Need-blind admission

btown
Thu, 27 Apr 2006 00:34:05 +0000

I’ve already applied for admission in the coming fall, and luckily was accepted to several schools I would be happy to attend. One question that came to mind during the process, and that I’m still curious about, is this: Is “need-blind” admission a true policy, particularly at the most selective schools? Because if so, couldn’t a school arbitrarily select a class whose majority was eligible for financial aid, a burden that the college probably wouldn’t be able/willing to handle? In addition, I saw it mentioned in another thread that not asking for financial aid is a good “tip” for getting accepted Early Decision (as I suspected, although no one other than an admissions officer could confirm that), so wouldn’t that contradict the stated admissions policy of “need-blind” colleges?
Thanks in advance for your comments.