Need-blind admission

calmom
Thu, 27 Apr 2006 03:38:56 +0000

In general, the only colleges that claim to be need-blind are extremely selective colleges that also require students to have exceptionally high test scores as well as strong academics (lots of APs) & excellent grades in high school.

Basically that weeds out most kids from lower socio-economic strata right there. There is a pretty direct statistical correlation between income level and SAT scores – so the higher you set the bar, the less likely it is that you will get many low income applicants. Colleges also use demographic information for marketing – mailing to certain zip codes, not others.

That’s why a college like Harvard can announce it will give full rides to everyone with family incomes under $60K – it’s extremely difficult for kids coming from ordinary middle class families to develop the profiles of academics & EC’s that will get them into Harvard.