It may be attractive to think of colleges as entities for the greater good, but in actuality they are non-profit businesses with budgets and bottom lines. At most places, tuition revenue is the biggest slice of the college income pie, which means the role of the admission office is not just to bring in a class of a set number of students, but to bring in a set number of revenue dollars in the form of tuition. The practice of being aware of a family’s financial situation in the making of an admission decision is a practice referred to as being need-aware. Most colleges in the U.S. are need-aware.
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