<p>Is Columbia a need blind school?</p>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>All Ivies are need-blind to domestics.</p>
<p>or so they say.......</p>
<p>they are. trust me.</p>
<p>The thing is that based on your parent's occupation and number of siblings, they can predict if you need financial aid or not.</p>
<p>But "need blind" doesn't mean that a SCHOOL'S definition of your family's "need" will come anywhere close to what YOU perceive as "need." And much of that "need" may be met with loans and work-study, although generally less so at the Ivies than at less affluent schools.</p>
<p>
[quote]
or so they say.......
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Columbia WANTS to get more applicants (and students) from poor / lower-to-mid middle-class kids. There's absolutely no reason why Columbia would favor someone who has parents rich enough to pay. They've got 5 billion dollars in the endowment and clearly don't need to reject someone because he's from a poor family.</p>
<p>
[quote]
But "need blind" doesn't mean that a SCHOOL'S definition of your family's "need" will come anywhere close to what YOU perceive as "need." And much of that "need" may be met with loans and work-study, although generally less so at the Ivies than at less affluent schools.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Um...no. Loans are slowly being phased out from all Ivies. Work study is a contribution to the final price but rarely do you get more than 1000$ per semester. The majority of your "need" will be made up of grants now. Federal if you qualify and part school.</p>
<p>Quote : "Um... no" </p>
<p>?????</p>
<p>Glad to hear that. My two offspring attending two Ivies will, next year, have combined tuitions and fees that exceed our family's GROSS annual income. Let alone net income. I will be sure to let Princeton and Columbia know that I will not need to be sending any more checks to pay off those pesky loans. (And can I get a refund?)</p>
<p>Columbia is need-blind, which means it admits students without consideration of their ability to pay.</p>
<p>Columbia also promises to meet the 'full-need' of all students through a financial aid package. They get to define what 'full-need' is via a package of grants, loans, and work study. Columbia is phasing out student loans for students from families making under 50k, or something close to that.</p>
<p>Piglette is right. The amount that colleges say you "need" is way the heck lower than what most families need. Also, unless we're talking about government-subsidized low-rate loans that don't accrue interest until after graduation, giving out loans is hardly "aid" in my book.</p>
<p>All of the loans in my financial aid package were those kinds of loans. Most of the aid I had came from federal grants, with work-study and student loans only accounting for about 4 grand.</p>