<p>In reference to certain supposed "needs blind" colleges, for example within top 20 of small liberal arts colleges, certain heavily endowed colleges </p>
<p>Now some have claimed that colleges are literally needs blind with applicants, meaning they (via implication) have absolutely no way of knowing whether an applicant will or will not require aid - with the only exception being being the extreme cases where the applicant is from a family such as the Rockefellers or a major donor or where its in effect in the public domain that such an offspring of such a family would never have a need for financial aid</p>
<p>The claim has been made by some that there is a wall between the admissions department and the financial aid office - at these colleges</p>
<p>However since the common application itself has a checkbox about needs - wouldn't that mean the college admissions committee would in fact know the either 1. the student will not be applying for financial aid or 2. they will be applying for needs based funds</p>
<p>We happen to be situated that we are well beyond qualifying for any financial aid - so we are wondering whether the typical admissions committee itself would know this or not - based on that common application</p>
<p>This would be the difference between truely needs blind admissions committee (cannot know because it cannot see) vs needs agnostic (might know or does know but it doesn't matter nor care) </p>
<p>If the admissions committee see the complete common application - it would seem they are simply needs agnostic</p>
<p>The Admissions office makes a decision without reguard to whether one applies for aid, while the Financial Aid office puts together your package once they know whether you've been accepted to the school.</p>
<p>An adcom may be able to intuitively figure out your relative status if they took the time to study zip codes, schools attended, parents occupation, education, etc...but many of the competitive schools have so many applicants that they sometimes do not have the time or inclination to do so. </p>
<p>That does not mean that the financial aid office does not play a part in whether you attend or not. There may be preferencial packaging of aid or gapping, so that even though you do get accepted, you would not be able to attend/are able to attend for fiscal reasons.</p>
<p>The adcoms, could only guess at a family's relative income from the info on the CA. And, they sometimes use that information to get a sense of your performance based on others who share your background--hence the push to be socioeconomically diverse, since ethnicity is no longer the wave.</p>
<p>In theory adcoms are "blind", but in practice they can sometimes be influenced a little by background (i.e. socioeconomic status)...so I would not say "agnostic".</p>
<p>Not sure where the "intuitive" factor would need to come in- if the form itself (by implication) tells the ADCOM the family already has too much income (or too many assets) -to qualify for financial aid</p>
<p>On the common application, the following question is asked
"Will you be candidate for financial aid?"</p>
<p>Since we have to state NO - then at that point it would seem to us that the process is NOT really "needs blind." because the AD COM would actually see the status.</p>
<p>Now it might then be "needs don't matter" -and if that is the case (and that is what you are saying above) -then that makes sense</p>
<p>Need blind does not directly mean whether or not a person checks the box requiring financial aid. </p>
<p>If you need financial aid then check the box. What need blind means is that your having a financial need whether it is $3 or 30,000 will not be a factor in the admissions process. At selective schools they financial aid and admissions departments operate separately. At some schools they are even located in separate building. </p>
<p>They do 2 different things in the proces: financial aid makes sure that a student has submitted all required paperwork, fafsa, css profile , non-custodial parent paperwork, institutional forms, parents signed taxes, etc and will make requests to the student if anything is missing.</p>
<p>Admissions makes sure that the student has submitted everything required by them to make a decision. Once the decisions are made, admissions sends a listing of admitted students to the financial aid departments and they do a financial aid package.</p>
<p>Some schools have need aware or need sensitive admissions policies meaning that if they have to choose between to similar candidates, the one who "needs" the least amount of college funds will get the tip.</p>
<p>True "needs blind" would mean the AD COM could never know the students need or lack of need for financial aid -however I undertand that under "needs blind" it is not a factor</p>
<p>I guess its just the terminology these use - that makes it a bit confusing</p>