“Need-blind admissions” is not part of Adam Witt’s vocabulary, and he is okay with that.

Over the past decade, numerous liberal arts colleges have re-examined their need-blind policies. One such school is Carleton College, where Witt is a junior.

Witt enrolled several years after Carleton decided to move from a need-blind to a need-aware policy in the mid-1990s because of expanding financial aid spending.

Today Carleton’s admissions web site emphasizes its commitment to meeting the demonstrated financial need of all admitted students. According to a memo cited in Macalester’s Resource Planning Committee (RPC) need-blind report, Carleton applies need-aware criteria to 15 percent or less of each entering class.

Witt has watched the main source of his aid package evolve from grants to loans over the past three years. But he said that students are generally pleased with their financial aid packages and are allowed to appeal for more aid if they are affected by special circumstances.

“Most of my friends are pleased with their financial aid, but I do know several people who have appealed their packages and received more aid,” Witt said, adding that he has successfully appealed for more aid because he has thirteen siblings. “The financial aid office works hard to make sure that if a student is accepted here, it will cover the need of that person’s family.”

Shifting from need-blind to need-aware admissions had minimal impact on the student body, according to Carleton Dean of Admissions Paul Thiboutot. The college conducted a nine-year study to chart the repercussions of the move.

“[The study] shows that we have kept financial aid grant expenditures from growing exponentially out of control while retaining about the same healthy socio-economic backgrounds among our student body as we had a decade ago,” Thiboutot said.

For Molly McGraw, the student supervisor of admissions at St. Olaf College, the need-blind debate is not yet part of the distant past. St. Olaf dropped need-blind admissions last winter, reportedly because of budget constraints.

“I was really upset when we made the switch, because I don't think that how much money your mom or dad makes should have any bearing on where you can go to school,” McGraw, a junior, said. “But working in the admissions office has helped me understand [that] Olaf will still be able to fully cover the need of most students. Need-blind is definitely the best option, but if it is bleeding the school's coffers dry, then it's best to switch to need sensitive and make sure programs don't get cut.”

McGraw said some St. Olaf students were initially unhappy with the decision but knew of accumulating financial problems and understood the need for a change.

She also said the decision was not as high-profile as it has been at Macalester. “I don’t know if most people were aware of it,” she said.

According to the RPC report, St. Olaf Director of Admissions Jeff McLaughlin said the college had two options: “We could either be need-blind and not be able to meet the financial aid needs of our students, or we could do what Carleton did a number of years ago and be need-sensitive with the ability to meet the financial aid needs of the student body.”

Susan Canon, Director of Institutional Research and Planning at St. Olaf, said that there is not yet enough data to measure the impact of the shift in admission policy.

The RPC report cites Wesleyan University in Connecticut as the school most similar to Macalester that has retained need-blind admissions. Wesleyan decided to keep the policy during the 1990s and increased the amount of loans in aid packages in order to reduce spending.

Beloit College in Wisconsin has maintained need-blind admissions, even though it has less money than Macalester, according to RPC Chair Daniel Kaplan.

Beloit Vice President for Enrollment Nancy Monnich said the college’s operating budget is created with the intent of maintaining an enrollment of 1200 students and meeting the demonstrated need of the student body.

“Because the commitment to a strong financial aid program has been part of the fabric of Beloit for so long, every other budget decision is made around that assumption,” Monnich said. “That said, it has become increasingly difficult to bridge the gap when state and federal programs for the neediest students have not increased or in many cases, have been cut, placing more pressure on colleges like Beloit and Macalester to reach deeper into their own resources to meet student need.”

Monnich also emphasized that a need-aware policy does not have to be disastrous. “Most colleges that are need-sensitive are still able to fully fund well-qualified applicants, and that it is only at the margin of the applicant pool where those decisions are made,” she said. “Need sensitivity is more easily tolerated when the institution is very clear about its priorities for diversity within the student body.”