need-blind

Middlebury, which is need-blind for U.S. students, says it will make its first-round decisions for all applicants based on merit alone.

Buying Your Way Into College Jane J. Kim 2011

For the first time since 2005, the University of Rochester doesn't expect it will be completely need-blind when it comes time to admitting students off the wait list this year.

Buying Your Way Into College Jane J. Kim 2011

International applicants may have an edge over U.S. residents since many schools typically drop their need-blind pledges for foreign students.

Buying Your Way Into College Jane J. Kim 2011

Some schools dropped loans from aid packages in favor of grants and work-study programs, while others expanded their need-blind policies to more students, such as foreign applicants.

Buying Your Way Into College Jane J. Kim 2011

At the same time, some elite schools, including Stanford University, Yale University and Dartmouth College, that still have need-blind admissions policies in place for all U.S. students, are adjusting their aid formulas in ways that are raising costs for families with higher incomes.

Buying Your Way Into College Jane J. Kim 2011

Bloomberg News Williams College reversed its need-blind policy for foreign students.

Buying Your Way Into College Jane J. Kim 2011

If the school does practice need-blind admissions, he says, ask if that policy also applies to international or wait-listed students.

Buying Your Way Into College Jane J. Kim 2011

Early admission is also a tool for some schools to bring in more affluent students, because some programs operate outside the "need-blind" admissions policies many of the top universities have adopted.

Harvard, Princeton return to early admission 2011

And Tufts University, which was able to admit all students on a "need-blind" basis—where they pledge to admit students regardless of their ability to pay—in 2007 and 2008, has reverted to being "need-aware" for some applicants—meaning that it takes an applicant's financial status into account.

Buying Your Way Into College Jane J. Kim 2011

In the years leading up to the financial crisis, private colleges—many of which hold need-blind policies—expanded their aid budgets to attract a more-diverse student body.

Buying Your Way Into College Jane J. Kim 2011