<p>GPA: 3.041 UW, 3.375 W
SAT: 2110
SAT II: USH-760, English Literature-730 Math2- 750
AP: European History-3, USH-5, English Language-5
ACT: estimating a 33
ECs: over 250 hours at local senior center, water polo freshman year
Work experience: dishwasher at a buffet</p>
<p>Economic disadvantages
-My family's taxable income is less than 40,000 this year.</p>
<p>-Parents never went to college.</p>
<p>-I worked as an informal tutor (working with families in the local Chinese community) during sophomore year. My dad was 62 working at a restaurant he'd been at for 20 years. His boss let him work there even at retirement age only because she knew she could rely on him.
The ownership of the restaurant changed hands around the middle of my sophomore year, and while my dad did not get fired, it was a very stressful time for my family financially; I decided to tutor to get some extra money.
That left little time for ECs and also left a dent in my GPA, I had a 3.5 UW freshman year down to 2.8 UW. I'd like to say I'm a bright kid, and hopefully the adcoms can see that through my test scores, and understand my economic disadvantages were what knocked my GPA and ECs silly. What do you guys think?</p>
<p>Wow, this is almost exactly what happened with me and my family (even the Freshman Year GPA and the then dip is the same!!).</p>
<p>I certainly hope they understand…I mean I have (what I consider) decent ECs but a 3.4 UW and a 4.1 W. Also someone on this forum told me that parents not going to college might be a slight benefit :)</p>
<p>My counselor knows about my situation (that I worked part time during High School etc) and I hope she writes about it in her recommendation, because I can’t think of a way to address this in the application without sounding like I deserve their sympathy.</p>
<p>Good Luck with your college admissions!! :)</p>
<p>Op,I come from a low income family as well. Though I was fortunate in gaining
multiple admittances none of them were bolstered by the low income status.
This was because the correct way to present this was through application
waivers which my family was not keen on taking. I examined Questbridge at
that time and was dissapointed to note they did not have the colleges I was
interested in (at that time) amongst their choices.</p>
<p>In an utshell if you cannot signal your socioeconomic status formally via
Questbridge or via app waivers it willl probably not help.</p>
<p>At my school, the counselors, to say the least, are subpar. I live in California, so all the schools are cutting down on “unnecessary” costs and they are firing two of the four counselors (one for each grade level ~500 students), one of which was mine for the last three years. So I can’t really depend on a counselor I’ve never known who will handle 1000 students to write something for me =/. Do you have any other suggestions?</p>
<p>
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<p>Why wouldn’t your parents want to take waivers? And how does Questbridge work? I’ve never heard of it before. Thanks! ps: did you write about it in your essay? I know its not a good idea but if thats the only way to convey economic disadvantages, I suppose I’d do it.</p>
<p>Ya, that’s essentially how it is where I go to school too (This is downright eerie, even the numbers match up here!)…but we have meetings with the counselor where she interviews us for the recommendation and it’s a big deal at our school. You might wanna talk to your teachers who’re doing your recs and tell them about your financial situation. I’m not fully sure if I’m going down this route though.</p>
<p>reach, I come from a very frugal family that strongly believes in its social
obligations. Having saved for 6 apps I was requested by my parents to not
use waivers that may benefit others. No, I did not write about my socioeconomic
status in my essays. If a college would not accept me for who I am but will
only consider my economic status I was pretty sure I did not want to go there.</p>
<p>Try Questbridge on google.</p>
<p>Just a thought:
If you have done enough dishwashing for pay (I have) relating your thoughts
(obviously you were elsewhere in your thoughts) as you try to rub the stains
from a particularly stubborn eating utensil may bring out your situation
metaphorically and otherwise in your essay? (remember to balance with the
necessary humor so your narrative is not construed as whining)</p>
<p>There certainly are plenty of colleges that will accept you. One thing to focus on is colleges that will accept you and that you can afford to go to. The colleges that are most generous tend to be places like HPYS, Amherst and similar colleges that are the most difficult in the country to gain admission to.</p>
<p>Very few colleges are able to give full financial aid to very low income students like you. There are only a handful of public universities that can do this. I don’t think any are in Calif. The only one that I’m aware of is U Virginia, which is extremely hard for out of state students to be accepted to, and your chances of being accepted there or to HPYS, Amherst, etc. are remote.</p>
<p>You may find that the best and most affordable for you to attain your college dreams would be to live at home and go to community college and then transfer to a public university that you can commute to.</p>
<p>Most colleges don’t factor ECs into admission. The exception are places like HPYS, which have such an overabundance of high stat applicants that the colleges can pick and choose from among those applicants to pick the ones who’d most contribute to creating a diverse, active student body.</p>
