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<p>That is why holistic review work! At least, when there is a compelling application that supports the “unique” cases. </p>
<p>The same can be said about academic achievements. Some people can get into Stanford without a single AP – if the school does not offer any or does not stress them. It’s all about the context. Someone working on a remote farm has a … different set of ECs.</p>
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<p>This is absolutely not true. There is a young woman in her first year at Yale who worked 20 hours per week AND volunteered a bunch of hours from my D’s school. That young woman is on full aid, as her parents pay a token EFC. I know, because I helped them with their FAFSA and Profile. The young woman also turned down Princeton! </p>
<p>The young woman’s essay that beautifully showed her character along with her stats got her into several Ivy schools and top 10 institutions.</p>
<p>I heard this today, and I thought of this thread:
[One</a> student’s path to an elite university | Marketplace.org](<a href=“http://www.marketplace.org/topics/wealth-poverty/first-family/one-students-path-elite-university]One”>One student's path to an elite university - Marketplace)</p>
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<p>Not every poor kid manages to graduate. And if they don’t, they wind up with loans to repay.</p>
<p>Hats off to you, BunHeadMom. As I struggled with the CommonApp and CSS profile and FAFSA I realized how the whole process favors people whose parents are familiar with it, confident in and supportive of their child’s right to the best education they can get, native speakers of English, comfortable with income taxes and financial and legal language (assuming they can find all their docs), not to mention patient and able to spend hours fighting with online software forms in multiple browsers. I’m the only one in my household who could really do it (mainly because of the last part!).</p>
<p>Nice to hear success stories!</p>
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Although, I did hear that phrase often growing up and more often as they years went on, I heard “I love you” more. </p>
<p>I do know we’re not rich, but that phrase along with my mother’s great capabilities with handling situations and leading by example inspired me to do better rather than loathing a phrase.</p>
<p>very interested in the topic. Will find sometime this weekend to read all the posts. </p>
<p>Both our kids definitely fit the description - being poor at America’s richest colleges. </p>
<p>Wait, has anyone defined what are “poor” and “rich” in this discussion yet?</p>
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<p>^^^I always like it when I see a young person compliment their parents. :)</p>
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<p>[Post</a> #63](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/16645696-post63.html]Post”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/16645696-post63.html) contains a definition of “middle-income” that implies a $40,000 parent contribution at the colleges in question. [Post</a> #81](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/16645861-post81.html]Post”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/16645861-post81.html) analyzes the definition with Harvard’s net price calculator to show that this is about a $200,000 family income. [Post</a> #98](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/16646069-post98.html]Post”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/16646069-post98.html) defines “middle-class” as family income of $75,000 to $125,000.</p>
<p>Presumably, “poor” and “rich” are some amount below and above the “middle-income” or “middle-class” ranges.</p>
<p>Note that actual median household income in the US is about $50,000; it is around $70,000 for households headed by people age 45-54 (typical age for parents of high school seniors or college frosh).</p>
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<p>Nice seeing you again AD. You just can’t get away from your lines, can you? Both my kids were on a limited budget and both choose those richest schools. I don’t think the decision are foolish. </p>
<p>No going to debate with you again on “better or not”. But I am pretty sure the decisions were right ones for them.</p>
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<p>BINGO!!! </p>
<p>I don’t understand why some “smart” people do not understand this simple fact. To different schools, the definition of poor and rich are totally different. While my kids may be considered poor at the richest schools, they could be considered very rich in other not so rich schools.</p>
<p>There are several posters here on CC follow me at every thread saying “how can your kids get so much aids while you can do this or that?”. Plain and simple, every single family who has the same income as mine gets exactly the same aid from the same school. The same family will NOT get as much if their child only got in a not so rich school. </p>
<p>To make it even clear, I will use some numbers. Family A and Family B both have $100K income and have similar assets. Kid A got into HYPSM and Kid B got into no name school. Both schools cost exactly the same at $60,000 a year. Parent A will only need to pay $10,000 a year but Parent B could face up to bills of $40,000+. </p>
<p>When Parent A use part of that $30,000 saving to do a budget international trip, some Parent B could only think - that guy must have cheated.</p>
<p>My three children have all received very large financial aid packages from Ivy League schools. We are not poor, but have had a business failure and a cancer diagnosis over the past eight years. They never felt out of place at these institutions. My youngest is at Harvard now. His social group (rooommate, dorm friends) is so diverse in so many ways. He feels very comfortable there and appreciates the opportunity.</p>
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The best part is, the study he loves to quote found that the group who mosts benefits from attending a highly selective private are low income students.</p>
<p>Interesting thread. I was an upper middle class kid who went to a rich man’s college. My public high school was very diverse economically. Some kids drove brand new cars, some didn’t own a good pair of shoes. Meeting poor people in college didn’t surprise me, I already knew plenty of them from back home. The shocker was meeting the super rich kids. In those simpler times, there wasn’t so much conspicuous consumption, so finding out about the backgrounds of my classmates was truly shocking. </p>
<p>Did we get along okay across class lines? I guess we did, but I do remember a roommate who had lots of work study who would rather have been studying than working. As an adult looking back, some of the economic differences between my friends takes my breath away. I guess what held us together was we were all young, and at least among my friends, were not united by what stuff we could buy but by what we were interested in. Maybe the rich kids sat together at meals and I was too clueless to notice, but I remember the kids who liked political discussions sat together, the kids liked to talk sports sat together, etc.</p>
<p>Mildly interesting article and very interesting thread…</p>
<p>The PISA result came out this morning. Once again, average US kids do not look so good given the amount of money we have spent in secondary education. So forgive me if I really got befuddled about how tough some rich/middle-class/poor kids have it at elite universities (who probably enroll less than 20K of high school kids each year?).
Somebody just mentions that Smith spends an average of $90K per year to educate a student - this is almost 2X the average annual income of a US household - this is not the real story?</p>
<p>Sorry - I think this middle-class person is not having a good day today. :)</p>
<p>This thread confirms much of the worst that people think about this place. I went to a “rich” school some 30 years ago, got lectured that I should drop out and transfer to my state flagship to save money (never mind that it would have cost me more after financial aid to do so, kids that weren’t rich didn’t “deserve” what rich kids got) and now I’m still hearing that people are “whining” if they are on financial aid?</p>
<p>I’m not exaggerating when I say I am physically nauseated by some of the privilege and contempt on this thread. Seriously. I am ashamed of some of the responses here. I may have been on 90% aid as a student, but I was not as bad off as this collegemate of mine, and I am humbled by her achievements. [Colby</a> College | Colby Magazine | Class Action](<a href=“http://www.colby.edu/colby.mag/issues/62/article/1389/class-action/]Colby”>http://www.colby.edu/colby.mag/issues/62/article/1389/class-action/)</p>
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This worth a whole different discussion by itself. IMHO, throwing $$ at the education system will not change the situation. What we need is a culture change - developing a culture that learning is a good thing and one could get better if you get good grades.</p>
<p>Look around in today’s mass media. Where could you find few, if any, TV programs, Movies, News etc. about staying in school and get good grades? </p>
<p>I am thinking back to my HS days in China. We had 50 students in a class. During the 45 minutes lecture, no one person is doing anything other than listening and learning. One could google about those Chinese kids in the remote village and what they have to do to get to a school where there are 6 grades but only one teacher. Because the culture is in everyone’s blood - go to school and get good grades.</p>
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<p>Thank you, BossyMommy. I am too.</p>
<p>Special callout to PP…just wow. You seriously don’t feel sorry for kids who have grown up in abject poverty? Just because they are fortunate enough to get their college education paid for does not take away from the enormous, real, and lasting difficulties of the circumstances they came from.</p>
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Thats not what posters say, DadII. You are twisting their words as well as your own. You claim to be DIRT POOR yet make a sweet salary, with perks and private bankers and luxury vacations and purchases, you plan to retire in your 50’s and buy gold bullion, along with other extravagances you throw in the faces of the TRULY poor students and families. Its offensive and distasteful. Please stop.</p>
<p>Alternate view. You are as poor as you make yourself feel. DadII…you are choosing to portray yourself as poor. You are not poor. Many folks in your shoes feel fortunate to have what they have.</p>
<p>I went to college as the child of a single parent…on financial aid at a private school my freshman year, and a public university for three subsequent years. My two college roommates came from millionaire families…a thing I didn’t know until MANY years after college graduation. Believe it or not, we didn’t discuss family finances at all. Our money situations just were not an issue. I worked…sometimes two jobs. My roommates didn’t. I was able to do everything I wanted to do with them. </p>
<p>And NO my grades did not suffer. I graduated with high honors.</p>
<p>My campuses were not most wealthy…but from my poor background ANY college campus appeared wealthy. It didn’t have to be Stanford or University of Chicago. The reality was that people around me where wealthier. But you know…they were and continue to be great friends. </p>
<p>Do you all really talk about finances with your friends? Do you compare incomes, and expenditures? Really?</p>
<p>I would wager that most college students have no idea how wealthy…or not their friends are. And for most…if they do, it is not a source of discussion or conflict.</p>