<p>b@r!um, do you honestly believe that schools are need blind for internationals? Then you must also believe that there are no quotas yet magically year after year, in US college after US college, the international students number remains at ~10%. I do agree that an admissions officer would never made such a statement openly for an advertised need blind school. However, when admissions decisions are discussed, it is very easy to decipher a student’s ability to pay, without having the financial application info. An admissions officer is an employee of the school and are aware whether the school has financial hardships due to decreased endowment returns, etc, so if the applicants are almost equal, they will go for the full/almost full pay individual. There was an article some years ago in NYT where the ad coms were interviewed in a need blind top LAC that was having financial problems and they made it clear that they preferred to accept two almost full pay students than a full need one. </p>
<p>I am amused that Harvard had to state, “Are there quotas for international applicants? There are no quotas or limits for international students. All students are considered in the same pool for all places in the incoming class, regardless of citizenship or the school they attend.” Yet, my child’s high school that is a public feeder for H has more than 25% of their applicants accepted at H year after year, even though it is not one of the state’s top schools. Looking at naviance for that school, regardless how many top students apply at the other ivies every year, even EA, they always accept ~1 each at YPPDMS. Clearly there is quota and yield protection. Top schools do not accept the majority of internationals because they are exceptional students but because they want to provide the illusion of diversity to their main clientele, the US student, establish an international presence to get lucrative consulting contracts, and increase number of applicants so the selectivity #will increase (but the profile of student accepted will not change). Unfortunately the breakdown numbers for international/domestic applicants are not known but can easily be deciphered by the international reputation of each school. NYC, Berkeley, UCLA have a better name recognition overseas than UChicago, Rice, Emory, Washington St Lewis, even though they are not better schools. One can argue that the higher number of applicants are internationals. If we include the LACs, which are virtually unknown overseas, even though many of them meet full need, then it makes it more clear the percentage of international students in the applicant pool.</p>