financial aid. Anyone understand what I mean?</p>
<p>We understand your thinking, but we’re telling you that elite colleges don’t care.</p>
<p>They DO NOT consider ability to pay when determining admissions decisions. They used to years ago, but not anymore.</p>
<p>There’s no evidence to suggest that purportedly need-blind colleges are not so in reality.</p>
<p>Very low income students are actually believed to have an advantage.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Probably because there aren’t tens of thousands of students who are both low-income and really qualified for HYP.</p>
<p>^well thats true but still the quote has a point</p>
<p>also do elites colleges prefer high achieving rich students over high achieving poor students.</p>
<p>^ Probably the latter. I think colleges like seeing people succeed despite their circumstances.</p>
<p>hmm interesting but it was not like that in the past as one other post said. Then why did colleges all of a sudden change their thinking? Elite colleges seem to be hiding something from their applicants and it seems as though that something is one that applicants should know.</p>