<p>I agree with baystateresident - the number has been pretty stable over the years. It’s not economically feasible to increase the number of FA students and balance the books. If anything @Dietz, a “larger and larger” portion of the full pays are going to be pulled from pools of more ultra wealthy and well connected families given how many formerly “comfortable” families have been hit by the economy. I’ve not personally seen a dearth of families with limos and private planes, nor debutante balls in the past few years. 
On the contrary - those children may have an edge in admissions as the pool of students looking for financial assistance continues to grow. </p>
<p>I have seen, in the last decade, more effort to recruit middle class families who only need partial aid rather than the stereotypical “Full Aid” families people often think of when discussing the pros and cons. Exeter is one example of a school that realized it had full pays and full scholarship kids and not enough families in the “middle”. As a result, they created a scholarship endowment to address that issue. Scholarships funded by alumni and donors and which became fully funded more than a year a head of schedule.</p>