Need Blind Is A Farce

[Anonymous]

Took DC on tours of many colleges this spring.

After an info session at one Top 20 National University that purports to be Need Blind in admissions and Meets-Full-Need with respect to Financial Aid, I asked how exactly they implement their Need Blind admissions policy. Specifically asked whether the AOs during admissions review could see the box on the Common App where the applicant indicates whether or not they intend to seek financial aid. The answer: Yes, we can see it, but we don't let that factor into our admissions decision.

Subsequently visited a Top 5 LAC, also purportedly Need Blind. Asked the exact same question, and got the exact same answer. The AOs can see which applicants will be seeking Financial Aid, although they claim to not be privy to information about who actually qualifies for aid and how much.

Interestingly, both of these schools told me that they "shade out", or make invisible to AOs, the box on the Common App where race is indicated, in order not to run afoul of the Supreme Court's ruling a couple of years ago that race cannot be considered in admissions decisions. So, these schools have the technical capability of shading out certain boxes on the Common App from admissions reviewers, if they so choose.

But they don't shade out the "intend to seek financial aid" box on the Common App, even though they claim to be Need Blind. This leads me to conclude their claims of being Need Blind are a farce.

[Anonymous]

Who cares? Why should they be obligated to be need blind? I agree that they should be honest about it, but they can do whatever they want.

Hopefully they will altogether stop asking about race and other identifying factors like that. And stop publishing all of it.

[Anonymous]

They are businesses- they don’t need to admit people they don’t want to or can’t afford to admit.

[Anonymous]

The problem with this analysis is that, at the types of schools you mentioned, upwards of half of kids (and sometimes more) are getting need-based aid. So not only is simply having the box visible not evidence that they are using it, but the results don’t seem to be showing it much either.

[Anonymous]

You should simply do the NPC for the schools you are interested in. And then the FAFSA.

Random statements from randos aren't meaningful. Do the numbers - officially - and go from there. There's sometimes a big difference among various schools.

[Anonymous]

Who cares.

[Anonymous]

OP, you are confused. They don’t “shade out” the information. This is all digital. The colleges chose what information to import from the common app and the readers view that information on their school’s application software (I think most schools use Landscape). So they do not even import the information about race or financial aid (if need blind) into the application file. It isn’t even there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem with this analysis is that, at the types of schools you mentioned, upwards of half of kids (and sometimes more) are getting need-based aid. So not only is simply having the box visible not evidence that they are using it, but the results don’t seem to be showing it much either.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you are confused. They don’t “shade out” the information. This is all digital. The colleges chose what information to import from the common app and the readers view that information on their school’s application software (I think most schools use Landscape). So they do not even import the information about race or financial aid (if need blind) into the application file. It isn’t even there.

OP here. You have it wrong. The information about whether FA is sought is there for them to see. That was the entire point of my post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should simply do the NPC for the schools you are interested in. And then the FAFSA.

Random statements from randos aren't meaningful. Do the numbers - officially - and go from there. There's sometimes a big difference among various schools.

AOs who give official information sessions at their schools are not "randos."

[Anonymous]

Where it's not a farce is the waitlist. Schools increasingly use that as a tool to select full pay applicants, since it doesn't count against them in rankings data at that point.

[Anonymous]

They can see it. They just don’t use it.

We are supposed to give them credit that they are honorable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Took DC on tours of many colleges this spring.

After an info session at one Top 20 National University that purports to be Need Blind in admissions and Meets-Full-Need with respect to Financial Aid, I asked how exactly they implement their Need Blind admissions policy. Specifically asked whether the AOs during admissions review could see the box on the Common App where the applicant indicates whether or not they intend to seek financial aid. The answer: Yes, we can see it, but we don't let that factor into our admissions decision.

Subsequently visited a Top 5 LAC, also purportedly Need Blind. Asked the exact same question, and got the exact same answer. The AOs can see which applicants will be seeking Financial Aid, although they claim to not be privy to information about who actually qualifies for aid and how much.

Interestingly, both of these schools told me that they "shade out", or make invisible to AOs, the box on the Common App where race is indicated, in order not to run afoul of the Supreme Court's ruling a couple of years ago that race cannot be considered in admissions decisions. So, these schools have the technical capability of shading out certain boxes on the Common App from admissions reviewers, if they so choose.

But they don't shade out the "intend to seek financial aid" box on the Common App, even though they claim to be Need Blind. This leads me to conclude their claims of being Need Blind are a farce.

I think a lot of them are truly need blind for the students they love but need blurry and legalistic for the students they could tolerate.

If your kid truly belongs at a Top 40 school and you truly saved as well as you should have, you’ll probably be able to send your kid with there with work-study, guaranteed student loans and redirection of the cash you’ve already been spending on your kid.

If the school truly loves your kid, the school may make up for the fact that you didn’t save as much as expected.

If the school is lukewarm about your kid, you’ll have to tolerate a lower standard of living to send your kid to the school. The school will hold you to what the aid calculator says you should pay without mercy.

[Anonymous]

I am shocked, you mean colleges virtue signal to drive up the number of applicants. Who would have every thought that would happen.

[Anonymous]

Colleges are a business, OP. They need tuition. Are you just annoyed that you didn’t save enough to be full pay?