Reply to Please be honest- How much, if at all, does full pay help?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Many colleges/universities, even highly selective ones, love international students (with the right test scores of course) because they pay full-tuition and then some.  [b]Can't tell me[/b] even though they are "need blind", application reviewers and read between the lines, like where the kids live (zip code which give clues on income), parent education level/profession, public or private schools (they know that families that live in certain zip codes and attend the big 3 in DC private are most likely paying full tuition and will likely pay full at their school).  Especially with COVID, many schools (maybe not the top 20) have to seriously look at their financial health.

"Need Blind" is not truly so blind, there are other factors schools can look at to gather info on potential revenue.[/quote]

"Can't tell" you?  Despite 100% consistent assertions to the contrary, and not a single bit of evidence to support your claim, including not one confession from the thousands of former need-blind adcoms, a few dozen of whom have written tell-all books?

Clearly no one can tell you.

But we can tell everyone else.  Schools that claim to be need blind in admissions are, in fact, need blind in admissions.

[/quote]

DP.   This is form over substance. These colleges are “need blind,” yet somehow, all of these schools end up with admissions classes that are far wealthier than the general population. The very most competitive schools can be “need blind” because they are very rich (Harvard) and know that college acceptance criteria favors the wealthy, so that (along with very generous policies regarding admissions of legacies) will guarantee a relatively wealthy student body (and low, and behold, it always does).  So, while they can say they don’t go looking for rich people, the rich people come to them in large enough numbers that it’s not an issue.

The colleges a tier below that have to rely on acceptance criteria favoring the rich, and when it doesn’t to the extent that it affects their solvency, they quietly become need aware (Carleton). There has been much discussion on higher Ed Boards and publications regarding how many colleges can afford to take this approach in a time when revenue is way down due to covid (sports, dorms, dining). Not to mention the loss of full pay foreign students.  Like many on this board, I’ve been the recipient of pleas from my usually very well-funded alma mater for increased donations to cover the shortfall. What will they do if the alumni don’t cover it? There were quite a few stories last spring regarding people getting calls from normally highly competitive colleges offering spots off the wait list under the condition that no financial aid would be available. Sounds to me like a clever way to ensure a given number of full pay students without technically abandoning the “need blind” promise. These colleges will find a way to pay the bills, and I suspect that they aren’t going to advertise it as a change of policy when they do. [/quote]

You have typed a lot of words here.  Despite their number they seem to agree that need blind colleges are in fact need blind so no applicant should be afraid to ask for financial aid when applying to them.

No one is helped by anecdotes that begin “There were quite a few stories...” That is the kind of conspiracy thinking that is poisoning this country. Let’s deal in facts please.[/quote]

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