3 ms·
I still feel offended that my alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis, is not need-blind despite its $5.7 Billion endowment.
by philip1209 12y ago
I still feel offended that my alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis, is not need-blind despite its $5.7 Billion endowment.
- ridicter 12y agoWash U alum here. I agree: unacceptable. I believe Wash U uses the term "need-aware." It aggressively recruits based on "merit" at the cost of socioeconomic diversity. While I was attending, Wash U had the most National Merit Finalists, largely because those students get at bare minimum a $2k/yr scholarship for showing up.[1] On the one hand, this has resulted in a significant increase in the standardized test performance of its student body [2]--and that has probably resulted in higher rankings overall. On the other hand, there's a simulated environment quality to being around people who are all so similarly well off. For example, every student from a 150k+ income family thinks of his/herself as middle class. Not much perspective. [1] http://www.nationalmerit.org/annual_report.pdf http://www.nationalmerit.org/annual_report.pdf [2] http://www.businessinsider.com/colleges-with-the-highest-sat-scores-2014-8?op=1 http://www.businessinsider.com/colleges-with-the-highest-sat...