<p>Hi, I applied for FA and I was wondering whether this will affect my chances on getting into MIT or maybe other colleges too.</p>
<p>MIT is need-blind, so no, it won’t. You will have to look at the financial aid policies of other colleges to figure out if it will affect your chances there.</p>
<p>most schools, like MIT, are need-blind admissions for domestic students (there is much more variance with international students). This means, basically, that the admissions committee will in no way let finances influence the decision to admit you. In fact, I doubt the admissions committee sees any of the paper work sent to the fiancial aid office.</p>
<p>^MIT is also need-blind for international students.</p>
<p>I meant in general schools are need-blind for domestic students, but it’s not a rule of thumb with international students. Didn’t know which way MIT swayed though, guess it’s good for all those international students with MIT dreams.</p>
<p>^From a certain perspective, yes. On the other hand, I’ve heard they limit the number of international acceptances to the ammount of financial aid available to them. Let’s say there’s enough money to cover full tuition for 130 international students; then only 130 would be accepted. This kinda explains the low admission rate for internationals. Like I said, I heard this from someone who went to MIT; I have never crosschecked such information with the admissions office.</p>
<p>^you’re right. MIT commits only 10% of its FA budget for internationals. I’ve lost the link where I saw this.</p>
<p>in general, most schools in this country certainly are not need blind for even domestic students! MIT is among the exception for generous financial aid policy, far from the norm.</p>
<p>^MIT meets the full need of all international and domestic students alike. I don’t think this would require more than 10% of their FA budget, but I don’t think that if they needed more than 10% they would cut internationals off. They say full-need, they mean it.</p>
<p>
No, they have an international admissions quota limited to about 8% of the incoming class, which is independent of the precise financial aid budget. This quota is set by senior officials at MIT, not by the admissions office or the financial aid office – my understanding is that it’s at least partly due to dictates by the US government in exchange for MIT receiving federal funds.</p>
<p>From Matt:
You can check out [this</a> blog post](<a href=“http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/international_applicants_helpful_tips/international_admissions_confe.shtml]this”>http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/apply/international_applicants_helpful_tips/international_admissions_confe.shtml) for a little more information.</p>
<p>I do believe it’s true that the international quota is partly related to the financial aid budget, but only insofar as the admissions office is told each year in advance how many international students they will be allowed to admit. Then they select that number of students, and the financial aid office prepares financial aid packages for them. It’s never the case that the admissions office looks at how much aid each student will need and decides whether to admit the student on that basis.</p>
<p>Absolutely true. There are only 7 schools in the US this year that are both need blind for admissions and guarantee to meet full financial need for 4 years for admitted students. They are MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Amherst and Williams and that is it.
Its not true at Stamford, or Columbia, or Chicago, or many other top schools.</p>
<p>Jalmoreno’s comment that most schools are need-blind for domestic applicants only is seriously untrue. Most schools simply cannot afford it. Most schools are need-aware through admissions, and yes, if your family can pay full fees, that will really help with admissions at a great many schools throughout the US and indeed the world. If your family can afford to build a dorm, that will help at even more. </p>
<p>At MIT, they set the system up so that they do not notice…</p>
<p>@Mikalye:
You are wrong.</p>
<p>[Need-blind</a> admission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“Need-blind admission - Wikipedia”>Need-blind admission - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>If you look at this list, which includes the schools you mentioned (thus I think it is your source), these 7 schools are the only need-blind full need-met schools for both domestic and international statement. If you actually read my posts carefully, I said that the need-blind is rare for internationals (i.e. not the rule of thumb). Even though I mispoke when I said most schools are need-blind, and I apologize, I modify that to say that many schools are need-blind. Look at that list, there are many schools that are need-blind and full-need met domestically only (also note that these are some of the better schools in the country); however, it is a rarity for international students. This fact matches very well with my post. </p>
<p>In the future, I hope you read the posts of users carefully, and double check your sources, before you respond. My statement required modification, as the word most carries much more wight than many, but it was not erroneous beyond that and did not require a complete rebutal.</p>
<p>^Even though that need-blind/full need list may seem long at a first glance, it only constitutes around 1% of all U.S. universities. I wouldn’t call that very many.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Sandwiched in between these were statement that demonstrated that I wasn’t wrong at all. I indicated that there were an extremely small set of schools in the country that were both need-blind and guaranteed full-need for all admitted students. That is a true statement. And I stand by that.</p>
<p>Jalmoreno noted that many more schools met those criteria with regard to domestic students. That is a true statement but not contradicted in any way by my statement, he also noted that “most schools are need-blind for domestic applicants” which I called him on. He correctly noted that he misspoke, and as xrCalico23 noted, that accounted for only 1% of US universities. I see no contradiction in any of our statements, nor do I think that I misquoted anyone.</p>
<p>An overwhelming majority of schools are need-aware for all students. Of those schools that admit need blind, a small percentage also guarantee full need. A tiny percentage of US schools do both with regard to domestic appliicants and an even smaller percentage extend that to all of their students. </p>
<p>Bottom line, its tough. That being said, I know of one student who was admitted to MIT last year whose total family income for calendar year 2009 was five US dollars. MIT is one of the very few schools where that was something that they were prepared to deal with.</p>
<p>Mikalye: the 7 schools that you cite happen to be schools that are also need blind for internationals</p>