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<p>I don’t think this quite paints the whole picture. Yes, financial aid increased, but did it increase enough to offset the massive hit the economy took since 10/07? I’m not suggesting that it’s realistic to expect that it should, but if Swarthmore can’t pump out enough financial aid to make up for a ~26% drop in the market between then and now and a US dollar that has been in decline, then what? Also, I see from the financial reports you linked that the average Swarthmore scholarship as a percentage of average need is up to 89% (up from 80% in 2008). But, again, I don’t know if this is sufficient to offset the downturn in the economy.</p>
<p>I also disagree with these claims of Swarthmore being need-blind. It is my understanding that Swarthmore is need-blind for domestic students but not need-blind for international students. That said, a surge in the number of international students would be easy to detect, so if the college decided to grant a bunch of wealthy international students admission during ED, I guess we’d know about it soon enough. Though we may not know the whole story in terms of what fraction of those students received aid and what fraction did not.</p>
<p>I really wonder what’s going on when, in 2007, 51% of students received need-based scholarships at Swarthmore and, in 2008 and 2009, this figure dropped to 49%, despite a global economic meltdown. If anything, if Swarthmore were truly need-blind, this number should have risen. What possible explanation is there for this? Will the numbers not tell the story until the 2010 report comes out next June? You say that this percentage will “certainly not decline” in the next report, but why did it decline in the last two?</p>