What are your top takeaways learned from the most recent admissions cycle for rising seniors about to apply?

[alldonealldone]

@1dadinNC

I have said this many times before on here. Very few PRIVATE schools in the T50 and beyond are truly need blind. This has been known for like forever. Even the very top schools need to keep their customers happy, as in people that pay for endowed chairs and buildings.
I am pretty positive that a standard strong kid with 1500 SAT/3.8 UW can get admitted to multiple T50 schools if they are full pay and think strategically or hire a semi-competent college counselor.
There is a reason all these colleges are doing whatever they can to game USNWR rankings. That’s been proven.

Researching whether a school is need aware, need sensitive, need blind, meets 100% need etc. before you apply is an important takeaway from this year.

There’s a thread going now on the topic of top ranked need-aware schools.

Looking for Need-Aware top CS Schools

Is there a list of top schools which are Need-Aware? I know Tufts & WashU are need aware but there are many schools that I have researched which don’t release information (Georgia Tech, UIUC). Is there a compiled list of all need-aware universities?