Yes, but this thread deals with need-blind admissions. So, the issue is whether the perception of full-pay vs financial aid influences ad comm decisions. If they are on the fence about an applicant, is it far fetched to wonder if they flip back to page 1 and look at the parents’ perceived income?
No, I don’t think that is far-fetched, and I’m sure that it happens sometimes (even at “need blind” schools.)
On the other hand, 90% of students apply for financial aid, and most of them ending up going to school somewhere. Most schools below the elite level are “need blind” out of necessity - there aren’t enough qualified full-pay applicants to fill their classes.
There is really only a small group of schools that care about this:
- Elite schools that care about their admission rates AND
- Have policies of providing generous financial aid BUT
- They don’t have a 36 billion dollar endowment.
The vast majority of schools just don’t care - they let you in, and if you can’t afford it, you go somewhere else.
I dont think need blind schools flip back to page 1 and think “this kid can’t pay” or “this kid can pay.” That’s a conscious decision to factor ability to pay. It’s very easy to avoid doing that. Implicit bias (and indirect advantages) are the hard part.
This is coming from a friend who was in admissions at a top 20 and now works in for hire admissions consulting.
The well endowed schools presumably do not care if an individual admit is needy or not, as long as the entire admission class matches up approximately to the target level of financial need. Being well endowed (to the point that even list price students are being subsidized by tens of thousands of dollars per year), they have enough of a margin of error that a few more needy admits than planned will not matter in the big picture. The tipping of the admissions process and criteria to favor the wealthy occurs in the design of the process and criteria, not in the actual admissions readings where the “need blind” claim applies.
The less well endowed schools that promise good financial aid are more likely to have a strict financial aid budget to stay under, so they may have to be explicitly need-aware for at least the marginal admits to avoid going even a few needy students over budget.
When you talk about well-endowed schools, it’s good to keep in mind that just like every other form of wealth in this country, the vast majority of the endowment money is concentrated at the very top of the pyramid. The number of schools that can be said to be reasonably indifferent to tuition revenue can be counted on your hands. (Maybe you’d have to take off your shoes if you include some wealthy LACs on a per student basis.)
Even when you look at Harvard, you have to realize that that huge endowment isn’t just supporting the undergraduate population - it’s for the whole school, which is about 3x bigger in terms of students.
For need blind:
- “The central point: is it true is that if the ad comm PERCEIVES that you may need aid then your application could end up in the reject pile?” NO, not for being lower income.
- "The well endowed schools presumably do not care if an individual admit is needy or not, as long as the entire admission class matches up approximately to the target level of financial need." Close. The reality is the wealthier colleges are annually setting aside more financial aid than they reasonably expect to dole out.
When my school says need blind, that’s exactly what they mean. Yes, a school with a hefty endowment.
Don’t get all worked up about need blind. As T26E4 suggested, you can only control what you can control. And that’s the quality of your app/supp. (And your choices of which colleges to apply to, in the first place.) Put your brain cells into that. Know your target colleges well enough to do that.
Btw, most of the huge endowments are just sitting there, growing. And only a percent of interest is dedicated to various needs.
The only thing running through my mind while reading this thread was “nobody owes me nothin’.” Well, except maybe University of Hawaii, since I pay state taxes. Otherwise, if you can figure out I’m an administrative assistant, my husband is a high school teacher, and my kid didn’t go to Punahou or a similar prep school, your admissions committee knows we can’t afford a full-price private college.
My kid’s job is to convince you she brings something to the table worth charging her less. “Demanding” anything else is asking for welfare from intuitions who are not obligated to provide it.