Liberal arts colleges that have massive endowments

…and the list of colleges that are/do both is much shorter!

…and it’s even shorter for internationals.

There are on,y five schools that are both need blind AND meet full need for international students. Yep…really short list!

There is a question on the Common App “will you be applying for Financial Aid”. I’m guessing most apps are processed in 2 piles at some point - needs FA or not. I have a hard time believing that full pay is not considered for most schools - especially privates.

@suzyQ7 - you can be as suspicious as you want, but “need blind” means what it says, and schools that are need blind absolutely do not consider need in admissions.

@suzyQ7 - as an example, Pepperdine is need blind (some others include SMU, NYU, Tulane, Boston U). But these schools do not meet 100% percent of need. They employ the ‘admit/deny’ philosophy by simply not giving enough aid to allow the student to attend if they don’t REALLY want them. Of course most publics are included here too, but they’re not worried about FA usually. It’s a distinctive of the most selective and financially healthy schools - that they are need blind and meet full need - a pretty exclusive subset of schools.

@marvin100 ‘From what I understand, that “transformation” (which was great!) took place largely under Anthony Marx, who left Amherst in 2011. Are his policies still in place? I’ve heard different things.’

Where did you hear different things? Biddy Martin has continued the exact same policies and has expanded them. The graph you posted used information from 2011, and since then Amherst (which already was No. 5 out of 100 top colleges) has increased its Pell Grant students from 20 to 25 percent, the highest of all the top LACs.

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges/economic-diversity-among-top-ranked-schools

Amherst just won the 2016 Cooke Prize for its success in expanding access to low income students and ensuring that they graduate.

http://www.jkcf.org/amherst-college-gets-1-million-cooke-prize-for-admitting-supporting-and-graduating-outstanding-low-income-students/

You ask: “They are just two of the liberal arts colleges that have massive amounts of money. I can understand alumni being proud of their college and wanting to donate but when do we say “You have enough?””

Never. We don’t get to say when a college or individual has enough. The market of donors gives money to entities it supports for whatever reason.

How is it possible that the “true cost” of college is 96k @redpoodles ?

How is it not possible, @suzyQ7? The expenditures at many colleges and universities exceeds what they take in via tuition and fees. Income thrown off by endowment investments covers the amount above and beyond tuition and fee revenue.

It says 2014 in its very first column.

Here’s some other lists of top schools for economic diversity:

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges/economic-diversity
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/09/17/upshot/top-colleges-doing-the-most-for-low-income-students.html

And of course there’s this:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/01/18/upshot/some-colleges-have-more-students-from-the-top-1-percent-than-the-bottom-60.html

Pop in some of the other top LACs and see where the chips fall. Amherst has 21.1% of students from the top 1% economically and 24.4% from the bottom 60% economically. Compare to Pomona (14.2 / 21.8) or Swarthmore (9.0 / 18.2) or Vassar (9.3 / 26.1) or Grinnell (5.5 / 24.6 (!)).

@suzyQ7

That little box on the common application indicates that a student is applying for aid. It does NOT indicate how much aid that student will qualify for, or be awarded. Some kids (like mine) checked that box because they were applying for the federally funded loans.

The admissions office at need blind schools do NOT know how much a student needs.

At need aware schools, admissions knows how MUCH aid the student needs…and this can affect admissions at those schools.

How do the need aware schools know how much aid the student needs? Especially during EA rounds. FA info usually gets filed later. I think at need aware schools they must take the kids that don’t check the box for FA on the CA and take that into account for admissions.

Why a cult, why not a new religion? As for Soka University of America itself, the school claims no religious affiliation. In a front page article, The New York Times wrote about SUA during its nascent phases, and suggested the school’s goals in some ways may simply be quite typically ambitious:

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2001/07/25/us/new-west-coast-college-born-of-the-far-east.html

Just saying, “percentage of alum giving” is a factor in "corporate & foundation " decisions to give. Your small check goes further than you think (assuming the development team is on the ball.)

@marvin100 @ThankYouforHelp your argument seems a little quibbly.

In marvin’s NYT link (2012-14 data) it’s the #4 LAC. In Thankyou’s (USNews - so 2015?) it’s #1. The Cooke award gave Amherst the award this year (2016), last year (2015) it was Vassar.

Perhaps we can agree that it’s one of the tippy tops in using its endowment for financial aid for low income students?

Marvin, Biddy Martin is definitely on the same page Marx was on this and sees herself as continuing and expanding the programs he began. I’d be interested to see anything that suggests she isn’t.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/05/17/amherst-president-discusses-colleges-welcoming-environment-low-income-students

Listen to her discuss it here: https://www.insidehighered.com/audio/2016/05/17/amherst-and-low-income-students

http://www.wbur.org/news/2014/05/20/amherst-low-income-students

https://www.amherst.edu/amherst-story/19th_president/views_on_biddy_martin

@marvin100 I’m really not sure what you are disagreeing with me about anymore. You just posted this chart:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/09/17/upshot/top-colleges-doing-the-most-for-low-income-students.html?_r=0

The first two private schools on that list are Vassar and Amherst. Those were the two schools that I mentioned in my first post in this thread. Full credit to Vassar - it is doing the same thing as Amherst - and so is Pomona.

@thumper1 There are need blind. But most also practice “admit-deny”, admitting students but denying them sufficient aid to attend.

This is a bit misleading as Soka Gakkai is already embedded in the mainstream of Japanese society considering one of the major political parties in Japan, the Komeito party was founded by and continues to be popularly associated with Soka Gakkai. There’s no issue of legitimacy with this group.

They may be considered a bit eccentric in more mainstream sectors of Japanese society, but they’re far from a fringe cult considering the Komeito party is so powerful they have effectively acted as “king makers” in the formation and the manner in which each dominant party(i.e. LDP or DPJ in the last decade and half) formulates, passes legislation, or even whether the government coalition holds/breaks up.

Comparatively speaking, the Moonies don’t have nearly the same degree/level of mainstream influence in South Korean politics.

What is correct is the foundation of the college here in the US is an effort to globalize their organization’s brand and reach beyond Japan.

@suzyQ7

The fafsa and Profile are available for filing October 1 using prior prior year tax return information.

When my kid plied EA…and that was in 2005…the priority deadline for EA financial for the Profile was November 15. The fafsa schools had their own forms to complete…but those schools were NOT need aware.

If a school is need aware for admissions. It will have an early deadline for financial,aid for early applicants.