How big of an advantage do you have if you can pay full tuition?

Fin aid is one of the biggest categories that donations to university endowments are earmarked for, however. When it comes to alumni donations, I believe that it is the biggest category, so it doesn’t suprise me that the universities and colleges with the biggest per-capita endowments can spend so much in fin aid and thus afford to be need-blind. In fact, they have to spend substantial amounts on fin aid every year.