<p>yup, i visited an info session, the adcom was very explicit about this.</p>
<p>Tufts didn’t just claim that it was accepting admission applications with a “need-blind” policy but that was also a college meeting “full-need” for admitted FA students.
Read all about it:</p>
<p>“Tufts meets the full demonstrated need of all admitted aid candidates.”
in Tufts web site: admissions/financialaid
[Financial</a> Aid - Admissions - Tufts University](<a href=“http://www.tufts.edu/home/admissions/?p=financialaid]Financial”>http://www.tufts.edu/home/admissions/?p=financialaid)</p>
<p>It was declared very explicitly, and scrupulously…</p>
<p>That meeting 100% demonstrated need (as determined by Tufts) is correct. It does happen.
Remember that need is met with not only grants but also loans</p>
<p>So if a student has an EFC=0 and Tufts asks the student’s family in addition to Work-Study and the Federal Stafford loans to get $5,000 / year PLUS loans then can Tufts claim that met that student’s full need?</p>
<p>That’s double talk!</p>
<p>What about if there is no bank that would loan these funds for the next 4 years?
Should the student be forced to drop out from the school?</p>
<p>Please read the excellent info in the “Admissions Gap” report.
This is the reality vs unqualified promises.</p>
<p>Also,
The Achievement Trap.
How America Is Failing Millions of High-Achieving
Students from Lower-Income Families.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.jkcf.org/assets/files/0000/0084/Achievement_Trap.pdf[/url]”>http://www.jkcf.org/assets/files/0000/0084/Achievement_Trap.pdf</a></p>
<p>I thank “tokenadult” for bringing it to our attention.</p>
<p>^ Every college includes loans in financial aid, with the exception of a select few that advertise a “no-loan” policy.</p>
<p>akis- Nowhere in that Tufts link does it say they have a need-blind admissions policy. </p>
<p>As for meeting 100% financial need-- MANY schools say that, yet in high schools all over the country and here on CC right now there are tons of admitted students who are finding they can’t attend their top choice schools. We have several friends right now whose kids are in that very position. The discrepancy between what a family says they can afford and what the school thinks they should be able to afford is sometimes huge.</p>
<p>When our younger son applies to schools next year, we’ll be aware of each school’s admissions policies, but whether a school is need-blind or not won’t stop him from applying. When decisions and FA packages come out, like most others, we’ll see what we can afford and weigh our options when the time comes.</p>
<p>And - as others have stated before–
When applying to colleges, students had better make sure they have not only academic safeties, but financial safeties as well.</p>
<p>Yeah, but some schools that advertise no loans give lower FAs that force you to take them out anyways i.e. Columbia.</p>
<p>That’s a drag-- I know we’re going to have to be very careful re: the amount we’d take out in loans. Often it’s a combination of grants, loans and work-study. One friend turned down the work-study for their son’s freshman year (afraid he’d be overwhelmed). Financial situation changed and they asked for it the following year, but since they’d turned it down before, the school said no. </p>
<p>And the sad thing is that students are rarely enamored of their safety schools, but that’s where a quite a few kids we know are ending up this year.</p>
<p>“So if a student has an EFC=0 and Tufts asks the student’s family in addition to Work-Study and the Federal Stafford loans to get $5,000 / year PLUS loans then can Tufts claim that met that student’s full need?”
Yes they can (and did). Your idea of meeting the need is this romanticized view of how the college will suddenly step up and throw money at you. It’s not that simple. They give you aid in the sense that they provide an opportunity for you to borrow money to pay them as opposed to having you come up with the money on your own. You don’t have to take the loans if you don’t want to-- just come up with the money yourself.
EDIT:
People are misunderstanding what meeting 100% need means! Meeting 100% need means that the college will provide options for you through grants, loans, scholarships and work-study. It DOES NOT mean that they’ll meet your need 100% in GRANTS/SCHOLARSHIPS. What you pay to attend the school doesn’t go down</p>
<p>Right. And there are very few schools that do NOT operate in this way. If you want a school that provides grants only (no loans), you could probably find the list somewhere here on CC. And even with grants-only schools, there’s still no real guarantee that the school will match what your family can actually afford, as monroylobo noted.</p>
<p>The Achievement Trap article was outstanding. I am forwarding to our guidance counselor. She is excellent and has done so much for my son this year. My son will be attending Notre Dame this coming fall and we are definitely FA candidates. I am confused by Bowdoin’s position in that they are partnered with QuestBridge (my son was a finalist). I wonder if both the college and QuestBridge will need to rethink that association. I am soooo grateful for the generous FA offers my son received from not just ND, but from Vassar, Wesleyan, and Temple U’s Honors program. He has worked hard and so have I! I am contributing to his education, but none of the offers put a selective college education out of reach for us.</p>
<p>Son is a senior graduating from Tufts. When he applied, it was made clear to us that they were not at that time need blind admissions.</p>
<p>I am not aware of what has transpired in the years since but, if Tufts made it to the last 5% before having to drop “need blind” in this year’s admissions, then they are still ahead of where they were 4 years ago. That is still progress.</p>
<p>a) … because schools promise that will meet full-need of admitted students and then ask the student and parents to get loans that nobody will give them that doesn’t meet that these schools meet their own pompously advertised FA criteria.
It’s double talk.
Either they allow admitted students that need FA to attend school or they make it impossible for them.
Instead blowing up $20 mill because a trustee was Madoff’s old friend they should loaned that money to admitted students with the same terms of the Stafford loans.
They would have an excellent return in their investment on their own students instead of losing it all!</p>
<p>b) Please read the TuftsDaily newspaper article written by Tufts students.
If Tufts students believe themselves, according to their article, that the school had a need-blind policy and suspended it, then it is either true that Tufts had a very ambiguous policy or the student reporters and editors are ignorant of a major school admission policy.
They definitely know about the change of the policy though. ;)</p>
<p>This the end of my comments in this thread.</p>
<p>akis, you obviously have a hang-up with Tufts specifically, but no matter how many times you repeat something does not make it true.</p>
<p>The facts are simple. Tufts was never need-blind and never claimed to be. Very few schools are. That you and some other uninformed people thought it was (or wished it was) does not make it so. It’s up to each student to research the policies of the schools they’re considering. The information is readily available in college guides, online, and from admissions offices.</p>
<p>Bowdoin had to change their need-blind policy this year, and explained their reasons. Fair enough. Tufts was NOT need-blind, but still managed to read 95% of this year’s applicants in a need-blind manner. Good for them. The economy and the Madoff scheme, (I still find it interesting how you blame the victims) may set need-blind admissions back a bit, but they’re trying. </p>
<p>And as for meeting full financial need—is this just a problem with Tufts? Not a chance. Search admissions posts on CC and you’ll find students all over the country who won’t be able to attend the colleges they’d hoped. Even admission into one of the few loan-free colleges is no guarantee that your needs will be met. Why do you think so many students are turning down their top colleges and heading to their 2nd, 3rd or 4th choices instead? On that I agree with you – it stinks. But once again, parents need to be very clear with their children AHEAD OF TIME what they’ll be able to pay for college. It’s not going to prevent disappointment, but they need to be prepared. And as for admissions, do some research ahead of time and learn the facts. Good luck.</p>
<p>Hmm… I just re-read my post above, and apologize for the somewhat sarcastic tone. It was not intended-</p>
<p>Funny how every school that isn’t need blind seems to claim that they are need blind for the first 95% of the class. Always 95%.</p>
<p>Two points: certainly, Tufts did change its procedure from last year to this–that’s what they announced. I don’t fault them for this, though, and as others have pointed out, it doesn’t really amount to suspending a “policy.” Assuming that there really is only so much money available at Tufts for FA, would it have been better to maintain need-blind admissions, and then gap everybody by 5% or so?
As for Bowdoin, how you characterize their action really depends on where these “10 more” admittees are coming from. If you’re growing the size of the class by 10 full-pay students, isn’t it just splitting hairs to say they’re coming from the wait list? This is a new meaning of wait list, I think. Rather than simply being insurance against failing to fill the class with regular admittees, it now includes people waiting for 10 reserved full-pay slots.</p>
<p>Most schools don’t claim anything, because only about a dozen schools (or less) in the entire country actually are need-blind to begin with.</p>