<p>Are schools that claim to be "need blind" actually that way? I only ask this is the wake of the GW admissions scandal (Does</a> Applying For Financial Aid Hurt Your College Admissions Chances? - Forbes), because I'm sure if the case is true for a school like GW, it could be true for others. </p>
<p>If, for example, two students of essentially equal standing were to qualify for admission to a top-tier school, would the one able to pay full-freight have a greater advantage?</p>
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<p>Lots of schools are trivially and obviously need-blind in admissions. For example, consider all of the open admission schools like community colleges, or the schools that admit purely on the basis of a formula of GPA, rank, and/or test scores. Of course, they may not give much or any financial aid.</p>
<p>The places where not applying for aid can give a bump in admissions are the private institutions which are NOT need blind but commit to meeting full need of all their students. Except for the most extraordinarily well endowed schools, those schools need a large chunk of their students to be full-pay.</p>
<p>Need blind is applicable for admission. I think most public Us are. They don’t care if you can’t afford it but they’ll accept you.</p>