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...cases, applicants also share information about their family’s financial situation in essays or interviews. With the help of Harvard economists, admissions officers use micro-level Census data to glean “further information about candidates’ socioeconomic backgrounds,” according to financial aid director Sally C. Donahue...
...irony is that Harvard already has “further information about candidates’ socioeconomic backgrounds.” Financial aid applicants submit information on whether their family receives food stamps and welfare checks, how much their parents earn each month, and how much their families spend on rent, electricity, and healthcare. Until admissions decisions, all of this information sits unused in the financial aid files—just steps from the room where reviewers decide applicants’ fates...
...while reviewers use ZIP codes to “determine in a rough kind of way” whether applicants have faced financial hardship, they do not use the aid forms to establish in a precise kind of way whether applicants have encountered economic obstacles...
What accounts for these Byzantine rules? Since the 1960s, Harvard has advertised that its admissions process is “need blind.” Reviewers don’t see applicants’ financial aid files, so Harvard can guarantee that it’s not just cherry-picking students who can pay full-price. By contrast, other schools (including Tufts) routinely reject some applicants from low-income families because the financial aid burden would be too heavy...
...reviewers can learn a lot about an applicant without opening financial aid files. But by looking inside, they might learn even more...