Dartmouth College to Admit Int’l Students Based on Their Qualifications, Not Their Ability to Pay

Dartmouth College has announced a need-blind admissions policy, which will include international students, United States citizens, permanent residents, and eligible non-citizens.

The “need-blind” admission means that all student applications are reviewed and admitted based on students’ merit and not their ability to pay for college, Erudera.com reports.

The college already had the “need-blind” admissions policy in effect, but it did not include international students. The move is now expected to contribute to an increase in the number of international students studying at the college.

“Once the Admissions office has selected the students it intends to admit to Dartmouth, the Financial Aid Office determines each student’s need, and awards financial aid accordingly,” the university notes.

The new policy became effective with the Class of 2026, including the announcement about the admission of some 530 early applicants who were notified in December that they have been admitted to Dartmouth’s Class of 2026. A total of 2,633 students submitted applications in the college’s early decision cycle, and 560 were admitted – 30 through QuestBridge.

Dartmouth President Philip Hanlon told the Financial Times that the decision does not benefit only international students but all students on campus, adding that tomorrow’s leaders must be global citizens.

“Talent is spread all across the world. We want to remove any financial barrier. By us bringing together students from all over the world … they will learn from their peers,” President Hanlon said.

Hanlon pointed out that he expects an increase in the number of international applicants and would not be surprised if the number increases by 25 percent over the next decades. Dartmouth College has seen an increase in international students recently – 14 percent of international students joined the recent class in Dartmouth, a rise from 8 percent in 2013.

Hundreds of US higher education institutions offer “need blind” admissions for US applicants, but not all of them include international students. Dartmouth joins the list of five other universities which accept all students, regardless of their citizenship, through need-blind admission. The five universities that use a similar admission process for all US applicants and international ones are:

• Yale University
• Harvard University
• Princeton University
• Amherst College
• The Massachusetts Institute of Technology

In 2018, Dartmouth launched the Call to Lead initiative to ensure all students access opportunities, under which program the college aimed to allocate $90 million to support international students and include the latter in its need-blind admission policy. According to Dartmouth, an anonymous amount of $40 million enabled the campaign.