Do Colleges Need to Be Need Blind?

northwesty
Sun, 23 Oct 2016 21:10:26 +0000

Unless the school has infinite resources, they are not need blind. So no one is need blind.

Harvard may keep its individual admissions personnel “need blind” for purposes of reading the application files, but Harvard’s overall admissions program is highly and intentionally need-conscious by design.

With its many billions, Harvard is able to have 20% of its students attend for free, which is great. But even with all those billions, Harvard is still 35% full pay year in and year out. That’s a lot of money coming in and Harvard would not stay in business if its free/full pay ratio flipped from 20/35 to 35/20.

Accordingly Harvard designs (or you could say “rigs”) its admissions policies so it can hit its 20/35 ratio year after year. Having sky high selectivity is the biggest factor in skewing student SES to where it needs to be. Legacy admissions helps too. Having a big sports program also helps. Most Ivy League sports trend upper SES. There’s multiple other dials that Harvard can and does turn in order to make budget.

Harvard has a budget and they hit budget every year. That’s not an accident.