I believe most schools consider ability to pay despite what they may say to the contrary. They generally have access to information about parent education and employment. AOs can get at least a very rough idea from this info, barring exceptional circumstances.
I think AOs can probably estimate need by reading the application.
@AOP1925 good luck to your daughter at her meeting today.
@Aguadecoco Thanks, I just texted from D21 asking me asking if I could send the question we talked about last night, she forgot them. It was a few minutes before the meeting. It is what it is, lol
FWIW, Williams doesn’t usually have interviews at all, with AOs or alumni. Even if it’s evaluative, it probably won’t carry much weight. Hope it goes well for your D.
@1Lotus
The analogy for Early Action is a promise ring. Exciting but not as much as a marriage proposal!
Oy, is right! In our guidance counselor presentation, they suggested writing about how you made quarantine time into an opportunity—maybe tried something new. How you “used those hours in a positive way.”
I personally do not think that’s what the Covid question is for, but I bet a lot of the 400 students who heard the presentation are going feel they need to write about how they made their Covid hours count.
FWIW, D21 is leaving it blank. She figures an AO can tell from the rest of her app what she would have continued if school hadn’t shut down. She had no out-of-the-ordinary hardship, and everything meaningful and relevant that she accomplished is already explained elsewhere.
I would love to talk to an AO and get the real scoop on need blind. All over CC for years, you see people guessing as to how it works but I agree with @socaldad2002 that those schools have to be estimating financial need when they make a class. On the common app, they do ask if you’ll be asking for institutional aid so they can see if you say yes or no. Plus, I think they might also see if you filed FAFSA. We filed FAFSA for S19 because at one point we were thinking we might have him take the government loans. We decided against it before decisions came out so I called the financial aid offices so they wouldn’t be confused and told all of them the reason why we had filed. Every last one of them said something along the lines of “oh that’s good to know, we were wondering why you checked no for financial aid and then filed FAFSA”.
So, I do not know exactly what info gets to the admissions office for need blind schools but I feel like they have some idea if you’ve applied for aid or not.
Hope the meeting went well today, @AOP1925 !
@Mwfan1921 and @Solstice155 Sure, didn’t mean to make it seem like a secret, but it rhymes with Schmoberlin 
BTW it was a good info session. The same AO told a story of admitting a kid that they all had loved his essay, so a few of them showed up to have lunch at his work and let him know. How fun is that?!
AOs have territories, and in those territories they know - from zip code or city alone - what the socioeconomics are of kids applying from that school. For example, if I was applying and my home address is in Belvedere, California, it’s probably pretty unlikely that I would be looking for aid. I think there are a handful of colleges whose endowments are so huge that for all purposes they truly are need blind, bc they can afford to give crazy financial aid to the students they want.
Duh. Not sure why I didn’t think of that. Most of D21’s college list has AOs who visit and know our neighborhood. I wonder what kind of “mark” goes on the app to remind that AO that a student might be full pay or, as any AO is reading apps, how much they keep that in mind as they read. So, not only are they considering the app but also the likelihood the student will enroll and then if they are full pay too. It’s a lot to consider when deciding yes or no on an applicant.
I think even if they never visited the school, a quick search of our HS will tell you a majority of our kids are on free or reduced lunch, so chances are a kid from our school will be needing aid.
Some school profiles have this information - eg, % of students receiving free lunch and other information like the number of AP classes the school offers, or whether there is a IB program. AOs are very fluent in learning to read the economics of schools and their respective communities.
Don’t AOs have the financial information of any particular student at their fingertips along with everything else on the application (except for AO’s in need-blind schools)?
If it’s as you say (unless I’m misunderstanding) doesn’t that disadvantage all students from a low socioeconomic zip code, whether they are full-pay or not?
@inthegarden – at need-blind schools AOs don’t see financial aid information for students. Of course, most schools aren’t need blind.
However, I agree that colleges use other data – zip codes, etc. – to get a sense of a student’s ability to pay. Heck, most top private schools have something like 40% to 50% of their students coming from private K12 so I’m sure that’s a clue as to their financial status as well. . . (Yes, I know there are some need-based scholarships at private high schools but they are relatively few.)
I posted this link a couple of weeks ago but read the last portion of the article about Lafayette as it relates need blind issues.
@burgdad – paywall. 
Wall Street Journal, The Secrets of Elite College Admissions by Jeffrey Selingo
I have a friend whose D ED’d to Kenyon and I thought she was a shoo in both academically and fit-wise, but she needed a lot of aid and got denied. We were all in shock. I don’t know any way around this except to apply to a lot of schools and, if a student likes some of the need blind schools, apply to some of those. Most of them, though, are pretty competitive.