Merit aid at Smith (and a few general questions)

mini
Fri, 15 Jul 2005 20:13:54 +0000

For most students at Smith, need conscious is a PLUS, not a minus. They would never have gotten to 28% of students being Pell Grant recipients (family incomes under $40k) without being need conscious, the highest percentage of any prestigious private college or uni in the country (and roughly 4X that at Harvard). This is a commitment they made decades ago. Being need-conscious does NOT necessarily translate into meaning aid is more difficult to get.

At the other end, what they do (or so they told me) is that when they have done admissions for the first 90-95% of the class, they check how much they expect to use of their aid budget. If there is more left, they admit the remaining 5% (or wait-list candidates) without regard to aid. If there isn’t, they are need-conscious in those decisions.

“Need-blind” is a hoax - in aggregate (that is, for all students, as opposed to any particular one) it doesn’t exist anywhere (except at Berea, Cooper Union, Deep Springs, and the military academies). But that’s another discussion.