Are schools really need blind?

[Anonymous]

Saint Albans and Sidwell are the only local schools I know of that are need blind. Most schools are need based, which is different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is on one independent school’s website:

Admissions decisions are made by a committee of educators and administrators with no knowledge of whether a family has applied for financial aid. Financial aid grants are determined by a separate committee and aid is granted after the admissions committee determines which students are invited to enroll.

This is Landon.

If that’s Landon, they’re lying.

[Anonymous]

Burke is also need blind

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most (I want to say all, but I haven’t checked every single one) are not need blind, and even if you are accepted and get FA there’s no guarantee it’s the full amount of FA you think you need.

+1. Also, need-blind admissions (where it possibly exists) is NOT a guarantee that the school will provide ANY FA, let alone provide whichever FA number the family believes it needs. So it can and does happen that a student is offered a place by a school, but student either is offered no FA or “not enough” FA (from the family’s viewpoint). As PP observed, FA is finite.

[Anonymous]

Any of the top N local schools has more highly qualified full-pay applicants than they have openings. So there is no financial reason why full-pay students would have lower admissions standards.

Separately, there are lots of legitimate ways for a non-profit school to spend a large (unrestricted) endowment other than FA. So having such an endowment does not legally force a school to spend it on “generous FA”. Many do so, but it is not the only legal way to spend it while retaining non-profit tax-exempt status.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I find it hard to believe. If they are, how do they determine who to admit and balance resources ?

High ranking schools with large endowments have to give generous aid to keep their nonprofit exemptions…

What is the basis for this assertion?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP.. The school websites indicate that they are need blind.

OP, I think you are confused about what need blind means. They don’t consider ability to pay when offering admissions, but that doesn’t mean they will give you aid to attend. You understand that right? They may give you aid, but they may not. Admissions for lower income kids isn’t a promise of free or reduced tuition.

On the contrary, I don’t think you understand the meaning of “need blind” admissions. As others have mentioned, most schools - even many top universities - have to admit a certain proportion of full-pay students to assure their financial viability. What happens in practice is that there are needy and non-needy applicant pools, with lower admission standards for the latter.

Hi! We are in the Independent and private schools thread. So…we aren’t talking about colleges and universities (there is a separate thread for that). Is that where you meant to put this?

nope.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any of the top N local schools has more highly qualified full-pay applicants than they have openings. So there is no financial reason why full-pay students would have lower admissions standards.

Separately, there are lots of legitimate ways for a non-profit school to spend a large (unrestricted) endowment other than FA. So having such an endowment does not legally force a school to spend it on “generous FA”. Many do so, but it is not the only legal way to spend it while retaining non-profit tax-exempt status.

Your second paragraph contradicts the last line of your first paragraph. Of course schools - even those that are financially stable - want to maximize the number of full-pay students because they want the additional revenue to hire better teachers and upgrade their facilities. Any school that is truly need blind would request FA forms from admitted students only. Instead, all schools I’ve encountered require the FA forms to be submitted at the same time as the application for admission.

[Anonymous]

Facility upgrades at most schools are not funded through tuition & fees, but instead usually are funded through separate “capital campaign” type fund raisers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Facility upgrades at most schools are not funded through tuition & fees, but instead usually are funded through separate “capital campaign” type fund raisers.

Point remains that there are few schools that value being truly need blind over the cash they will generate by admitting more full-payers.

No school that is need blind needs to ask for FA forms before they’ve decided who to admit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Facility upgrades at most schools are not funded through tuition & fees, but instead usually are funded through separate “capital campaign” type fund raisers.

Point remains that there are few schools that value being truly need blind over the cash they will generate by admitting more full-payers.

No school that is need blind needs to ask for FA forms before they’ve decided who to admit.

So what is your point? Are you trying to make yourself feel better because your poor kid got rejected? You want to tell yourself that some full pay kid with lower stats took your kid’s spot?

[Anonymous]

No and they don't claim to be

Anyone who thinks a family's wealth doesn't play into many admissions decisions is kidding themselves.

I remember sitting in a classroom at NCS and a teacher saying, "You have been chosen among the best in the city to be here." I remember looking around and thinking, "No, we have been chosen among the richest in the city to be here."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most (I want to say all, but I haven’t checked every single one) are not need blind, and even if you are accepted and get FA there’s no guarantee it’s the full amount of FA you think you need.

+1. Also, need-blind admissions (where it possibly exists) is NOT a guarantee that the school will provide ANY FA, let alone provide whichever FA number the family believes it needs. So it can and does happen that a student is offered a place by a school, but student either is offered no FA or “not enough” FA (from the family’s viewpoint). As PP observed, FA is finite.

Well this is the issue--the difference between what the school wants to give and what the family believes they need. There are schools (primarily boarding schools in the NE) that are truly need-blind and have endowments large enough to give lots of kids a free ride. That's great so they can truly pick the best and the brightest but are they going to give any FA to a family who makes $500k a year? Nope. That would be a terrible business model. That said, some families can technically afford private school if they really stretch and those are the families who probably get screwed in these situations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Facility upgrades at most schools are not funded through tuition & fees, but instead usually are funded through separate “capital campaign” type fund raisers.

Point remains that there are few schools that value being truly need blind over the cash they will generate by admitting more full-payers.

No school that is need blind needs to ask for FA forms before they’ve decided who to admit.

So what is your point? Are you trying to make yourself feel better because your poor kid got rejected? You want to tell yourself that some full pay kid with lower stats took your kid’s spot?

You are pathetic.

[Anonymous]

Even Harvard, the richest educational institution in the world by a long shot, has the Z List.