<p>what schools are need blind and what schools are not? If not, is the best way to determine this by looking at the FA section of individual websites for the schools? If schools are NOT need blind, is this information more difficult to find? Meaning, do they try to "hide" the fact that they are not need-blind? That's probably too harsh. Just trying to figure out to determine who is and who is not need-blind!</p>
<p>TIA.</p>
<p>[Need-blind</a> admission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-blind_admission]Need-blind”>Need-blind admission - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Need blind only means they don’t consider financial need when they evaluate your application. If you need aid a college being "need blind’ doesn’t mean much of importance because you could be accepted but not receive the aid you need. If you need aid you should look for colleges that “meet need.” And if you need alot of aid ideally you would look for “meets need” and “need blind” because some colleges are “need aware” when it comes to students who need a ton of aid…so try searching for that combination as I’m sure the question has been asked before.</p>
<p>Crossposted…so it looks like you got the list. Make sure you understand what the different terms mean in context with your situation.</p>
<p>Here’s a start.
[Need-blind</a> admission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-blind_admission]Need-blind”>Need-blind admission - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>Many schools are largely but not fully need blind. In other words, most of the class is composed need blind and it is only when the final few students are added that the process becomes need aware.</p>
<p>I usually google [college name, sometimes with .edu] and “need blind” or “needs blind” when I want to confirm. It may take you to a listing but if the school is, it will show you the page and phrasing. </p>
<p>This is too important to trust an outside source that may not have updated recently. So, no matter what, you do need to find it on the college’s web pages. Ime, schools more often acknowledge NB than “not” NB. You carefully read through- if needed, call. Good luck. You should also check variations on “meet full need” or “100 need.”</p>
<p>One other small but important detail: even if a school is not need blind, you may still get a good finaid pacakge, if accepted. And if it’s a meet full needs school. This is where it really pays to match yourself well, exceed some of their expectations, check NPCs and submit a great common app.</p>
<p>Also, most schools have a Net Price Calculator (NPC) somewhere on their fin aid web page. If you don’t see it, just type Net Price Calculator in the search box.</p>
<p>Thanks for the speedy replies!</p>
<p>Why are so many schools need blind and full need for US applicants but not international applicants?</p>
<p>Probably a couple of reasons. I think some institutions feel their first priority for whatever financial aid they have should be their domestic student. A larger reason is purely financial. Many international students require full support and don’t qualify for loans, so they are very expensive for schools to admit. By admitting need aware schools can cherry pick the superstars from among the international students and still admit some international students with more modest need while not totally blowing out the financial aid budget.</p>
<p>^But isn’t that at the expense of being able to cherry-pick domestic applicants who could be full pay? I suppose the idea is that they would rather have full-pay internationals for the sake of diversity? Not sure I am getting it.</p>
<p>The idea is that they could take the strongest domestic applicants (both those with financial need and full pay) regardless of need, take the superstars from among the international pool and still fill out the class with highly qualified full pay or low need international students.</p>
<p>I’ll use my DH as an example of why many international students cost so much. DH was a highly qualified student with a much higher academic profile than was average for his school. He also came from a country that had recently devalued its currency, so despite the fact that his family had saved he had essentially nothing to spend on college. Just getting to the school by plane required a governmental scholarship. Without a US work permit his summer salary was negligible and during the school year he couldn’t work beyond school work-study. Wasn’t eligible for US loans and as he was planning to go home after graduation the school couldn’t depend on him paying back school loans. To make it possible for him to attend the school had to pay for everything-tuition, fees, room, board, books-in the form of grants, with the exception of a tiny work-study contribution. What little his family could cough up paid for things like snow boots and a warm winter jacket.</p>
<p>Multiply this by hundreds of international students and you can see the problem. Only the richest institutions can afford need blind admissions for all.</p>
<p>I understand what you are saying. I am looking at it from the other side - a domestic who could/would be full-pay. A US citizen who does not have need at all. If they are need-blind to domestics, but not to internationals, doesn’t this favor full-pay internationals over full-pay domestics? Thanks for your patience. Maybe I am still just not getting it.</p>
<p>Actually it disadvantages FA internationals. It neither advantages nor disadvantages domestic full-pay students in that they will be admitted alongside their needy domestic classmates.</p>
<p>The number of qualified international students applying to US schools is huge and still growing. Look at some of the international student threads and you’ll see how hard it is for these students to be admitted to select US schools.</p>
<p>I do see that, but if a school “needs”/wants a certain number of full-pay students and ability to pay is not a consideration if you are a domestic but is a consideration if you are an international, that seems to favor a full-pay international over a full-pay domestic IF those two applicants are otherwise equal. I realize there is more to it than stats, and not all factors are quantifiable.</p>
<p>Schools that are need-blind for domestic students won’t know if a student is full-pay or not-- the domestic student they are picking may be full-pay, or they may need a lot of aid. The admissions office simply won’t know. Schools that need a certain number of full-pay students are typically not need-blind for any students, simply need-aware, because they have to have a certain number of full-pay students to keep the lights on-- need-blind schools aren’t going to take that chance with their budget and endowment if they have to have a certain number of full-pay students.</p>
<p>There are a lot of public universities that typically don’t provide much financial aid to out-of-state students. Does anybody know if such colleges will sometimes offer aid to out-of-state URMs to increase diversity?</p>
<p>For publics - some do and some don’t. Michigan, as an example, does not meet need for out of state kids or internationals. Some out of state kids get pretty good merit based aid or designated scholarships for this or that but most don’t. This is true at both UofM and Michigan State. The US doesn’t have a “national” university system…it’s state by state so there are many variations in how each “state” treats kids that are not residents of that particular state but wish to study in that state.</p>