<p>Hi,
I'd like to attend a good university but my family's income is pretty low (about $50k/yr). I am a permanent resident, live in Connecticut. Right now, I have a 3.7-ish GPA UW and 4.0 W and have taken 4 AP classes so far(low scores) and taking 3 more this year.</p>
<p>I participate in Math League and an engineering club at school. I also play volleyball.</p>
<p>My SAT scores are 1900/2400 (520 CR, 640 W, 740 M). Taking another SAT I test in October again.
My Chem SAT II score is 640 and math 2 SAT II is 730.
I also took TOEFL and got 107/120. Took ACTFL language proficiency test and got 'superb' in my language (I took the test because I haven't taken a foreign language class in high school b/c I moved about 3 years ago and needed to focus on learning English). </p>
<p>I also have a couple awards for academic achievements in math and science. </p>
<p>I am looking at some good schools like University of Connecticut, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Cornell.</p>
<p>So, what do you think about my perspectives on getting into these colleges and getting good financial aid?</p>
<p>OP, what’s your native language and when did you start learning English? I abstain from giving chances, but I think you qualify for some good aid at those schools.</p>
<p>I’m from Uzbekistan but I speak Russian and I started learning English back in my country but it wasn’t anything special (simple sentences and words). I basically learned a lot by myself 3 month prior to arriving to the US.</p>
<p>Are you a US citizen or permanent resident? I think that your family income is too high to qualify for mch in the way of federal aid, other than loans. Idk what CT’s student aid is like, but UConn would likely be your financial safety and perhaps your stats are high enough for some merit aid. Your stats seem low for Cornell but if you can raise your SAT scores that may be an option.</p>
<p>Well considering his/her strides in learning English, would you suggest that adcoms would give her a little leeway with CR and W?</p>
<p>@sk8rmom</p>
<p>I’m aiming at UConn anyway because it’s unlikely I will get a full ride at RPI or any other private university but I’m retaking SAT in October. </p>
<p>Btw, we have 4 people in our family if it matters. I don’t think 50k is enough for 4 people to live and pay 22k every year for college.</p>
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<p>Unlikely. Unless the student has something to offer to the school, they are unlikely to bend any of their informal requirements. Colleges aren’t charities, despite their protestations otherwise – they’ll consider every student fairly, but if a student’s stats aren’t up to par her chances of admittance go down significantly.</p>
<p>I realize that Cornell is a reach for me and I won’t be frustrated if I get a rejection letter, it’s not a big deal. I’m mostly concerned with UConn.</p>
<p>I’m aware of Cornell’s holistic admissions policies. Perhaps that would work in the OP’s favor, since it would be essentially an evaluation of what the OP has achieved given his/her circumstances?</p>
<p>I think you have a fair shot at UConn; try your best to write strong and compelling essays.</p>
<p>Also, when did you move to the states?</p>
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<p>Really? I’m not too familiar with federal aid, but I have been asked questions on several occasions on the income threshold for receiving federal aid. Is $50,000 that high of an income?</p>
<p>And I’m not really trying to quarrel here (I thought I’d preempt any misunderstanding :)) - I’m just curious.</p>
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<p>Agreed. Personally, I know a few individuals who got into UConn with lower stats than yours and not-so-great essays. You’re already superior in the former category; if you beat them in the latter, then I think you’ll be in pretty good shape for admission. :)</p>
<p>@justadream92 almost 3 years ago. </p>
<p>I’m not that great with essays but do you think it’s a cliche for me to write about how I changed after moving to the States? I think that it was the biggest part of my life and I really changed a lot.</p>
<p>It may be a risk, but by all means, go for it! Not many people applying to the schools you’re applying to have the same story as you and it may, in fact, be a pleasant discourse for essay readers to read about your journey. Really work on it and have people read it over. It’s really your chance to let these adcoms know the real you beyond the credentials in your application.</p>
<p>ksarmand, the cutoff for Pell eligibility is currently $5273 EFC. To have a 0 EFC generally requires a very large family or a very low income, say $30K or less. I think the EFC for a family of 4 with $50K income would produce an EFC between $3-4K. Pell grants are awarded on a slidiing scale so, while he may be Pell eligible, I don’t think it will amount to much…for example, an EFC of $4K would result in an award of only $1600 (see table below). ACG and SMART are going away after this year, so he won’t be eligible for those, and SEOG has limited funding and many schools use it for students with the lowest EFC’s - public schools like UConn most likely award it in the hundreds, not thousands, of dollars per student. That’s why I’m thinking that most of his federal student aid will come in loan form:(</p>
<p><a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/attachments/P1003PellPaymentSchedules.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/dpcletters/attachments/P1003PellPaymentSchedules.pdf</a></p>
<p>OP, have you researched UConn’s scholarships and do you know if you’ll qualify for any? Also, it looks like the state of CT has several scholarship and grant programs that you would qualify for…that may be your best source of funding as one seems to cover unmet need (you should research this fully):</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ctdhe.org/sfa/sfa.htm#State[/url]”>http://www.ctdhe.org/sfa/sfa.htm#State</a> Web Sites</p>
<p>Please look at the [QuestBridge</a> Home Page](<a href=“http://www.questbridge.org/]QuestBridge”>http://www.questbridge.org/) program.</p>