The schools that are need-blind but don’t meet full need are meaningless for low income students. Unfortunately, there’re only a few dozen schools that are both need-blind and claim to meet full need. They’re all highly selective, and almost all private (only 2 publics meet the criteria). Some of these schools flag PELL-eligible applicants in their efforts to increase the proportion of these students, even though they’re technically need-blind. Using PELL-eligibility as a flag is relatively straightforward and has the added benefit of improving their USNWR rankings.