Is it still true that University of Michigan and University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign are need blind? The articles I’ve read date from many years ago and I wonder if they’ve changed their admissions policy. Thanks!
I may be out of order in saying this - but at least for domestic students, I’m guessing there’s not a single public college in the country that factors your finances into admission.
That, however, is a far cry from meeting need - which as far as I know, only UNC and UVA do and then some schools, like Michigan and W&M do so for their in-state students.
Getting in somewhere is pointless if you can’t afford it. If you know that you can’t afford the school up front (the two you mentioned for example), remove that school from your list now and find others to apply to that you can afford.
Good luck.
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AFAIK both U Mich and UIUC are need blind for domestic students (as are most publics as tsbna stated above). Beyond that, I also agree with the rest of tsbna’s points above.
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UIUC is officially need blind, but that is really only relevant for in-state applicants, since UIUC doesn’t really provide financial aid to OOS students. I think that Michigan is the same.
As a rule, the reason that colleges are need-aware for admissions is when they can only financially support a limited number of students, so, for every applicant, they are also asking “can we afford to support this applicant”.
Public colleges which do not pledge to support OOS applicants do not have to consider this for OOS applicants. For in-state students, public colleges are usually either provided financial aid by the state for any admitted state resident, or they provide financial aid on a first come, first served basis, rather than committing to support any accepted resident.
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Michigan does give need based aid to some OOS students.
UIUC does also give need based aid to OOS students, but it’s not clear how much. They state they give no financial aid to international students, yet the 21-22 CDS shows 92 international student received aid. 
https://osfa.illinois.edu/process/eligibility/
Both Michigan and UIUC also give merit aid to some OOS students, likely more often than need based aid, and merit aid is financial aid.
Neither meets full need for OOS students. Mich meets full need for in-state students, while UIUC does not.
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UIUC has full ride scholarships, but only for very low income students, i.e., an EFC of $0.
They aren’t very generous with merit aid either.
I think that the international students and some OOS students are getting scholarships from individual colleges and departments.
Maybe refugees or asylum-seekers?
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Illinois Promise for efc 0 students and Illinois commitment for non-efc 0 pell grant qualifiers are for Illinois residents only.
I agree OOS students may be getting some $ from depts. not sure on the international side, but I will definitely be asking that question!
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@Gin30 do you want to know if Michigan and UIUC meet full need for all accepted students? Or do you want to know if your financial need is considered when admissions is reviewed?
A need blind school doesn’t consider your financials when they consider your application for admission. BUT this has nothing to do with financial aid.
Please clarify what you want to know.
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I just need to know if University of Michigan and UIUC take financial need into consideration during their admission process, while they’re vetting applications of Domestic OOS students. Thank you so much for all your replies. Incredibly helpful!
No
No public school in the country does that I’m aware of.
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Depending on your definitions oos merit aid is really not a thing but oos financial aid is. $20,000-30,000/year depending on one’s situation is what I have seen for years. They have things called Michigan grants but they are basically financial aid. It’s always been a myth that Michigan doesn’t give aid. They also try to keep it consistent all 4 years.
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I think we are agreeing. Merit aid is financial aid, as are need based grants, loans, and work study.
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I think so. Lots of people use the word Merit but their talking about merit scholarship based on GPA etc… Which is very difficult at Michigan for oos and even instate to get.
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For sure, everyone admitted to U Mich is meritorious/deserving of scholarship $, but some people can get persnickety when we use the term discounting for non-need based financial aid 
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Lol, my theory is… Free money is always good money to have… 
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Hmm. That’s true, so I get what you’re saying. But in my mind, “financial aid” is always need based.
Re OP, @Gin30, it sounds like you’re going to be applying for need based aid? Based on the responses above it shouldn’t affect Michigan’s admission decision.
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