What are the best schools that can also appreciate families who are actually willing to pay for the education they get?
Most “top schools” have generous alumni who contribute greatly to the financial aid coffers of their alma maters to allow them to admit applicants w/o regard to their ability to pay.
You’ll have to find some lesser schools with less satisfied alumni donors to find need aware schools where your family’s dollars can push aside lesser financially capable families. You know, the ones where daddy’s trust fund is big enough so the schools don’t have to admit any of the hoi polloi-- to sully up the place.
I am pretty sure all colleges “actually” appreciate full-pay students. Tufts and WUSTL are need aware. It’s very easy to figure out which colleges are need aware. Google need blind colleges, and if the college you are thinking of isn’t on that list, it’s probably need aware. To qualify that though, often colleges are more need aware when they are getting down to the last few places in the class they need to fill, and there isn’t any more FA available. This is true of a lot of the top LACs. Tippy top kids will be admitted regardless of financial need. It’s the borderline kids who benefit from need awareness.
And by the way, the student who has to work or pay something from his own pocket probably appreciates the education they are getting.
You should be careful how you word things as your post comes off (intentionally or not) as a bit haughty. Of course every college is appreciative of full-pay students. It is just that need-blind schools have sufficient endowments to allow admissions decisions to be made without regard to ability to pay.
There is no top tier school that will accept a student without the proper academic qualifications simply because their family is full pay. Where being full pay can help is at at need aware schools where a candidate is right on the cusp. You would need to research what need-aware college your academic stats place you as being an average but viable candidate.
This list might be helpful (schools that may favor those with enough money to pay full list price):
The OP isn’t “haughty”. The “lesser schools with less satisfied alumni donors” post certainly is.
^^^We will have to agree to disagree. I found the wording (in particular “actually willing to pay”) off-putting. IMO families that are not full pay are also “actually willing to pay” but just may not be able to afford $60,000+/year and still eat and keep a roof over their heads. (and I’m saying that even though we were full pay).
Many need-blind schools have admission criteria that tend to result in admission classes that are heavily skewed toward those from wealthy families, since it can be far less likely that someone from a middle or lower income family will meet them (e.g. in lower income areas, school counselors may not mention SAT subject tests or CSS Profile, or have much practice writing recommendations, since there may be few students going beyond the local community college or state university, and the impressive but expensive extracurriculars that may be favored may be inaccessible to those from families with little money).
Like I said in another recent thread, a student without financial need is likely to have a better resume than a student with significant need. They may have attended a better high school with better guidance counselors, had more extracurricular opportunities, had educated parents who could help them with admissions, etc. Even in the best circumstances (a need-blind school that does its best to judge applicants in the context of their circumstances), being low-income is a disadvantage.
Something to note is that need-aware schools will not necessarily take need into account for all applicants. My school is adopting a policy where they will only consider need for the borderline/waitlisted applicants.
Most schools like “development cases” whose parents make large donations.
I agree with @happy1. The OP could have phrased the question something like this - I am fortunate enough to have no financial restrictions fin looking for a college. Are there schools that actively look for full-pay students to balance out their financial need awards? Are there schools where being full-pay could be considered a slight hook?
Carleton is not need blind for a small percentage of students on the cusp of admission.
With the amount of merit aid available at colleges across the selectivity spectrum, it could be asked whether blindly writing checks that will total close to $300K for the Class of 2021 at a private college is a wise business decision. Enjoy your fortuitous status.
"families that are not full pay are also “actually willing to pay” but just may not be able to afford $60,000+/year "
Right…the idea that families on aid are “unwilling” is misguided at best. Like they all have a spare $250,000 sitting around for each child, and they’re asking for charity because they’d rather spend it elsewhere.
Agree, you need to be qualified first. And on top of stats, it means how one thinks and his actions. OP seemed to phase it as looking for a bye.
Posters in this forum- adults!- would rather slam the OP than (1) answer the question or just ignore it, and (2) understand that need-blind admissions isn’t necessarily linked to the satisfaction level of alums or a school’s ranking as “top” versus “lesser” as the first response states. Specifically women’s colleges and the historically black colleges do not have the endowment size of comparable institutions because their alums face enormous hurdles amassing the wealth white male graduates earn. Other schools simply run into balance sheet issues and have different priorities, like not outsourcing their food services AND paying that food staff a living wage (Boston College).
The icing on the cake is questioning the “business wisdom” of a full pay applicant’s parents. Save your easy knee jerk indignation, read what others write critically but fairly, and learn respect.
@Oregon2016 You have a good point, but the post did have a rather condescending tone to it. I see why people responded the way they did.
@Oregon2016 I’d suggest that you re-consider the following from my first post (#3)
– The first paragraph was honestly meant to be constructive criticism and I absolutely left open the possibility that the OP didn’t mean anything badly but simply did not use the best considered words for his/her question. For better or worse in the college applications/interview process and throughout adult life how you phrase something can be as important as what you are saying. This IS a comment that I would hope the OP takes to heart.
–The second paragraph of that post gave the OP ideas of how to find schools to fit the criteria he/she was looking for. Without being given exact stats, it would be fruitless to suggest specific schools.
And for the record, I don’t think (and I don’t see where anyone said) that need-blind admissions and student satisfaction always go directly hand in hand.
I get the icing! Thanks, @Oregon2016. We don’t know anything about the OP except that they perceive themselves to have large amounts of available cash. Which doesn’t guarantee an applicant anything. And I will gladly live in a world where one may want to think twice about shelling out that kind of cash – even if it is readily available.
I don’t think OP is interested in women’s colleges or historically black schools either. His dream school seems to be Penn, but his GC thinks his stats are too low to have decent shot at being admitted. He appears to hope that his parents checkbook can make up for what his stats lack, but I don’t think being full pay will help at tippy top schools. I think there are more people who are willing to pay, or borrow, whatever it takes to put their high stats kids through elite schools than there are spots.
However, just because being full pay won’t get a student into a college s/he’s not academically qualified to attend, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its advantages. If students whose parents can pay full price are willing to broaden their search, they’ll have some great options in the spring.
I think the OP hit the nerve that nowadays paying full freight is a stigma in some circles.
Most colleges are not need blind. Even the wealthiest schools with the largest endowments need someone to pay the bills. Even at Harvard, with the world’s largest endowment, roughly 40% of their freshman class can afford full tuition. Not exactly a representation of the country at large.
I find it interesting that the schools I have looked at that are need blind seem to have a near constant percentage of students in each freshman class that don’t need any financial aid. That is remarkably good luck.