<p>My educated guess is that it’s the upper middle class families that are getting hurt by the process. I do think the top schools are need-blind – but in meeting their institutional priorities, finances become a factor.</p>
<p>I agree with lookingforward that the top schools want more economic diversity. Some of them are quite clear that they want more first-generation students (I know that’s a priority at Brown). In these cases, needing financial aid will not hurt your admission chances. </p>
<p>On the flip side, they also want to accept a percent of legacy and development students, and those tend to be (or are) higher income. </p>
<p>This is purely anecdotal – a friend of mine had a kid at a prep school, her kid received tuition assistance but the school had its share of uber wealthy kids. The prep school was of course quite proud of its success in getting its kids into top colleges. But my friend noticed that most of the kids getting acceptances into the Ivies came from these wealthy families (and we’re talking families linked to companies/products we’ve all heard of). She was pretty bitter about the situation, and I have no idea if this anecdote reflects an overall trend. But it wouldn’t surprise me one bit that when admissions officers have their conversation with the private school guidance counselor, the fact that kid A’s father owns a hugely successful hedge fund might come up. </p>