<p>I have heard that certain colleges give preference (a boost) to those who apply without asking for financial help. This, I have heard is not the case in the most selective of colleges, but more prevelent in colleges with acceptance rates of about 50%. True or false and if true can you name any colleges that do this.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>I know that Washington UNiversity (st. Louis) is NOt need blind. Meaning they look to see if you need aid, before offering admitttance. I dont know of any other shcool that does this though. However, it is very hard to get into, so it if you were not requesting aid you may have a slight edge if you are on the bubble, but it would not help you if you are no where near the required stats.</p>
<p>I've also heard the opposite....that some schools are looking for more diversity on their socioeconomic profile and checking off that you need aid is a helpful factor. Maybe that only applies to the more selective schools, to your point.</p>
<p>You can ask the office of admissions at any school you are considering if their admissions are need-blind.</p>
<p>Actually there are only about 50 colleges in the country - not including public institutions - who are truly "need blind." The rest are "need aware" which means they aren't looking to fill up their school with full freight students but do want to have a certain percentage of full payers and students with lower financial aid needs in order to balance the books.</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins is pretty open about their "need aware" policy on their financial aid web site --- they say something to the effect that if they have two equally qualified candidates and they've already doled out their limited financial aid funds, they'll give slight preference to the candidate that doesn't need aid. It's not that they don't want a diversified student body, it's just that they don't have unlimited funds. </p>
<p>Macalester is going through a huge debate on just this subject right now - they have been need blind but have run into something of a crunch trying to be both need blind and promise to meet 100% of need of admitted students --- so they are considering becomming "need aware" - but they will still promise to meet need of admitted students. Reading between the lines - they'll still take plenty of financial aid students but will tend to look closely at balancing things by admitting more no need or little need students. </p>
<p>The short answer: being able to pay full freight won't get you in if you don't have the qualifications to begin with, but it MAY slant things in your direction if it comes down between you and a candidate with similiar credentials who needs a lot more money.</p>
<p>Macalester recently announced that they will not be need blind when considering the final 10% of students they admit. Guess it is a compromise.</p>
<p>smsmom, Thanks for the update. As I recall, Johns Hopkins "need aware" program is similiar.</p>
<p>I think it is logical to conclude that the ability to pay the full sticker price is a positive factor at some places. It seems to me that it must necessarilly be considered at every state school for out of state students. I cannot see a reason why financial aid should be evenly apportioned to out of state students in those cases, so I assume that it is not.</p>
<p>By the way, some school officials don't "know" if they're need blind or not. One top state school admissions officer assured me that they were last year on the tours, and in fact they are not. If you can't find the words on the admissions site, they are not. </p>
<p>Here is a link to a several years old study complaining that not enough low income students attend the best schools, which contains and appendix that shows which schools considered themselves needblind at the time [Brown has changed since then]. I looked for this to help guide my son's application process by informing us as to who would care that we were paying more. There are some very good schools who care, but the richest and very best do not.</p>
<p>There was a long thread about this on the old forum. Need blind simply means that when looking at <strong>an individual application</strong> they do not consider need when considering that application. But the fact that (as mini as so often pointed out) specific schools have statistically almost the exact percentage of financial aid recipients every year means that OF COURSE they take a certain number of full freight payers (they HAVE to) and as a poster above said, it will not help you if your stats are no good but it will certainly give you a boost.</p>
<p>Mini also points out that no one is a full freight payer because a student's total cost is higher than the tuition, thus everyone gets a "grant" of as much as $25,000 or so. I agree but argue this way: if the school needs $100,000 AFTER giving everyone the grant, and ten students can each pay $10,000, then fine. But if they want five students to only pay $1,000 each, then the other 5 have to pay $19,000 each. Thus these so-called "full payers" are not only subsidizing the non-full-freight payers, but will be desirable because the school NEEDS them so they can let the others in cheaper.</p>
<p>Actually most schools are need blind. When we are talking about "need aware" schools they are the schools that attempt to give most of what the need analysis comes out to be. Most schools, all state schools that I know simply gap. They accept you if you meet the criterion but getting financial aid beyond government funds is a long shot. If you leaf through any comprehensive college guide that gives you stats on the % of need met, you will see what I mean. When you start getting into the more selective private schools in this country, they do attempt meet most of the need the student demonstrates, as they well know that accepting a student for a $40K+ a year experience when the family cannot afford it is really a useless measure. The non selective schools in my area give merit aid to the top applicants, government money for need and some merit within need on a limited basis. But I don't see a pattern of kids turned down because they can't afford it--they are accepted but are not offered the money, just directed to loans.</p>
<p>Here's what Colgate's web site says:</p>
<p>"Is Colgate "need-blind" in admission?
Colgate provides need-based financial aid to most admitted students who demonstrate need, but the admission process is not 100 percent need-blind."</p>