I have written this several times on here but a family member of mine is the Director of Financial Aid at a top10 school and says that "need blind" at their school is indeed 100% need blind. Their office is handed a list of accepted students and they match aid packages to the students.

Development cases (giving above the cost of attendance) is a different situation as is the admissions committee preferentially admitting from private schools or expensive zip codes.

Anonymous wrote:Some schools have said they are need aware. Full pay should benefit

Even need-aware schools give some aid. There’s no way to know for a specific student whether being full pay made a difference, and that they would NOT have gotten an acceptance if they weren’t full pay.

Anonymous wrote:If you or your child were or are full pay, did it make a difference in admissions outcome? How do you know?

My kids are full pay and they did well in admissions. But I would be guessing that it had an impact. How would an applicant ever know?

Even need blind schools that need full need and are blind in choosing applicants.. are NOT need blind in forming the CLASS.

That’s the fine print.

Some schools have said they are need aware. Full pay should benefit

There’s literally no way to know this unless an admissions rep explicitly told you it played a part — and I doubt that ever happens.

Read somewhere that most/all schools are need aware when taking from waitlist. Full pay will get you off

Anonymous wrote:We are full pay and I don’t think it made a difference. Two kids - 2023 and 2026

Where did they get in? Stats?

Anonymous wrote:One T20 called us to ask if we truly didn’t need FA, we said we didn’t, week later kid got acceptance from deferral.

Lie

One T20 called us to ask if we truly didn’t need FA, we said we didn’t, week later kid got acceptance from deferral.

Why do you think it would. That makes no sense.

We are full pay and I don’t think it made a difference. Two kids - 2023 and 2026

NPC calculator said we were full pay

Sorry, but you can't buy your way in just by being full pay.

If you or your child were or are full pay, did it make a difference in admissions outcome? How do you know?