Need-Blind vs. Need-Aware Colleges: What You Need to Know

By Clara Baron-Hyppolite | April 12, 2020
need blind vs need aware

There are two kinds of colleges: need-blind and need-aware. These two terms are opposites: if a school isn’t need-blind, then by definition it’s need-aware.

If a school isn’t need-blind, then by definition it’s need-aware.

Here, we’ll explain the meaning of “need-blind,” and explain what you need to know in choosing the right college for you.

Need-blind colleges

Need-blind schools make their admissions decisions without considering your ability to pay.

Need-blind schools make their admissions decisions without considering your ability to pay. This could good or bad: they may be committed to filling your financial need (see meets-need), or they may just not care whether you can afford to go there or not—and let you try to make it work with massive loans.

Need-aware colleges

Need-aware schools do look at your ability to pay in making their admissions decisions.

Need-aware schools do look at your ability to pay in making their admissions decisions. They typically do this because they’re trying to offer grants, but they’re limited in the amount of grants they can provide. They need to understand how much you’ll need as they make their admissions decisions.

Need-blind vs. need-aware: Why it matters

Why is it important to know whether the school you’re applying to is need-blind or need-aware? Well, if your need is high, it becomes very important. It’s easy to think that after you’ve submitted your application, all you have to do now is wait for the responses. In reality, you should consider additional deadlines—especially financial aid deadlines—as an important part of your application.

Need-aware schools often waitlist or deny students for failing to submit their financial aid information on time.

My students often overlook this piece, and if you’re applying to a need-aware school, failing to submit your financial aid information on time (typically in February) could be the reason why you see a waitlist or denial instead of an admit come April. This exact situation happens to multiple students I work with, every single year.

What’s going on? Well, need-aware schools typically have limited funding. They don’t want to hedge their bets on an unknown quantity, and therefore, they’re likely to push you to the waitlist or denial bucket if you can’t be bothered to get your aid information in on time. In addition, the lack of follow-through can really harm their perception of your demonstrated interest. If you were really interested in our school, they may ask themselves, wouldn’t you make sure to turn in your financial aid paperwork in time?

If you get nothing else from this article, turn in your financial information by the deadline!

So if you get nothing else from this article, turn in your financial information by the deadline!

What “meets-need” colleges are

Colleges can meet your need in two ways: with loans or without. If you’re a student with high need, either option is strong because it will diminish the potential cost of a school from $75,000 or more to $5,500 in federal loans—or even better, free!

Not all meets-need schools are need-blind; some of them will meet need, but they need to be careful about the total need burden in their admitted class.

Need-blind colleges in the US

Below is a list of all the need-blind colleges in the United States. Colleges in italics are need-blind and meets-need.

  • Adrian College
  • Amherst 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 (FDU)
  • Florida State University
  • Fordham University
  • Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering
  • Georgetown University
  • Grinnell College
  • Hamilton College
  • Harvard University
  • 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
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
  • Middlebury College
  • Mills College
  • Mount St. Mary’s College
  • New York University (NYU)
  • North Carolina State University (NCSU)
  • North Central College
  • Northeastern University
  • Northwestern University
  • Penn State
  • Pomona College
  • Princeton University
  • Providence College
  • Randolph College
  • Rice University
  • Salem College
  • San Jose State University (SJSU)
  • 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 (TCNJ)
  • 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 (USC)
  • 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
  • Yale University
  • Yeshiva University

Need-Aware Schools that Meet Need

Below is a list of the need-aware colleges in the United States that are committed to meeting need:

Posted in Finances