<p>Does anyone know of schools that are still not Need-Blind for admissions?</p>
<p>This topic came up in another thread, and there's a lot of uncertainty going around. I was hoping we could compile a list of schools here since there does not seem to be a lot in the way of this information.</p>
<p>For our purposes, we will consider US citizens and nationals only, and define need-blind to mean that submitting a financial aid application (not not submitting one) does not affect your chances one way or another into getting an acceptance.</p>
<p>As an aside, a school’s being need-blind or need-aware should be irrelevant to applicants. It doesn’t affect the quality or desirability of the school; it affects only the chances of admission, and then only for those few on the cusp.</p>
<p>Most colleges and universities in the US are need-blind for admission. Also, most colleges and universities will not come anywhere close to meeting most students’ needs.</p>
<p>It really is that simple.</p>
<p>Know how much your family can pay. Know your federal EFC so that you know if you are eligible for federal money. Run the Net Price Calculator at each college/university website. Check the Common Data Set for each private institution to see if need is a factor in admissions. Then check that again because these policies change all the time. </p>
<p>Find yourself at least one good rock-solid safety that you can pay for where you are guaranteed admissions because of your stats and that you like (well at least sort of). Everything else is gravy.</p>
<p>Even schools who state they are need-blind, are not necessarily need blind. There is enough information on the common app pertaining to parents, their occupation, and their income level, to alert any need-blind school that a potential student will need aid.</p>
<p>^ Students who need aid alert schools to that fact by asking for it! Most schools don’t care (are need blind) because they don’t meet full need.</p>
<p>Even the schools that are Need Blind and Meet Full Need don’t seem to be truly need blind. I was reading an article last year on the “coincidence” that schools like Harvard seem to have the same ratio need/full pay each year when it stand to reason that some years would be skewed one way or the other.</p>
<p>It’s easy to pick out full payors…if your parent is a neurologist with a Park Ave address and you go to a private boarding school you probably don’t need aid. If you live in a zip code in the inner city of Baltimore and your single parent doesn’t have a job, you probably need aid.</p>
<p>Easy to figure out. That doesn’t mean that schools like Harvard don’t admit despite need (they clearly do, since the ratios stay about the same) it just means that they aren’t truly need blind.</p>
<p>Fortunately, Harvard has plenty of wealthy applicants with high scores from which to choose. Although Harvard has a huge endowment, they are very careful about how much they choose to spend on financial aid. </p>
<p>Remember, the endowment is fed by loyal, financially successful alumni. They have learned that legacy and development admittees contribute generously to the university, thereby allowing financial aid for the poor to grow.</p>
<p>As for identifying applicants’ FA need, it is obvious since the applicant marks the application box “applying for FA” or not.</p>
<p>I am one who believes that those schools that say they are need blind in admissions are. I say this having known many admissions officers. Unless their duties are also as fin aid, which is the case at some schools, they don’t know who needs what. They are busy enough trying to get together a class of the best kids possible. They also hate, hate hate the silver spoon in the mouth kids. I am talking about the highly selective schools here. </p>
<p>The % of those kids who need so much is constant each year, because allowance in made up that amount for low income kid who are considered challenged. I’ve been on scholarship committees that do the same. We give as much allowance as our pot of money allows us to do for those with economic challenges. Our group of lowest income kids, say the lowest 25% does not hold a candle to the upper 25% income wise. Sadly, income makew a big difference in accomplishments, but I think that is pretty obvious. On a straight merit basis most of those kids would not have been selected. That is the sad truth of the matter. And so it is with many selective schools too. The full pay kids who did not get accepted to HPY from Andover is very likely to be much stronger than the ones who wer accepted on full need. It’s a fact of life. </p>
<p>So yes, if a school says they are 100% need blind in admissions, you can pretty much take their word on it. They are not sniffing around looking for signs of maybe the applicant is going to need money. They let the bean counters at FIn AId take care of that part of the process. When there is hedging, then there is some need aware element put into the process. There are schools that give a grade to each accepted student, something that means nothing …except for the group who are applying for aid. Then those grades are used to decide what kind of package is going to be given, and those at the bottom of the group will get rejected at some of the schools that are need aware, rather than give them a package with such a gap that you know they will not be able to attend and will accordingly affect your yield. Some schools accept them anyways and leave it up to those students and families to figure it out. Some might have a rich grandma in the picture who will come up with the gap. Others will turn down the school. Still others, the ones who often get the most hurt in the process will try to borrow the money, when they really should not.</p>
<p>Marking the app as “applying for FA” doesn’t say anything as to how much need or even if there is need. Some families are just checking to make sure they are leaving no stone unturned, or have been convinced by the admissions officers at college fairs and the GC that they might as well apply, when there is no way they’ll get anything. Some apply mistaking the FAFSA for PROFILE, and because they want access to PLUS and Staffords. There is a world of difference between needing $50-60k and being $5K or so short on the expected contribution because maybe there is another kid in college. Colleges love those kids who only have a smidgeon of need. Cheap to give them their full need and a notch on the % of need met statistic which is why that number is suspect. Maybe 70% of those who had need are getting it fully met, but those 70% might just need $5-10K to make them 100%. Oh, the games these schools play to work those numbers!</p>
<p>But they do not tend to outright lie. I will give them that. I do believe them when they say they are need blind. Some of them are lying in that they are giving a boost to those who do have need. Look at the % of Pell eligible kids at some of the most selective schools, and you tell me.</p>