<p>So, I am a good student, and I think I would have the qualifications necessary to at least have a shot at the ivy leagues and other top schools. But the thing is, my mom thinks all of them are too "snobby". Most top-rated schools, according to her, are filled with kids who are "snobby and rich." This, from what I've found looking into the topic online, isn't usually true, because rich kids aren't necessarily snobby, and top-college kids aren't necessarily rich. These expensive colleges are also the ones with the best financial aid opportunities.. right? I'm not really sure, because I feel like I've been raised with the mindset that these schools are not reachable, for monetary reasons or others. Are these schools financially reachable for a lower-middle class family? My parents are divorced, so that kind of complicates things, but basically I don't have much money put aside for college, if any at all. But anyway, I guess my main point is that while ivy league legacy kinds have that pressure pushed on them to go to an ivy or a school like that, sometimes I feel like I have pressure pushing me away from it. What do you think the most important factor is for a prospective, pretty low-income student applying to colleges? How much should I take my mom's worries into consideration?</p>
<p>I’d love to know what your mother’s definition of snobby is. Depending on how she defines it, it may apply.</p>
<p>Lower middle class kids are frequently in a good position to receive financial aid, but it all depends on your individual situation.</p>
<p>Your mother may have been correct in 1892</p>
<p>I somewhat agree with the OP’s mother. Majority of the people that get 2200 on their SAT’s are rich kids whose parents could afford the best private school and best SAT/ACT tutoring. They get to take 10 AP classes in high school and do a lot of extra curriculars. Poor kids go to public schools and get alright SAT’s like 1600, 1700, 1800 etc. Not saying that there are no poor kids with high stats, its just that not a lot of them. Check every top college’s common data set and you will see that very few students attending qualify for a Pell Grant. University of Michigan- less than 10%</p>
<p>On a second thought, The top colleges admit students holistically so don’t worry about being with only rich and snobby kids.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input! 
Do you think that the general wealthiness of students is something that should be considered in choosing a school, or does it not really matter overall?</p>
<p>Who cares about wealthiness of students if you have the opportunity to attend a well known top college ? Of Course there will be friendly, hicks, awesome, snobby, grumpy, racist people everywhere. One of the important part of college is to experience real life.</p>
<p>My opinion for the elite schools: If you’re poor-you need to be the best of the best. If you’re rich you still need to be smart but not necessarily the best. If you’re an endowment student, having a pulse is preferred but not required. GL</p>
<p>Xtreme power- Yeah, I agree with you, no school can be totally generalized! But also, it seems that less economic diversity could be less representative of “real life”… Not really sure, I think I read an article about that once…</p>
<p>Sosomenza- Yeah, that makes sense, but aren’t most admissions need-blind? Would being poor work against you when actually applying, or just when getting the opportunities necessary to get high scores, etc? Also, if people had equal gpas, test scores, talent, etc, but one was rich and one was poor, would they have an unequal shot at acceptance? Or just an unequal shot at being able to pay for/ attend the school?</p>
<p>It’s certainly possible to get into top 25 schools and ivies. It’s harder for low income students because they have less opportunities compared to rich kids from private schools. You don’t get to hire a SAT tutor for $300/hour.
But it’s not impossible, not even close.
Remember that plenty of rich kids also don’t make it to top schools despite the resources.
It’s true that top schools have many kids from private schools, and are rich. If you look, at many schools, there are usually anywhere from 30% to 50% of students not receiving any financial aid, which means they pay the $60k+ price tag. But you can’t generalize the entire socioeconomic class or the student body as “snobby.” There are all kinds of people.</p>
<p>Be open-minded and work hard.</p>
<p>Thanks, I definitely agree with you!</p>
<p>Love Art: The best of schools only offer need based aid to 60-70% of the student body so apparently the other 30-40% are rich enough to pay their own way. That percentage is much higher than the actual distribution of wealth so there seems to be a preference to the wealthy. But since the rich are paying for everyone, it’s okay by my book.</p>
<p>The percentage of undergraduates on Pell Grants (proxy for being from a lower-middle to lower income family) varies considerably at various schools:</p>
<p>[Economic</a> Diversity Among the Top 25 Ranked Schools | Rankings | Top National Universities | US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/economic-diversity-among-top-ranked-schools]Economic”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/economic-diversity-among-top-ranked-schools)</p>
<p>[Economic</a> Diversity | Rankings | Top National Universities | US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/economic-diversity]Economic”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/economic-diversity)</p>
<p>Whether there is “snobbiness” is a whole different story.</p>
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<p>How about if you cross that bridge when you get to it? Apply to as many of these schools as you want, but also be sure to apply to matches and safeties. Make sure you have a financial safety as well.</p>
<p>Then when the acceptances roll in, and you see what you have to choose from, it will be more clear to you, and your mom, what you should do.</p>
<p>Of course, come back and ask for our input. :)</p>
<p>
The most selective colleges (those your mother is worried would be too snobby) also tend to be those that practice need blind admissions. They practice holistic admissions so that each candidate is evaluated relative to the opportunities that they have had. So the poorer of the two candidates that you posited has the better chance of being admitted because they have achieved as much as the richer one, but did it while overcoming more adversity. The preconceptions your mother has expressed are the reason that the most selective schools spend so much on marketing themselves to high achieving kids from lower economic backgrounds.</p>
<p>How serious is your financial need? Go to the financial aid forum, and read through the subforums on Questbridge and other big scholarships. You might qualify.</p>
<p>While I would agree that there is more wealth at higher cost schools, ANY school that charges a lot will attract wealthy families. The tippy top schools that offer a lot of financial aid are MORE LIKELY to attract lower to middle income students than those schools who do not meet full need AND are not need-blind. </p>
<p>I disagree with Xtreme power who stated that only rich kids from private schools get SAT scores over 2200. While poor kids from impoverished high schools may have less of a chance of succeeding, MANY bright public school kids do well on the SATs, without the test prep. The 10 NMFs in my older son’s PUBLIC school high school class most likely did not study to achieve that status, and my son certainly did not do test prep to eventually achieve his high SAT scores.</p>
<p>I don’t disagree that wealthy high achieving families have an advantage, but don’t discount the fact that some of the kids at the tippy top schools ACTUALLY have the smarts to be there. They did not test prep their way there.</p>
<p>OP, I wanted to say virtually the exact same thing as Happymomof1, who I continually find myself in agreement with on various topics. I don’t know what grade you are in, but you should be shoring up your resume’ now, no matter what your grade. If there are summer and extracurricular programs you are interested in that you cannot afford to participate in, apply for a scholarship. Many offer them. If you are a junior, it may be too late to apply for Hamilton Scholar through the Alexander Hamilton Friends, but I believe the deadline for Nordstrom scholarship is May 1. APPLY. If you are Caucasian, do not be deterred by the “diversity” emphasis of many scholarships that give a nod to low-income students. My son is lily-white and was selected for every scholarship he applied to, even those like Nordstrom that stress a diversity component. He was one of many white students chosen to receive them.</p>
<p>Definitely apply for Questbridge. If you are a soph or junior, apply for the Questbridge Prep scholarships, too. Don’t be deterred by any income “breaking point” levels you might read about. Questbridge considers your entire financial situation. The app is almost painfully thorough, but I believe that it is worth it. I suspect that the highest ranked Questbridge schools only accept students with 0 EFC in the early round, but I also think that being a Questbridge finalist can strengthen your app for RD.</p>
<p>Finally, don’t be confined by perceptions of those who are unfamiliar with all of the schools that might be available to you, even if it’s your own mom. Also, don’t be confined by perceptions of what you are able to do, even if you are at a low-performing public school. Many students don’t realize that many of the kids who overcome such an environment don’t follow “the rules”. You can take AP tests (and pass them!) without taking the classes. You can self-study for SATIIs and take them to prove your proficiency in areas that your school’s course offerings lag in, too. If the service opportunities at your school are uninspiring, dream up your own service program–schools and scholarship programs prefer to see you using your own ingenuity to following along with the crowd, anyway. Be creative with your educational plan! And show your mom the link to the % of Pell Grant students at top schools that was posted in a previous reply. To qualify for Pell, you’ve got to have very low income. There are A LOT of middle class students who don’t qualify for Pell but are far, far from snobby rich. 
Good luck to you!</p>
<p>“I disagree with Xtreme power who stated that only rich kids from private schools get SAT scores over 2200.”</p>
<p>I did not say that. I said this “Majority of the people that get 2200 on their SAT’s are rich kids” The emphasis is on the majority. </p>
<p>I also said this to make it clear, so that people don’t get the wrong meaning. “Not saying that there are no poor kids with high stats, its just that not a lot of them.”</p>
<p>You need to read posts carefully.</p>
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<p>Yes, one would think so. And yet it doesn’t seem to work out that way:</p>
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<p>[Top</a> low-income students often overlook applying to better colleges - Nation - The Boston Globe](<a href=“http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2013/03/16/top-low-income-students-often-overlook-applying-better-colleges/g0RVDfBlA1mIUob6A1A4GM/story.html]Top”>http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2013/03/16/top-low-income-students-often-overlook-applying-better-colleges/g0RVDfBlA1mIUob6A1A4GM/story.html)</p>
<p>A related finding: while 26% of the nation’s undergraduates are Pell grant recipients, the figure at the nation’s 50 wealthiest colleges continues to hover at just under 15%–about half the national average.</p>
<p>[Pell</a> Grant Recipients Are Underrepresented at America’s Wealthiest Colleges - Admissions & Student Aid - The Chronicle of Higher Education](<a href=“http://chronicle.com/article/Pell-Grant-Recipients-Are/126892/]Pell”>http://chronicle.com/article/Pell-Grant-Recipients-Are/126892/)</p>
<p>Or, coming at it from the other direction, 56% of the students at Brown, which meets 100% of need, are full-pays. Since need-based financial aid at a school like Brown is available to students from families with incomes up to about $180,000/year, we can surmise that well over half of Brown students come from households that rank among the top 4% or so of income earners.</p>
<p>I’m not saying these schools are “snobby.” They do attract and generously support some students of modest means, and many such students find the social environment quite agreeable. But low-income and middle-income students are represented in the student bodies at these schools in numbers far smaller than their fractional share of college students generally, much less the population at large, while the affluent are represented at a far higher rate–roughly an order of magnitude higher–than among the general population.</p>
<p>I’ve spent a lot of time studying and teaching at elite colleges and universities, or visiting them to make academic presentations, attend academic conferences, and so on. Some do have a bit of a “snobby” vibe, many don’t, while at still others it’s a mixed bag. Blanket generalizations that they all do or all don’t just don’t ring true to my experience.</p>
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How about detailing a bit of those qualifications. What have you taken in the way of honors and AP? What is your score on the SAT or ACT? What extracurricular activities are you involved in? What awards and honors have you received for your ECs?</p>