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Ultimate Guide to Need Blind Admissions
By
Will Geiger
Will Geiger is the co-founder of Scholarships360 and has a decade of experience in college admissions and financial aid. He is a former Senior Assistant Director of Admissions at Kenyon College where he personally reviewed 10,000 admissions applications and essays. Will also managed the Kenyon College merit scholarship program and served on the financial aid appeals committee. He has also worked as an Associate Director of College Counseling at a high school in New Haven, Connecticut. Will earned his master’s in education from the University of Pennsylvania and received his undergraduate degree in history from Wake Forest University.
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Cait Williams is a Content Writer at Scholarships360. Cait recently graduated from Ohio University with a degree in Journalism and Strategic Communications. During her time at OU, was active in the outdoor recreation community.
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Annie has spent the past 18+ years educating students about college admissions opportunities and coaching them through building a financial aid package. She has worked in college access and college admissions for the Tennessee Higher Education Commission/Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation, Middle Tennessee State University, and Austin Peay State University.
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Maria Geiger is Director of Content at Scholarships360. She is a former online educational technology instructor and adjunct writing instructor. In addition to education reform, Maria’s interests include viewpoint diversity, blended/flipped learning, digital communication, and integrating media/web tools into the curriculum to better facilitate student engagement. Maria earned both a B.A. and an M.A. in English Literature from Monmouth University, an M. Ed. in Education from Monmouth University, and a Virtual Online Teaching Certificate (VOLT) from the University of Pennsylvania.
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When college admissions officers are reviewing and assessing applications, financial aid can be an important part of the process. In this post, we will unpack the various policies that colleges may have and how this can impact how you apply for and pay for college. Specifically we will be covering:
- What are need blind admissions?
- What is need aware admissions?
- What colleges are need blind?
- Next steps for students
Keep on reading to learn everything you need to know about need blind admissions, and which specific colleges are need blind in their admissions process!
What is “need blind” admission?
Need blind admissions is an admissions policy that some colleges and universities practice. The policy is pretty simple and quite advantageous to students: when an admissions officer is evaluating an application, they are not taking into account the student’s ability to pay.
This means that the college will not be considering your financial situation at all. Need blind admissions is particularly advantageous for students who will be depending on a high amount of need-based financial aid support to pay for college.
However, just because a college is “need blind” does not mean that every applicant will receive financial aid. This is why we recommend that every student completes the Net Price Calculator to estimate their potential need-based financial aid at any college or university.
Need blind admissions example
Let’s look at a specific example of a need blind policy. This policy is from Princeton University:
“Princeton admission is need-blind — there is no disadvantage in the admission process for financial aid applicants. This ensures a continued and growing enrollment of a diverse group of students from all socioeconomic backgrounds.”
One thing to note about Princeton’s policy is that their policy covers students regardless of their citizenship status. This need blind admissions for international students is not the case for every college and university. In fact, most of the colleges that are need blind are only need blind for domestic applicants.
Also see: Top need-blind colleges and universities
What is “need aware” admission?
On the flip side, need aware admissions, or need sensitive admissions, is a policy where colleges do take into account an applicant’s ability to pay. Most colleges practice need aware admissions because most colleges have limited budgets for financial aid (as you can imagine, need blind admissions where financial aid is not taken into account could get very expensive).
The downside to need aware or need sensitive admissions for a student is that some applicants will be rejected or waitlisted because they can’t afford to pay. With this said, the applicants who will be most impacted are applicants who are on the borderline. In my experience as an admissions officer at a need aware college, the majority of applicants were not impacted by our need sensitive admissions policy.
Read more: How to read a financial aid award letter (with examples)
What colleges are need blind?
The vast majority of colleges are need aware or need sensitive, so we will be focusing on the other colleges that are need blind.
Need blind for domestic & international applicants
The following colleges and universities are need blind for both domestic and international applicants:
- Amherst College
- Harvard University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Minerva Schools
- Princeton University
- Yale University
Need blind for domestic applicants only
And here are some of the schools that are need blind for domestic applications from the United States:
- Adrian College
- Babson College
- Barnard College
- Baylor University
- Biola University
- Boston College
- Boston University
- Bowdoin College
- Brandeis University
- Brown University
- Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
- California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Chapman University
- Claremont McKenna College
- Columbia University
- Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
- Cornell College
- Cornell University
- Dartmouth College
- Davidson College
- Denison University
- DePaul University
- Duke University
- Elon University
- Emory University
- Fairleigh Dickinson University
- Florida State University
- Fordham University
- Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
- Georgetown University
- Grinnell College
- Hamilton College
- Harvey Mudd College
- Haverford College
- Hiram College
- Jewish Theological Seminary
- Johns Hopkins University
- Julliard
- Kenyon College
- Lawrence University
- Lehigh University
- Lewis & Clark College
- Marist College
- Marlboro College
- Middlebury College
- Mills College
- Mount St. Mary’s College
- New York University
- North Carolina State University
- North Central College
- Northeastern University
- Northwestern University
- Penn State
- Pomona College
- Providence College
- Randolph College
- Rice University
- Salem College
- San Jose State University
- Soka University of America
- St. John’s College
- St. Olaf College
- Stanford University
- SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
- Swarthmore College
- Syracuse University
- The College of New Jersey
- Thomas Aquinas College
- Trinity University
- Tufts University
- Tulane University
- University of Chicago
- University of Illinois at Chicago
- University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business
- University of Miami
- University of New Hampshire
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- University of Notre Dame
- University of Pennsylvania
- University of Richmond
- University of Rochester
- University of Southern California
- University of Vermont
- University of Virginia
- University of Washington
- Ursuline College
- Vanderbilt University
- Vassar College
- Wabash College
- Wake Forest University School of Medicine
- Wellesley College
- Wesleyan University
- Williams College
- Yeshiva University
Next Steps
Frequently asked questions need blind admission
Are Ivy League admissions need blind?
