Oct 22, 2013 02:32 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

George Washington University admitted to placing students in need of financial aid on their admissions waitlist, something the school promised for years it had not done.

According to student newspaper the GW Hatchet, administrators said the need for financial aid has always factored in with the admissions process. However, until last week, the message, "requests for financial aid do not affect admissions decisions," remained proudly posted on the school's website.

The school that once claimed to be "need-blind" now confirms about ten percent of its 22,000 average annual applicants need to switch to the waitlist from being admitted due to financial aid needs.

Financial aid needs do not affect the initial application reading process, but it comes into play during the next phase. The university will then examine its financial aid budget before choosing which at-need students to admit.

This leads to wealthier students avoiding the waitlist, while a more worthy applicant may have to land there due to financial constraints. This is a common practice at many private universities, according to Inside Higher Ed, but GW had always maintained it was one of the few that was "need-blind."

Newly hired associate provost for enrollment management Laurie Koehler announced the policy change in an interview Friday with the Hatchet. Since taking her position, she has begun restructuring various admissions processes and policies.

Zakaree Harris, former assistant director of undergraduate admissions, reviewed applications at GW from 2007 to 2010, but said he did not know his superiors weighed financial aid needs. Like most, he took the "need-blind" policy at its word.

"Our policies, and even information that we were giving to families, were always about being need-blind in our process," Harris said. "I do not recall and do not remember ever having a conversation about the specific nature of someone needing X amount of dollars and us making an admissions decision based upon that."

Koehler reiterated that financial aid needs are only taken into account during the latter stages of the application process, including the policy shift only affects students not considered to be GW's top applicants.

"We have our internal preliminary decision of admit or waitlist or deny, and then we run the numbers and then we go, 'Okay, we have to do a little bit of shuffling here,'" she said.

Still, being waitlisted may as well be a rejection letter. In 2012, not even one percent of students waitlisted ended up becoming admitted to GW. Richard Vedder, director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity at Ohio University, said those "dishonest" claims were unfair to students.

"It's misleading," said Vedder, who is also an economics professor at the Ohio University. "Need-blind would mean, 'We don't pay a bit of attention to financial considerations in making admissions decisions,' and GW clearly does."

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