<p>Is Princeton need-blind? Is there any type of advantage that comes with being an African-American who is capable of paying for all four years of an education at Princeton?</p>
<p>bump10 char</p>
<p>Would it kill you to do research on your own instead of posting the same thing on thousands of threads? Just wondering..</p>
<p>I've yet to come across a college that wasn't need-blind (or so they claim). Being African-American is a benefit. Being able to pay, no.</p>
<p>Princeton is need-blind...admissions and financial aid are totally seperate departments (giving financial aid looks good for the school too)</p>
<p>i'd say it could help.</p>
<p>it's $200K more to invest at a 20% apy</p>
<p>I swear, some kids just don't know how to type in <a href="http://www.princeton.edu%5B/url%5D">www.princeton.edu</a></p>
<p>haha, yeah all the powerful Us are need blind. Especially with their billion dollar endowments.</p>
<p>Ex, Yale music is tuition free. The guy told me that in another 20 years they might make the whole U free for undergrads.</p>
<p>Being poor and black is probably better than being wealthy and black in terms of admission. However I don't think the ADCOM has access to your finances, since there are no academic scholarships at Princeton. Of course, they will often end up inferring your financial standings based on your application.</p>
<p>E.G. If they see your extracurriculars include Polo and Sailing you might not get as much of a bonus as say a kid who worked in an inner city drug youth habilitation program, since polo and sailing generally are only accessible to very wealthy people.</p>
<p>ok if you do your research you will see that Princeton is on the top 10 list of student grants and number 1 in alumni giving [which lowers the cost of tuition] so no Princeton is definitely not need-blind, and since the university is an hour apart from philly and NY, if your a student who plans to work AND go to school, there are plenty of oppurtunities to get a good job.</p>
<p>you seem confused Preprincetonsweete. Princeton IS need blind. They do not take into account one's ability to pay tuition in the admissions process. Also, alumni donations do not lower the tuition as the tuition has never been lowered at Princeton. It goes up every year within a percentage point of its peers. Finally, there is absolutely no way you can reasonanbly work in NYC or Philly and expect to be a full time undergrad. I am sure there are plenty of work study plans already in place at Princeton that solve this need as is true of any university where students have to work to supplement their finances.</p>
<p>"so no Princeton is definitely not need-blind"</p>
<p>I think you mean to say Princeton IS definitely need-blind </p>
<p>I'm not sure how you'd pull off working in NYC/Philly and going to school at Princeton at the same time, it's a 3 hour round trip by train, 2.5 hours by car. Good for the occasional Broadway show, but not every day or even every weekend.</p>
<p>Many bulge bracket banking firms and investment houses do have offices in Princeton, and there are many biotech/pharma companies in the surrounding area though I'm not sure how easy it is to find employment. I do see offers for internships on occasion, usually the pay is about $15 an hour, not all that great considering you could find comparable employment on campus.</p>
<p>Truthfully, the best jobs as a Princeton student are the cush ones where they pay you to study (e.g. you sitting in the residential college library as "librarian" (hint hint, no one ever reads any of the books in the residential college librares) or something along those lines and end up being paid $10 an hour to do your classwork). That type of job doesn't take away from the $40,000 education you're paying for (each class comes out to about $75....).</p>
<p>From what I've heard (from my college counselor, who's supposed to be an admissions god or something), Princeton is sort of need-blind but sort of not at the same time. If you know that you're so freakishly rich that any aid whatsoever is out of the question (like a lot of people are at my school), then it's in your best interests to NOT request financial aid. Although they can't differentiate between the kids who apply for financial aid - it IS a different department - not applying for aid at all is an enormous advantage. I hear that Princeton, even though it's got a lot of money, is loathe to spend it on aid and not on more nobel prize winners et al.</p>
<p>The reason rich people shouldn't apply for financial aid is because it's a pain in the ass, not because it will help their chances.</p>
<p>The only time your family's finances come into play are:
1) You offer to fund a building or make an enormous donation in exchange for your kid getting preferential admission. One example is Meg Whitman donating the millions for Whitman college. The donation came at the same time her stepson was admitted. Coincidence? I think not.</p>
<p>2) Universities could theoretically stick it to you during an early decision admission process by giving you a crap financial aid package and there is nothing you can do about it since it's ED. Wealthy students have an advantage in knowing that they don't need the aid anyhow and so they can apply early decision to Princeton or any other ED school in droves.</p>
<p>Rich people (meaning net worths over say $5 million) don't apply for financial aid because it means they </p>
<p>A) Have to reveal their tax information to the school
B) Are going to be nagged by the university to donate some cash cash money</p>
<p>Admissions is need-blind, period. Princeton doesn't give a rat's ass if you check off the financial aid box. Actually, they may PREFER if you do check off the box, especially if you're wealthy. </p>
<p>E.G. If you check off the financial aid box and are a rich kid, they can give you a $500 loan to cover textbook costs and then count you in the figure for students receiving financial aid which makes them look good while costing them essentially nothing.</p>
<p>Admissions committees tend to be run by hippie liberal types. This probably was not true during Hargadon and maybe what your counselor said held true in his era, but Rapelye definitely would not prefer having wealthy kids admitted over poor/middle class folk unless they directly offer to buy a building for the school or write a big fat $50 million check...</p>
<p>A Princeton girl, who used to go to my school in Sydney, came for a visit to our school. She said that people who had parents who earned over US$200 000 a year can still be eligible for fin aid. Is this true?</p>
<p>Wouldn't surprise me....I know that at Williams (not nearly as good financial aid), some people earning up to $180k a year were eligible for fin. aid. It depends on what the financial situation is, I think, rather than the flat salary.</p>
<p>Yup, Princeton is def. need-blind. Your family's ability to pay is nothing to do with your chance of admission.
Sure a family with 200K income can be eligible for fin adi if they have three kids in college ......</p>
<p>Princeton's need analysis considers a lot of financial factors, not just your family's income. Aid counselors use professional judgements taking into account of lots of variables.....
:rolleyes:</p>
<p>i don't agree with many schools being need-blind, but that is from my own experience.</p>
<p>with such a large endowment, i would think that it would be free... but, well, it keeps people out. btw, West Point is an awesome school with very high honor and its free/basically ivy league...</p>
<p>imo, a large portion of ppl with finaid with incomes near 200K probably didn't invest properly? it's pretty scary</p>
<p>Does this girl's name begin with E and end with I, and would your school be in boston (haaarvard perhaps)?</p>
<p>If Princeton offered free tuition it would be cataclysmic in terms of the financial aid arms race. They are already way ahead of the other schools, so no need for that yet.</p>
<p>Well, Princeton is also great for students who have a reasonable amount of assets or a business. They only expect a 5% contribution of student assets, whereas other schools want 30%!!!</p>
<p>Also, at least for Princeton, your primary home is usually exempt from determining how much assets you have. Most americans have their home as their primary asset.</p>