elephant in the room ...

sinflower
Sat, 12 Mar 2011 02:58:18 +0000

To get an idea of how being need-aware affects WashU admissions, here are some stats on the proportion of students who get aid @ WashU compared to peer schools:

WashU:
36.9% of students on need based aid

UChicago
46.5% of students on need based aid

Dartmouth
53.7% of students on need based aid

Brown
49.1% of students on need based aid

Cornell
51.4% of students on need based aid

(stats from collegeboard)

So I would say that being need aware has an effect on admissions decisions. Even taking into account differences in the applicant pools, the trend shows that in general the peer schools have 10-15% more students on need based aid compared to WashU. This effect is fairly robust. Of course, on the flip side there will be those who applied for aid who get in and those who don’t apply and get rejected. It’s not a “you applied for aid, you’re screwed” situation, but it is an “you applied for aid, your chances are lower” situation.

I’m curious-- do need-aware schools take into account how much aid you applied for, or just whether you applied?