<p>Harvard along with some other schools is supposed to be need blind.
However, on the "future plans" section of the commonapp, You have to answer a question about your intention to apply for need-based aid.
The admission committee then knows whether you will need aid or not even if they do not know to what extent. Isn't this in contradiction with their claim ?</p>
<p>Yes, it is a contradiction. See: <a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/the-college-admissions-insider/2011/07/18/need-blind-admissions-fact-or-fiction[/url]”>http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/the-college-admissions-insider/2011/07/18/need-blind-admissions-fact-or-fiction</a></p>
<p>“Absent any independent audits of an institution’s selection process, of which there are none, it is difficult, if not impossible, to know when and how a student’s need might be factored into an admissions decision.”</p>
<p>In Harvard’s case, where they state that they are need-blind and need-guaranteed even for internationals (which is true of only 3 or 4 schools nationally), and where they give significant need-based grants even to families making $150k+, you can really believe it. The point isn’t that they don’t know you’re needy – in fact, if you’re poor, you should write a diversity essay about that. The point is that they don’t care. I have no doubt that they’re estimating the financial aid budget throughout the process so that they can plan better, but it doesn’t control the decisions. They are just that rich.</p>
<p>Although Harvard’s endowment is the largest of any university, the Financial Aid office does receive a budget from the university each year. The budget for 2012-2013 is 166 million dollars. Even with that kind of money, Harvard still cannot afford to offer full financial aid to each of its 6,600 undergraduate students. So, the point of the article is that even a college like Harvard has to be somewhat “resource-aware.”</p>
<p>Actually, I just made a “print check” of my app and the answer to this question from the commonapp is not displayed. So unless the commonapp transmits more info to Harvard than what is printed, they they will not know.
So maybe they really are blind</p>
<p>No one legitimately accuses Harvard of lying when it says it does not consider an applicant’s need when it evaluates an application. (If anything, low socio-economic status is probably a plus in Harvard’s consideration, all other things being equal – which happens, but not often.) </p>
<p>The best argument that Harvard is not really need-blind is that it has a bunch of selection criteria that are fairly closely tied to wealth, or at least affluence: Taking into account things like SAT scores, whether a secondary school was strong, lots of volunteer hours (tough to do if you are working to help pay rent, or taking care of your siblings), legacy status. Recruiting top US-born squash players. That sort of thing. They know perfectly well that their normal selection process produces a class where about 40% of the class is full-pay, another 40% gets discounts of various sizes, and maybe 20% go for close to free. That’s how they can budget financial aid. (And, remember, 3/4ths of undergraduate financial aid goes to existing students, and massive financial aid goes to graduate students, so the range of variation in the freshman admits is pretty small relative to the budget. I’m sure they regularly run a small surplus or deficit against budget, and no one cares much.) They know from experience how much financial aid their selection process is going to produce.</p>
<p>So what? Need-blindness is constantly overrated. Are you not going to apply to Harvard because it isn’t need blind? Really? Harvard admits hundreds of kids every year with significant need – why not try to be one of them? Isn’t it more important that, if they admit you, they will meet your need, and that they will define your need more sympathetically than practically any other institution? Wouldn’t you rather apply to Harvard, where you might have somewhat less of a chance of admission than a wealthy candidate (but it would be the difference between 5% and 7%), but you would know that if you were admitted you could almost definitely afford to go there, than apply to someplace that would admit you on a truly need-blind basis but then give you inadequate or no aid? There are plenty of places like that, by the way.</p>
<p>Worry about doing you best on the things you can control.</p>
<p>Your ability to pay is not a factor with regard to admission at Harvard.</p>
<p>@JHS: thank you for your clarification. I actually do intend to apply. I was just wondering what would be the effect of that question about needing aid. It appears that it is a generic commonapp question not required by Harvard. As you say, they have many more clues about needing aid from the content of the application itself.</p>
<p>Maybe the question really being asked here is – will being a full pay be a hook?</p>
<p>^^^ The Wall Street Journal wrote an article about that last year:</p>
<p>[Buying</a> Your Way Into College - WSJ.com](<a href=“Buying Your Way Into College - WSJ”>Buying Your Way Into College - WSJ)</p>
<p>“The budget for 2012-2013 is 166 million dollars. Even with that kind of money, Harvard still cannot afford to offer full financial aid to each of its 6,600 undergraduate students.”</p>
<p>No. That budget is an estimate compared to last year’s requests, not the maximum available amount. There’s a whole lot of money left in the general-operations pot that can and will be redirected to fin aid if necessary. It’s a super high priority for the college. The 10%-of-your-income rule was an expensive innovation several years ago. In 2009, a lot of current students needed more help, and the fin aid budget rose, even though Harvard lost billions and instituted a 19% budget reduction across other college departments.</p>
<p>JHS is right that Harvard can guess who’s rich and poor from a lot of cues throughout the application. But they really can afford not to bring that into the admissions equation.</p>
<p>No, it is not a contradiction to their claim at all. The term “need blind” refers to how financial need is not an impediment to admissions, not that they’re literally “blind” to your financial need. Exactly as other people already pointed out, so many aspects of your app will give away your family’s background, from your parents’ occupations to your zip code to possibly your extracurricular activities.</p>
<p>Just because your parents made alot of money dioes not necessarily mean that they saved any of it. Plenty of wealthy people have over extended themselves too…</p>