Using URLs https://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId= with schoolId from 1 to 4000, there were 1732 entries which had either “Financial need is not a consideration in the admissions process” (need-blind) or “Financial need is a consideration in the admissions process” (need-aware). Note: many schoolId numbers had no college entry at all.
Of these 1732 entries, 1464, or 84.5%, indicated need-blind admissions, while 268, or 15.5%, indicated need-aware admissions.
It’s good for people to see the statistics. Most schools aren’t going to be able to meet need, and their admissions & financial aid processes are separate.
Families have to remember that schools are happy to accept whomever meets their admissions criteria. However, they are not evaluating the family’s ability to pay, and that is something the family needs to realize. I have heard people ask why they were accepted if the school wasn’t going to give them enough money to afford to attend. This is not the job of the school. It’s the family’s job to determine whether or not they can afford to attend given the reality of their own finances & the available aid.
Personally, I think need-blind/need-aware is semantics (and pointless) if the school does not meet full demonstrated need. Case in point, per the link above - NYU. They say FA is not a considerations in the admissions decision, but only fully meet need of 9.1% of aid recipients. Buzzwords with no context are just noise.
Actually, “meet full demonstrated need” is also a much weaker claim than people here seem to think it is. Colleges can define “need” in various ways that may not be what you believe you need.
And schools with a $40 billion dollar endowment can be more generous in determining your need than a school with a $2 billion dollar endowment. This seems to be a surprise to many people.
Totally agree. As I’ve often said, there may be a gap between what a college says you need and what you think you need. And while the NPC’s may not be perfect, they are far better than the olden days when you filled out FA forms and hoped for the best.
But bottom line, while a family should look for schools which will be affordable for them while doing due diligence, I caution them against selecting parameters based solely upon buzzwords. Even if something applies to “most” it does not apply to “all.”
The last sentence of the article linked in the post above:
Up until this past year, the college had been one of around a few dozen institutions across the country that had a need blind policy and were able to fully meet the demonstrated need of all admitted students, and the only one in the region to meet that threshold.
What region? Worcester, Massachusetts? There are at least three other colleges in Massachusetts that are need blind and meet the full demonstrated need of all admitted students. If you expand that to the New England “region,” the number more than doubles.
I applaud Holy Cross for its attempt at transparency here. They are making a first cut where they will remain need blind, then when they go to a second cut, they evaluate where they are, and they then allow ability to pay to be one of the variable they consider. But they are also increasing their grant aid to the highest need applicants this year.
I wonder how they will report themselves in the data next year - will they be “need blind” or “need aware”, or will they just leave it blank?
College of the Holy Cross couldn’t crock the admission class toward higher income while still being need blind for individual applicants by doing things like:
Increase use of Early Decision.
Increase weight of legacy, test scores, and other correlates to higher income families.
Decrease weight of work experience and other correlates to lower income families.
@BelknapPoint the telegram appears to be a local paper for Worcester, so yeah, I think the region they reference is just the coverage area of the paper. There are 9 colleges or universities right in Worcester itself…
It should be irrelevant to domestic applicants if a school is need aware or need blind; meeting full need is what’s important. Would you rather attend a need-blind school that doesn’t meet full need, or a need-aware school that does? A school’s being need blind or aware doesn’t affect how much you like a school, but rather only the chance of admission (usually just for those on the cusp). If you like a school, the NPC suggests it’s affordable, and it’s a good academic match, apply!
It’s irrelevant to the applicant since she’ll never know if she’s on the cusp (though it can be relevant to the school). It’s also irrelevant when deciding where to apply.
Yes, relevant to the school when an admissions decision is made, and therefore also relevant to the applicant, even though the applicant will probably never know how much of a factor (if any) the family’s financial situation was in making that decision.
If you’re a candidate blessed to be from a full-pay, wealthy family, and you’re in the middle of the range of accepted students, this is good news to you as your chances of admission are probably increasing.
If you’re from a family needing substantial financial aid, your chances of admission may be decreasing.
I call bs on the 85% being need blind. Schools want to manage their yield; it does no good for a school if they admit a kid they by all rights know won’t come (because the school does not meet full need).
I am absolutely convinced that at schools without the resources to meet full need, i.e. most schools, then being full pay is one of many factors considered in the decision to admit.
NYU is an example of a need-blind school that manages its yield. For 2017-2018 7,360 freshmen were admitted and 2,589 enrolled. After many years of experience, NYU knows that two thirds of those admitted won’t come (partially because NYU doesn’t meet full need).
Consider also the many public schools that are required by law to be need blind, don’t meet full need, and yet similarly manage their yield.
@vonlost I had that perspective going into the application process with my son (it probably won’t make a difference anyway; might as well apply to the (needs met) schools you like the most), but in retrospect, I wish I’d encouraged him to pay more attention to which schools were need blind, particularly the very top schools. Our (admittedly not rock solid) evidence that he was, in fact, on the cusp, is a whole slew of waitlists to top 20 LACs (mostly but not exclusively to need aware schools)…along with 2 acceptances, both to need blind schools. Again, he’s just one kid, so there are no hard and fast conclusions to be drawn, but he was accepted to 50% of the need blind top 20s he applied to and 0% of the need aware ones (he’s pell eligible, FAFSA EFC under $5000).
I read Creating a Class recently (post college application season)–it’s about admissions around 2000-2001 at an unnamed LAC that’s now known to have been Hamilton. Hamilton was need aware at the time (it’s now need blind and one of my kid’s two top 20 acceptances), and reading about how the process worked was really eye opening. Kids who applied were referred to as “free” or “expensive” throughout the admission process based on how much financial aid they’d need. So it was a factor in whether to admit them or not early on. But then they actually went back through at the end and changed some tentative admits to waitlists or denials based on financial aid budget and how much they’d come in over budget. Financial aid considerations dominated the conversation throughout the admissions process. I make no value judgement about it; colleges need full pay kids and some of them need more than others…but it was a reality check for me as a parent to kids who will need substantial financial aid.