<p>calmom - You misunderstand what I mean by magic. The director of admissions receives reports, I’m sure, and then tells his officers what demographics to emphasize. And voila, like magic, emphasizing those demographics results in less FA spent. It is much less direct than, for example, admitting more black people to raise the African-American percentage. In contrast, need-aware not-full-need schools like Franklin & Marshall will note exactly how much money each student costs, which plays a role in the admissions decisions.</p>
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OK. There’s no such thing as “100% need-blind,” but there IS just plain regular “need-blind.” All of the methods you’ve mentioned are indirect ways to control financial aid, which is important for any college; but “need-blind” implies that a given applicant is not rejected because s/he has too-high need (and is not extremely desirable for other reasons), and that remains an important distinction to make.</p>