For lower income students which one is better ? Also, can you give me a list of schools of either option?
What are your stats? When you say “lower income,” what do you mean?
Like middle class
Need blind is generally better for lower income applicants for admissions purposes. It means the school will view the application without regard to ability to pay. What may be more critical for a lower income student is whether the school’s financial aid program is 100% need met, which means the school will cover through grants, loans, work study and other aid the difference between the full cost of the school and what they calculate your family can contribute. Here it gets more complicated because the calculations and mix of aid will vary. That is why it is important to run the net price calculator usually found on the school’s financial aid website for any school you are seriously interested in to see if it is even affordable. Further, it is important to apply and hopefully get accepted to multiple schools so that you can compare financial aid packages. There, don’t be lured by large $ scholarship/grants if the net price you have to pay, including the debt you have to take on, is in fact greater than for an alternative school whose aid may look lower but whose costs are also much lower.
I was asking in general
Have you run the net price calculators for schools that meet full need? Have you researched scholarships at schools that don’t meet full need? We can help if we have more information.
Nationwide, most colleges and universities are need blind for admission. Also, most colleges and universities don’t have a lot of financial aid to give out. In many, many instances, all the student gets is the federal aid they qualify for by filing the FAFSA.
Need aware doesn’t mean you automatically won’t get in just because of your need. It means that the college or university might take your need into consideration if it likes you just as much as someone else who needs less aid.
So run those Net Price Calculators. See if it looks like a particular college or university could be affordable for your family. Be sure there are real safeties (safe for aid as well as safe for admission) on your list. Apply. See where you do get in and what aid you do get ofered.
A general answer isn’t really possible: at the least, how your stats compare to the stats for a specific school will make a big difference. If you have super stats, and apply to an ambitious low to middle tier college that’s one thing. If your stats are low for a super selective school that can be another.
That would = the entire set of schools: all schools are definitionally either need blind or not need blind. Pretty much every school will list which they are in their financial aid section. Iirc, there are about 100 need-blind schools.
But I also agree with @BKSquared - it is also important to know if the school even promises to meet full need. Iirc, only about 50-60 do.
Actually, the vast majority of colleges are need-blind for admission. But most of them do not have good financial aid, while most of those that do are highly selective.
Even those that are need-blind for admission may have admission processes and criteria that correlate to admitting students from higher income/wealth backgrounds (e.g. legacy, among other things).
ucb beat me to it (again!), need-blind is a myth that appears on marketing and public communication, but is not reality. That being said, if a college actually admits up front they’re need-aware, then it wouldn’t be good for low-income students, as the income level would work against you in admissions.
It can be more subtle than that. Some colleges, like Carleton, are need aware but they meet full need of the students who they admit. So being high need will work against you for admissions to Carleton, but if you are admitted it could be a very good choice.
Carleton’s financial awards are in line with many LAC’s, but can’t compare to schools like Amherst and Swarthmore with their larger endowments. I’ve heard it said that they are needs blind for most(i.e.90-95%)of their applicants, but “top up” the final 5-10% with full pay students.
It isn’t as binary as it sounds. A lot of “need-aware” schools choose their first round of admits need-blind, and only use a need-aware process for the more borderline category in order to fill out their class without overspending on financial aid.
Your best bet is to apply to a mix of need-blind and need-aware schools, chosen primarily for fit rather than based on whether they consider financial aid status in the application process. As others have said, “need-aware” doesn’t mean you can’t get in; it just drops your odds of getting in if the school is already a reach. Make sure that a majority of your list is comprised of schools for which you are well-qualified, and you will be fine.
As far as a list, the Wikipedia page entitled Need-blind Admissions is not comprehensive, but it gives a lot of good information/examples to get you started.
Regarding “chosen primarily for fit”, remember that “fit” must include affordability – check net price calculators.
For need-aware colleges, you may want to adjust the reach/match/likely/safety assessments a fraction of a category, if you will be applying for a substantial amount of financial aid. E.g. likely → low match, match → high match, high match → low reach, etc…
@bubblytaco - here is the average need met for colleges I am tracking in my spreadsheet
100 Bowdoin
100 Brown
100 Carleton
85 Carnegie Mellon
83 Case Western Reserve
90 Clarkson
100 Cornell
100 Dartmouth
100 Duke
80 Fordham
100 Franklin & Marshall
57 George Mason
87 George Washington
100 Georgetown
43 James Madison
100 Johns Hopkins
100 Lafayette
97 Lehigh
100 Northeastern
56 Ohio University
100 Penn
64 Penn St
100 Princeton
80 Rensselaer
100 Rice
99 Rochester
100 Stanford
73 Stevens Institute of Technology
100 Swarthmore
66 Temple
100 Tufts
58 University of Alabama
44 University of Cincinatti
53 University of Kentucky
66 University of Maryland
77 University of Oklahoma
52 University of Pittsburgh
100 University of Virginia
100 Vanderbilt
79 Villanova
55 Virginia Commonwealth
66 Virginia Tech
100 Washington and Lee
100 Washington University
80 William and Mary
100 Yale
Roughly 60 colleges claim to cover 100% of demonstrated financial need for all admitted students.
The distinction between “need-blind” and “need-aware” probably is most significant among those ~60 schools (almost all of which are very selective private schools with very high sticker prices).
About 40 of them also claim to be need-blind in admissions, in addition to claiming to cover 100% of demonstrated need. The schools that are “full need” and also “need-blind” tend to be even more selective than schools that are “full need” but “need-aware”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-blind_admission
Once a “full need” college decides to accept you (whether through a need-aware or need-blind process) then the amount of need based FA should depend (in theory) only on your demonstrated need, not on your qualifications. Their “need” formulas may differ from some other schools’ formulas, but should apply about equally to all students within that same school’s entering class.
Most other colleges don’t even claim to cover 100% of demonstrated financial need … but most of them also are need-blind. They’ll evaluate your application without regard for need; they may even offer you some need-based aid (or a merit award, or a relatively low sticker price). A need-blind college that doesn’t make the “full need” claim (to meet 100% of demonstrated need on average) may cover up to 100% for some accepted students, but less for others, depending on various factors (such as qualifications, state residency, application timing, etc.)
For any given student, how all these factors play out can be quite complicated. So, it pays to give some thought to your cost-management strategy (and the kinds of reach/match/safety schools you choose to target). Use the online net price calculators to estimate costs for any schools that interest you.