<p>Their income is over 100K but lost their house due to foreclosure and filed bankrupcty. Money mismanagement largely due to their insistence on keeping their kids in elite private schools. They assume their daughter in a Catholic girls' private HS of 200 will get a full ride to HYP. She is a year older than her classmates, 3.5 average, SATs decent but not NMSF or F. Two typical sports but not a standout, in fact nothing outstanding and she makes a terrible impression around adults. Her mother thinks it's cute that she is so snotty. Having just gone through the application process last year (but with an athletic recruit) as well as my stepchildren I wish I could offer guidance to these people. Have seen many more outstanding applicants post wait-list status, IRL and here on CC, and kids who are invloved in charities and more activities to boot. I did direct them to this site but they're not interested. I guess I am just venting here but appreciate your comments. They are relatives so me minding my own business is moot, I sure put up with a lot of their unsolicited (and useless) advice over the years!</p>
<p>If she’s that snotty (and if they are too, sure sounds like it), then laugh it off…=P On the other hand, if her SAT’s high, when top schools offer her nothing, she can apply to University of Alabama, they’re good with aid for high-scoring students, or she could go to a CC…=P</p>
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<p>Which will undoubtedly be the case, because with a 3.5 GPA and good-not-great test scores, she won’t be admitted.</p>
<p>OP, I think I’d practice biting my tongue very, very hard, because you’re going to need the practice come April 1.</p>
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So now you want to gloat and/or even the score?</p>
<p>It doesn’t sound, from what you’ve written, that they’ve actually sought advice from you. Its your choice of how to handle your family matters, but I wonder what it is you have to gain (and at what cost) by insisting on “advising” them.</p>
<ol>
<li>they are not going to listen to you. </li>
<li>you will just get more frustrated trying</li>
<li>if she does get in, by hook, by crook, or by miracle, then you look bad</li>
<li>Alabama is out for her now, deadline is 12/1- and “decent” does not get you a full ride. Most schools deadlines are fast approaching for the big scholarships. </li>
<li>If they are that insistent, they will probably lie and make an excuse as to why she “turned down” the full ride at the ivy</li>
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<p>What I would do, is smile as sarcastically as you can, and say, “good luck, we will see how she does come April”, and just let it go. You wont need to say anything in April…they will know you were right.</p>
<p>Yes, agree with other … sometimes you just have to bite your tongue. Sadly though, they may get more financial aid than others, so now you really have to bite your tongue.</p>
<p>Let 'em think what they want to think. It’s not your concern. They will find out soon enough.</p>
<p>Like others have said, just pull back. Yearly, CC sees posts about students who lie about turning down Ivy and other top school offers. Already this season on the Yale forum, one poster’s classmate claimed she was accepted by Yale but turned them down due to financial reasons. This is an impossibility at this time. What’s to be done? I say nothing. Nothing to be gained over defeating someone who is already lost.</p>
<p>…not to mention, ivies don’t give merit aid, so she won’t be getting a “full ride” to any of them - not with income above $100K.</p>
<p>All of you–thank you for your responses, more helpful than you know. (And thanks for the cynicism, mikedad, I do not want to gloat, you have no idea how we all saw the foreclosure coming and tactfully tried to steer them in the right direction, now I constantly want to SCREAM when listening to nonstop tales of woe and how they can’t believe they came home from an expensive vacation to a sealed house and all their stuff in storage…)</p>
<p>I actually hope she gains admission (she certainly qualifies for many worthwhile schools but they are obsessed with Ivy) with a decent financial package because we are all put upon to help them financially in their irresponsibility. I am also grateful to all of you because I dare not complain to any family member and don’t want their friends or mine to know what is really going on.</p>
<p>You’re right about practicing tongue-biting. And I agree, Dukedad, that income bracket doesn’t get financial aid but they think their indebtedness qualifies them…and yet there was an article about a student leaving a Catholic college because her mother’s cancer debts were bankrupting the family; father earned 80K so she had to leave school. That is a family I would prefer to assist.</p>
<p>As for Ivy admission, I think of my stepdaughter’s friend who is an URM, high average, a semester’s worth of AP credits, great achievement in extra-curriculars, 2100 SAT, charity work and a stellar personality–kind, articulate, dynamic, positive. She did not gain admission to the HYP she applied to where one of her parents is an employed professional, nor to one of the Ivies that is ‘easier’ to get into. But she is happily matriculated at one of the other wonderful non-ivies she was accepted to. And while she did get decent aid, her large family’s modest home would have made one assume she would have gotten more aid than she did; while they were pleased, she will graduate with loans. (Thanks for reading that, if only the people in question would learn from it…instead, the horribly dismissive things they have said about this wonderful young woman are not suitable for this board)</p>
<p>Re lying about turning down a full-ride Ivy. </p>
<p>Or, alternatively, complaining about how some unqualified URM got my perfect kid’s spot.</p>
<p>Regarding financial aid at Ivies: Ivy league schools are very generous with need based aid for those families that can not afford the education. </p>
<p>[Financial</a> Aid Initiatives | Financial Aid](<a href=“http://www.finaid.Cornell.edu/cost-attend/financial-aid-initiatives]Financial”>Financial Aid Initiatives | Financial Aid)</p>
<p>Cornell takes into consideration medical bills and other situations such as business losses. They do not provide merit aid.</p>
<p>Nothing for you to do, (other than ask if she has applied to any safety schools if you want to go that far). Let the chips fall where they may.</p>