Need-blind admission

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Need-blind admission is a U.S. term denoting a college admission policy in which the admitting institution claims not to consider an applicant's financial situation when deciding admission. Generally, an increase in students admitted under a need-blind policy and needing financial aid requires the institution to back the policy with an ample endowment or source of funding.

Generally, a need-blind admissions system is rare. Most universities cannot offer it and not all that do offer it to all students; many schools offer need-blind admission to American first-year students but not to internationals or to transfer students.

Skeptics point to the steady amount of people accepted with aid at many need-blind schools, claiming that although the school calls itself "need-blind," the amount of students receiving aid remains the same each year, leading them to believe that the school has limited aid to give.