<p>Heard this somewhere, just wondering if it is true or not? </p>
<p>In a word, yes. There are many more qualified applicants than there is available aid, so you are in a much more competitive pool as an FA applicant.</p>
<p>The schools have a set budget for FA each admissions cycle. When that budget is exhausted, then it’s pretty much over for the remaining FA applicants. </p>
<p>The schools will NOT admit candidates who cannot afford to enroll w/o FA-- it would be pointless. Doing so would drive up the admit rate and depress the yield. Sometimes the school will offer admission w/o FA if the school thinks the family can stretch their finances to afford it, but this wouldn’t be the case for a family that needs full FA.</p>
<p>Generally, the more FA a candidate needs, the higher the bar will be for the applicant’s qualifications, because the school’s budget can accommodate 2 candidates who need half FA for the cost of one candidate who needs full FA. “Qualifications” does mean just SSAT scores/academics. It can also mean some quality the school is actively seeking, like URM or athlete. I doubt it’s worth it to a school to hand out FA money for geographic diversity-- is adding Nebraska worth paying for?</p>
<p>The bottom line is that it’s a fixed pot of money.</p>
<p>And the result of that fixed pot of money ends up producing classes across the boarding schools that are roughly 70/30 FP/FA. There are simply more FP slots than FA slots due to that fixed pot.</p>
<p>There are a number of schools that are need-blind but which do not have the resources to provide financial aid to everyone who qualify. These schools make the admissions decision before looking at the ability to pay. They then go through a financial aid review and meet the full need of as many financial aid students as they can. At some schools (such as Groton and Concord), the remaining students are admitted but put on a financial aid wait list. At other schools (such as St. Marks and Lawrence), the remaining students are admitted without financial aid.</p>
<p>Besides having a financial aid budget, these schools have a target for the percent of the student body on financial aid. The students receiving financial aid will be split between those needing full financial aid and those needing partial aid.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure Andover is need blind. </p>
<p>Andover is need blind. Most schools the need for FA does have a potential negative impact.</p>
<p>Andover is full-need need-blind, right? They just decide who to admit and give them the money they need. </p>
<p>For colleges, one could apply to only or mostly need-blind schools, but this cannot be done in BS application since there are so few need-blind BS. But here’s an idea (I dare someone to try it out!). If FA is very important, I would apply to schools with >=40% of student body on FA and the average grant at least greater than what you need. Why 40%? Because based on an initial list I see pulled from BSR, with 40% and above, you would still see a substantial list of schools of a wide range of quality and selectivity and they all for various reasons are relatively more generous with FA, and from there you could still find your fit based on size, location and academics etc. Note that I certainly don’t mean that you will have no or lower chance to get FA from a school with 35% of students on FA. As always YMMV, but when you can only apply to a limited number of schools, what I proposed could be a probability enhancing strategy. (BTW, do not take this post too seriously.)</p>
<p>GMT, Idk, for schools that are trying to diversify their study body, it seems that geographic diversity is not easier to achieve than say racial diversity. More importantly, because FA is largely need-based, students from under-represented areas with lower cost of living are likely to qualify for FA, just as URMs recruited through ABC etc. are.</p>
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<p>I don’t know about this… That’s what most people say true need-blind means, but how does Andover always seem to have FP/FA balances in roughly the same ratios as everyone else? Something just doesn’t seem right to me there.</p>
<p>Maybe they did accept the most suited applicants and it ended up with the same ratio. </p>
<p>I like the fact that St. Andrew’s no longer calls itself need-blind, recognizing that that position is somewhat disingenuous.</p>
<p>It doesn’t? Huh, I didn’t know that. I always assumed it was. </p>
<p>Yeah, I asked the SAS AO about that. She said that you can’t be truly need-blind–you can usually tell by looking at an application whether or not someone needs FA. @ChoatieMom It’s possible that Andover doesn’t look at the FA application but can accurately guess someone’s financial situation based on their ECs, school, etc…</p>
<p>Re: SAS being “need blind”.</p>
<p>While I would still categorize SAS as among the MOST generous with FA (over 45% of students receive some level of aid, average grant is over $38k, and FA budget is about $5 million annually for a student body of about 300 students — all numbers from SAS website), they made a conscious change in language on public facing materials this Fall.</p>
<p>Accord to the admissions person I corresponded with about this issue a few months ago, SAS realized that it was impossible to be completely need blind when reading an application. After all, you can see where an applicant lives, where they go to school, the occupations of their parents, possibly even the subject of their essay, etc. All of these speak to the socio-economic background (and the related ability to pay full tuition) of an applicant.</p>
<p>@Choatiemom: It does look “suspicious”, but if you look at colleges that have been need-blind for many years, it seems that the % of students on FA does stay relatively stable in the short run and only grows moderately in the long run. For example, this is the data for Yale College:
1993-94
1994-95
1995-96
1996-97
1997-98
1998-99
1999-00
2000-01
2001-02
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
2011-12
Yale College:
44
44
44
42
41
41
39
39
38
40
41
42
43
43
44
52
56
58
57</p>
<p>Andover started need-blind admissions in 2008 I think. And at that time the % of students on FA was about 42% (?), so it’s been creeping up but not so dramatically. Considering its COA is lower than that of a college like Yale, 47% is not that low really. Besides, elite colleges are drawing more applicants from more diverse backgrounds (especially in recent years), which should be a factor why their % is higher. OTOH, I think it just goes to show how close to need-blind a school like Exeter is, or how few students are turned down by Exeter because of their ability or inability to pay. </p>
<p>Actually, very few colleges are need blind as well (Wesleyan, GW, etc. ended their policy last year, for example). They are still " need aware," and give lots of FA, but they’re no longer " need blind."</p>
<p>Actually, very few colleges are need blind as well (Wesleyan, GW, etc. ended their policy last year, for example). They are still " need aware," and give lots of FA, but they’re no longer " need blind."</p>
<p>My son applied to and was admitted to a day school with a very low admissions rate (for a day school, it competes with many hard-to-get into BS, though not like HADES schools by any stretch). He needed SUBSTANTIAL FA for us to get in, and this particular school has about 35% of its student body on some level of FA, with a relatively modest FA endowment. BUT my son is from a VERY underrepresented area as well as a VERY underrepresented minority. His stats were fantastic, so even without the “hooks” of being from an UR area and URM, he would’ve been a shoo-in had he been FP. But the “hooks” definitely tipped things in his favor when it came to getting a really generous FA award that will allow him to go. My point is this - schools would rather have FP students if they can fill all the necessary spots to have their “well-rounded community.” So of course, FP students will have a slight advantage in that respect. BUT schools also like to boast about having students from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds, so a highly qualified student who happens to meet a need the school has, who also happens to need FA, still stands a chance. You just never know what the school is looking for, so it’s really still a crap shoot in the end. You may need full FA and be just what the school is looking for, so they won’t bat an eyelash to give it to you. Or you could be FP and just not be a right match for the school. If there’s anything I’ve learned in CC is that there are many things that will make it nearly impossible for you to get into a competitive BS, but very little that can accurately predict you’ll get in, FP or FA…</p>