Top 50 schools where full pay makes a difference
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Anonymous
Sorry, I mean, what other thread? |
Anonymous
This is no schools. Even Harvard relies on major new donations every year, and has been unstable due to recent controversy. Just because they "can" afford it doesnt mean they are willing to pay. |
Anonymous
This list from the other thread has no source whatsoever. All schools in this list are need-blind except for WashU and Wake. |
Anonymous
Nope. WashU is need blind: https://financialaid.washu.edu/how-aid-works/affordability/#:~:text=Since%20WashU%20is%20%E2%80%9Cneed%20blind,100%25%20of%20your%20demonstrated%20need. |
Anonymous
Oops, you are right, sorry. I was using an old list of need-blind schools, burned by prepscholar being out of date yet again. I should know bettern |
Anonymous
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So, basically, top-50 need-aware, that leaves Wake Forest alone, unless you are using old US News rankings, in which case you might look at RPI, and UMiami.
Another correction, Villanova is now need-blind. |
Anonymous
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There are 3 categories of students:
1) Kids who apply for aid 2) Kids who are full pay 3) Kids who are potential big donors. A school can be need blind and still preferentially admit kids from category #3. |
Anonymous
But is #3 always a VIP development prospect? What about really wealthy prep school kids? Do they always go through the "VIP" door? |
Anonymous
There's like a dozen schools that do NOT consider ability to pay. |
Anonymous
This is an interesting question, isn't it? It's much too consistent to have been left to chance. I do think it is basically an algorithm -- it's likely that they have a very good idea how many top quartile/top half students are full pay. Then they look at the "hooked" kids (first gen, etc) that didn't make the first cut and are more likely to need financial aid and decide how many of those to admit. Since they're deciding how much of a thumb on the scale to give to those kids, they can effectively decide, based on past experience, what proportion of those kids to admit & roughly what it's going to cost. Obviously if the school isn't also "meets full needs" it's self explanatory, since they'll only actually give a certain number of admitted students the financial aid they can afford to give and the rest who accept their offer will be full pay. It is also true that George Washington was caught some years back manipulating their admit list, despite claiming to be need blind. Basically the decisions made by the admissions officers were need blind, but then the head of admissions was taking the list and reranking the students to make sure they had a certain number of full pay students. The admissions officers were shocked when it came out. There isn't a black and white definition of what a "need blind" process entails, there's every incentive in the world for the schools to manipulate the process, and no one is policing it, so you can make your own judgment about how many schools (particularly those without massive endowments) are finding subtle ways around it. https://gwhatchet.com/2013/10/21/gw-misrepresented-admissions-and-financial-aid-policy-for-years/ |
Anonymous
I don't think just being rich is enough. Not everyone who is rich is a generous donor. I've been told by fundraisers that they have access to lists of people who have made significant donations to other entities. I believe this is true, because after we made a large donation to one university, I started getting a lot of extra attention from the development office of another university with which we're affiliated. Aside from the obvious "write a big check directly to the school of choice" approach, my experience would be that just having a track record of writing big checks would be enough to get some extra attention. |
Anonymous
115, actually https://blog.prepscholar.com/need-blind-colleges-list A smaller number that are need blind and meet full need, but still significantly larger than a dozen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-blind_admission |
Anonymous
Eh. In the real world, Princeton and MIT are always going to be cheaper than Colby or Wake Forest and so on. The high endowment, very selective private universities will make it happen for anyone they accept. No one is saying no to Stanford because they can't afford it. It really is about 20 private schools that want the talent regardless of family circumstances. |
Anonymous
Wrong. |
Anonymous
| Full pay and big donor see really different outcomes at T20. |