<p>There seems to be a lot of different perceptions of NEED BLIND admissions:</p>
<ul>
<li> What does need blind mean?</li>
<li> Are the chances of being awarded FA better at need blind schools?</li>
<li> Do need blind schools offer bigger FA packages?</li>
<li> Which schools are really need blind?</li>
<li> Are international students eligible for FA at need blind schools?</li>
</ul>
<p>What is your understanding of all of this?</p>
<p>Here’s my take, primarily based on my comparison of Exeter and Andover.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>What does need blind mean?
Need blind means never, at any stage in the game, consider whether a student needs FA when admitting him or her.</p></li>
<li><pre><code> Are the chances of being awarded FA better at need blind schools?
</code></pre>
<p>Andover is need blind. Exeter is not. Andover’s admit rate is lower than Exeter’s. The two schools end up giving out more or less the same amount of aid each year to the same number of students. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>This leads me to conclude that it is about as difficult for an FA student to get into either A or E, but that it is slightly easier for a FP student to get into Exeter. </p>
<p>That’s just Exeter though. Our personal experience suggests that it’s significantly more difficult to get into other first-tier schools (those with a 35% or lower FA rate) when one needs FA. So I’d reverse this question; it’s not so much that the chance of being awarded FA is better at a need blind school as that the chance of getting in (and then being awarded FA) is better. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Do need blind schools offer bigger FA packages?
FA packages seem to vary widely from one school to the next and I don’t see much evidence that need blind always equals the best package. In fact, some parents have reported getting their best aid packages from schools that don’t even come close to offering the percentage of FA offered at the big FA schools.</p></li>
<li><p>Which schools are really need blind?
SevenDad can weigh in, but I think he said that SAS is no longer officially need blind? Andover still says it is.<br>
And there’s at least one more school that’s off my radar.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>There was a post recently about this topic - which I can’t put my finger on right now. </p>
<p>Need blind means that the admissions decisions are made separately from FA information. A number of schools do this. </p>
<p>What Andover says is “we meet 100 percent of each admitted student’s demonstrated financial need.” Other schools might not be able to offer as much aid as the student has demonstrated. </p>
<p>In general it is harder to get FA if you are an international student.</p>
<p>I could not find a statement on SAS’s (St. Andrew’s School, Delaware) website saying that they are need-blind, so their listing below may be outdated. However, they did state that they are “committed” to meeting admitted students’ full need.</p>
<p>From the thread <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/1336246-list-exceptional-unique-offerings-some-bs-6.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-admissions/1336246-list-exceptional-unique-offerings-some-bs-6.html</a> :
NEED BLIND ADMISSIONS
NOTE: Need-blind admissions means the admisison decision is completely separate from the FA decision. It does NOT mean that if youre accepted your need will automatically be met. That is full need category. Andover is both.
<p>From the thread <a href=“Financial Aid Advice - Prep School Admissions - College Confidential Forums”>Financial Aid Advice - Prep School Admissions - College Confidential Forums; :
FA Terminology
NEED BLIND
Need blind means that the people deciding whether to admit you do not know whether or not you are applying for financial aid. It means you could get accepted but not be offered FA even though you might have great need. Or you could be waitlisted for FA. Or, lucky you, you just might be offered admission AND financial aid. Your FA award could be less than “full need.”</p>
<p>FULL NEED
Full need means that if you are accepted at that school, they will provide FA to cover your full need. That’s full need as they determine it. And the award may or may not include stipends for travel, computer, books, etc. There are very few schools with full-need policies and they are highly selective. And they may not be need-blind, in which case they are offering to meet the full need of the creme de la creme.</p>
<p>Some further comments:
I think the chance of receiving FA and the size of the FA award are independent of whether the school is need-blind. Perhaps there’s some relationship if minutely analyzed, but it’s a moving target and FA is not just a mathematical chance or calculation.</p>
<p>Whether international students are eligible for FA has to be looked at school by school and is not necessarily related to “need-blindness.” As stated in the above quotes, a need-blind school may accept a student but not offer FA for any reason.</p>
<p>It’s interesting to crunch the numbers to see which schools are the most generous w FA:</p>
<p>$17,201 2.6% 46% 303 $5.2 $200 St. Andrews
$16,200 1.7% 45% 1071 $17.4 $992 Exeter
$15,885 2.3% 47% 1143 $18.2 $785 Andover
$15,672 1.9% 35% 536 $8.4 $433 St. Paul’s
$14,322 2.0% 37% 597 $8.6 $430 Hotchkiss
$13,710 1.7% 37% 372 $5.1 $305 Groton
$12,332 3.3% 29% 819 $10.1 $310 Lawrenceville
$12,154 4.5% 34% 650 $7.9 $175 Loomis Chaffee
$12,022 3.7% 37% 586 $7.0 $192 Taft
$11,794 4.9% 54% 328 $3.9 $79 Emma Willard
$11,692 1.9% 40% 402 $4.7 $248 Woodberry forrest
$11,587 1.9% 35% 630 $7.3 $386 Deerfield
$11,574 3.5% 33% 864 $10.0 $283 Choate
$10,933 2.6% 30% 375 $4.1 $160 Middlesex
$10,755 4.0% 30% 265 $2.9 $72 Cate School
$10,115 2.6% 30% 435 $4.4 $167 Episcopal High
$09,315 3.1% 29% 365 $3.4 $109 St. George’s School
$09,089 2.0% 27% 240 $2.2 $111 The Thacher School
$08,977 1.8% 40% 557 $5.0 $278 Peddie</p>
<p>Column 1: Annual FA budget divided by TOTAL enrolled students (this is NOT average award size)
Column 2: Annual FA budget as a percentage of Endowment size
Column 3: Percentage of students receiving FA
Column 4: Total enrolled students
Column 5: Annual FA budget ($million)
Column 6: Endowment ($million)</p>
<p>Emma Willard, Loomis Chaffee & Cate really stand out in their commitment to funding FA, as compared to the relative size of their endowment</p>
<p>Based on some correspondence I had with folks at SAS this Fall, they have indeed removed the language “need blind” from their website and admissions materials. As it was explained to me, the reason is because they have found that it is impossible not to be aware of family’s financial situation based on the application/essays. For example (and this is mine, not SAS’), if a kid writes about how her single mom works two jobs to send the student and her sibling to a local private school…then it’s safe to assume that candidate may need FA.</p>
<p>From the site (Admissions subsection): “St. Andrew’s commitment to socioeconomic diversity and fully meeting demonstrated need enables us to develop a truly distinctive student body and School culture.”</p>
<p>I still interpret this to mean “If you are admitted, they will find a way to make it work.” The fact that close to (or over?) 50% of the student body receives some FA supports this.</p>
<p>Here’s an interesting blog defining need blind somewhere in between my definition and alooknac’s. In its purest sense, need blind is admitting without regard, at any point in the process, to FA; at most schools, it’s separating the admissions process and the FA process as alooknac describes.</p>
<p>[‘Need-Blind</a>’ Admissions: Fact or Fiction? - The College Admissions Insider (usnews.com)](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/the-college-admissions-insider/2011/07/18/need-blind-admissions-fact-or-fiction]'Need-Blind”>http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/the-college-admissions-insider/2011/07/18/need-blind-admissions-fact-or-fiction)</p>
<p>Full need is another interesting term, since most of us who need FA would contend that the EFC on on the SSS Parent Financial Statement doesn’t even come close to meeting our full need. And, in fact, there are schools who will offer significantly more or less than the EFC.</p>
<p>VERY interesting and useful chart GMT.</p>