Tufts’ Office of Admissions is already operating under a need-blind admissions policy, but a lack of residual funds is preventing the department from finalizing the policy, according to administration officials.</p>
<p>Achieving permanent need-blind practices is the primary goal of Tufts’ ongoing, $1.2-billion capital campaign, Beyond Boundaries. As prominent universities such as Harvard and Yale continue to implement these policies, Tufts has been striving to catch up.</p>
<p>The admissions office first implemented the policy of admitting the most qualified students regardless of their financial needs last school year, when selecting the Class of 2011. So far, applicants for the Class of 2012 have been dealt with in the same way.</p>
<p>But the funds that made this achievement possible are not yet sustainable, so the university cannot guarantee that the policy will be permanent.</p>
<p>Tufts for some time has been need-sensitive in admissions, which means that the admissions office considers an applicant’s ability to pay in relatively few cases. Usually, these cases involve deciding whether or not to place a student on the waitlist.</p>
<p>Last year, an increase in various types of funds allowed the admissions office to accept students with no consideration of their ability to pay.</p>
<p>The university’s undergraduate schools’ annual operating budgets provided the vast majority of funding for the approximately $42 million of financial aid given to this school year’s undergraduates. In addition, a good deal of money from interest generated by endowed funds went to funding financial aid, and a significant amount of non-endowment-related donations also went towards financial aid.</p>
<p>Dean of Admissions Lee Coffin said that growth in endowment funds through Beyond Boundaries and the annual interest that those funds generate are the most important factors in making admissions need-blind.</p>
<p>“Last year, gifts to the capital campaign added substantial new resources to the financial aid endowment, and those resources accommodated need-blind admissions practices for the Class of 2011,” he said in an e-mail.