<p>This comes up a lot. Most schools are need blind. Admissions does not take the time to figure out who needs and who doesn’t. The bean counters at financial aid do that, and often that is also done by formula with some merit money for those with the highest stats that get their apps in before the money runs out. But them most schools are not all that difficult to gain admissions and they do not guarantee or meet full need most of the time, unless they tend to be state commuter schools where federal aid can cover most all of the COA. </p>
<p>When the question is pertaining the more selective schools, it 's a whole other stories. Though most of the schools that out and out say they are need blind in admissions are, one can’t always be 100% sure. Some schools, notably GW recently, have been caught lying. Also, there really isn’t a sure way to catch individual bias on the part of any given admissions person, especially the Director, if that person really had an agenda to make sure that the bias was on the side of accepting more kids who don’t need aid. Even without access to the FAFSA and fin aid documents, one can get a pretty good idea as to whether a student needs a lot of money or not. But if you look at the %s of kids that get fin aid at most schools, it’s pretty clear that just applying for fin aid, something indicated on the common app is not going to mean much, since needing $5-10K and needing the full amount are whole other stories. Most admissions offices are separate from fin aid, and the relationship between them can be not all that warm. So, a whole lot of info sharing is not likely to be happening. </p>
<p>Over all of the years that I’ve met those who worked in admissions at selective schools, I can tell you that a lot of them had a bias against the “silver spoon” kids. They loved being able to accept kids who had challenges and felt it a great privilege of their positions to be able to ignore need. They are proud of that. </p>
<p>Also at the highly selective school, the sad truth comes out that the most accomplished, first pick applicants tend to be those from the upper income families. It’s an constant in education that family economics and success in school are linked at every level. Not saying it’s a 100% link, but it is a very strong relationships. So strong, that the most selective schools do give some quarter to those who come from low income situations as a challenge overcome. So, it’s not quite true that the top schools are truly need blind in admissions as most all of them give some extra consideration to those students who show they are from depressed areas and low income. Some of this is given through designated programs such as Questbridge, sometimes from schools that stand out as being in low income areas, or from comments from the counselors, teachers and student themselves. That is a reason why the % of those who are high need are fairly constant from year to year. The schools do give consideration to a certain vague number of students. They draw the line so that it works out that way. </p>
<p>I am very familiar with the admissions of a few univesities that I can see from the data points that they truly are need blind in admissions. ANy cuts are made in that these schools do not tend to meet full need, and, yes, the merit awards do tend to go to the higher income kids, but they are stats driven that it’s clear that it’s the relationship between income and such markers that drives that situation.</p>
<p>Very few school are fully need blind, however. Many are not for international students, waitlisted students, transfers, and certain divisions of the schools may not be need blind thought the main arts and sciences part tend to be.</p>