Photo by katieforeman2010

The GW Hatchet, the D.C. university’s student newspaper, reported this week that their school’s admissions office had misrepresented its process, claiming to be “need blind” when in fact some students who need more financial aid from the school are shifted from “admitted” to “waitlisted.”

School officials have denied any foul play, with Laurie Koehler, the new senior associate provost for enrollment management, saying in a statement that “admissions practices have not changed with regard to how financial aid requests are factored in.” She said “need aware” was a better term for their practice than “need blind.”

The Hatchet story suggests that the university’s practice of need aware admissions automatically disadvantages students with need. Quite the contrary, our need aware admissions policy enables the university to provide more attractive aid packages for students with financial need while staying within our aid budget. More than 60 percent of our students receive grants from the university.

Koehler elaborated on this in a Q&A posted to GW Today.

Our admissions committee evaluates candidates without factoring in financial need. They make initial decisions based solely upon the merits of the application. Thus, our admissions process starts with each application being read by staff members who do not know any financial information about the applicants. This is often referred to as a “need blind read.”

We then look at a variety of institutional priorities and values to help us round out the next incoming class of students.

It’s important to note that we must balance the financial needs of our new class with the university’s aid budget. This all happens in advance of admission notification of students.

The Hatchet, however, disputes that the “practices have not changed.”

But as recently as Saturday, admissions representatives told prospective students in an information session that their applications would be judged without glancing at their financial aid profiles. And until it was removed Saturday evening, the undergraduate admissions website read, “Requests for financial aid do not affect admissions decisions.” That webpage now explains GW’s “need-aware” policy.

Today, GW President Steven Knapp issued a statement backing Koehler and the school’s “need aware” policy.”

“I also want to address the misperception that our need-aware practice is designed to exclude students with limited financial means from attending George Washington. That is not the case,” Knapp said in a statement on GW Today. “In fact, being need aware is currently our best option for meeting the financial need of as many students as possible while recruiting an academically strong and diverse class. Our goal has always been to come as close as possible to meeting our students’ financial needs.”

He concludes, “I would love to see us one day become a fully need-blind institution, and I will continue to do all I can to achieve that goal.”

GW has the fourth highest tuition in the country.