Anonymous wrote:All the top 20 private schools are genuinely need blind during the admissions process. Obviously one can get strong clues about a family’s financial status from the zip code and the high school. But that doesn’t factor in admissions. At all. These schools generally want the best students available from a broad variety of backgrounds. And they have the resources to make it happen.

It’s in no T20 school’s interest to become known as a rich kid school. That’s how you become Occidental or Pepperdine. And you’ve lost the middle class kids that eventually donates a 100 million for a new lab. The finances work just fine for need blind T20 schools.

I’d run the NPC calculator at the schools the student is interested in. You might be surprised. They tend to give excellent aid, even for families earning $250,000. I wouldn’t count on merit though. The Ivies don’t give any and scholarships at schools like Duke, Vanderbilt, Rice, Chicago and so on are ridiculously competitive. For reliable merit for top students you need to go below the top 30 or so.

No they're not genuinely need blind, you're deluding yourself. Ex. A: Dalton has 10 kids going to Harvard this cycle.

I've heard it said that colleges that are need blind in ED/RD sometimes *aren't* need-blind in choosing off the waitlist. That would make sense, if the waitlist is used for institutional priorities -- such as not blowing past the financial aid budget.

All the top 20 private schools are genuinely need blind during the admissions process. Obviously one can get strong clues about a family’s financial status from the zip code and the high school. But that doesn’t factor in admissions. At all. These schools generally want the best students available from a broad variety of backgrounds. And they have the resources to make it happen.

It’s in no T20 school’s interest to become known as a rich kid school. That’s how you become Occidental or Pepperdine. And you’ve lost the middle class kids that eventually donates a 100 million for a new lab. The finances work just fine for need blind T20 schools.

I’d run the NPC calculator at the schools the student is interested in. You might be surprised. They tend to give excellent aid, even for families earning $250,000. I wouldn’t count on merit though. The Ivies don’t give any and scholarships at schools like Duke, Vanderbilt, Rice, Chicago and so on are ridiculously competitive. For reliable merit for top students you need to go below the top 30 or so.

Anonymous wrote:For princeton this year it least it would have been better to qualify for full aid.

So you're acknowledging that Princeton is not need blind? I agree. Otherwise they wouldn't know who qualifies for full aid.

Or if your kid is applying to Princeton, that probably doesn't hurt.

Anonymous wrote:I have a close family who is head of financial
Aid at a top, need blind school.

Need blind at their school is indeed need blind. 100%. There is no interaction between the admissions and financial aid offices prior to decisions. That said, developmental (big donor) cases are different and the admissions committee can infer wealth (or lack there of) when looking at the rest of the application (parent jobs, home address, sending high school, extracurriculars etc)

+1 Whoever said this point of view is naive was spot on. I toured Emory last year (2025) with DC, and after the info session, went up to the AO and asked whether during admissions review the AOs could see whether or not the applicant checked the box for seeking financial aid. The answer was, yes, we can see that. I asked the same question and got the same answer at a subsequent visit to another so-called need blind institution, Amherst College. This is an important parameter because the software that AOs use to view applications shades out, in a way to obscure the information, the boxes on the application for race/ethnicity, so as to be complaint with the affirmative action ban under SFFA v. Harvard. So, the point is, colleges could, if they really wanted to, obscure the box for FA so that AOs never see it, but they don't. They leave that box visible to admissions reviewers. AOs know they have a FA budget that can't be busted, they know they need a certain percentage of tuition-payers in order for the institution to make budget. They also know their jobs/salaries might be dependent on the institution making budget. There's no way that the knowledge of whether the applicant checked the FA box doesn't enter into the equation, even if only subconsciously. Need blind does not exist.

For top schools they are increasing the percent who are on need based aid. Penn just got a huge donation to expand aid, and they were already more generous than all schools but Princeton and Harvard. Ivies’ goal is 65% on some amount of need based aid. The full pay slots are limited. These topones give some aid up into the 300k range of household income. I believe Chicago got a new donation recently as well though that will move them into the top 10 best aid schools not the top 2 or 3. It is a race to provide aid to as many as possible to cut the institutional tax burden due to new rules. Better to check the box that you may need aid these days