<p>My families income is 17,000. Do colleges know that when you apply?</p>
<p>The schools you’re applying to…are they need based or need blind?</p>
<p>Oh I don’t know the difference between the two. I’m applying to a lot of top tier schools? Harvard, BU, new York university, Boston college etc.</p>
<p>You should know the difference, it’s important.
Are you applying for financial aid? Are you international?</p>
<p>Harvard: Shouldn’t matter.
BU, BC and NYU: Might take it into consideration.</p>
<p>And with such a low income, your EFC must be incredibly high! I’m not trying to bring your hopes down, I’m just being honest.</p>
<p>Um I think you may be confused haha? My EFC is 0 dollars.</p>
<p>Expected family contribution is what you family is expected to pay, so I’m not really sure what your talking about…</p>
<p>When you apply financial aid it doesn’t mean though that you will go to collegefor zero dollars. Thats just what fafsa reports to the universities. Its at the universities discretion as to how much an applicant receives. Hence, the bigger the endowment the more money the student usually receives. Colleges like Harvard etc. Have billion dollar endowments where they can spread the wealth.</p>
<p>Anyways my question may have been a bit ambiguous. Maybe I should phrase it as, what colleges favor low socio economic diversity the most when applying.</p>
<p>Not sure about BU, but BC and NYU are not very generous at all. Students who graduate from NYU, for example, have some of the highest debt of any school in the country. BC gives virtually no merit-based aid, except for a dozen or so applicants each year. If I were you, I would look at schools that your family can afford without having to borrow huge amounts of money.</p>
<p>Well I have about 10,000 from the pell grant. So there is virtually not one college on the face of this earth that my my family can afford of we aremin a under 20,000 income bracket.</p>
<p>How did you think you were going to be able to afford to attend the schools on your list? Satisfying your financial situation should be the #1 criteria for your school list selection.</p>
<p>Are your stats and resume good enough to get a large enough chunk of merit money? </p>
<p>What state do you live in?</p>
<p>Edit: I just saw on one of your previous posts your test scores. I didn’t see your GPA, but based on your test scores and your financial situation, you really should consider an affordable alternative to a private college.</p>
<p>I know what your EFC is, and yes I assumed it would be 0 actually.</p>
<p>Like I said Harvard…it DOES NOT MATTER. You should not worry about financial aid there, as it is need-blind and it has a big endowment. I know that, that’s what I was trying to say. But the other colleges are not generous at all.</p>
<p>mspennylane said:</p>
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<p>What state are you in? You should look at alternatives, like your instate public U. If you are shooting for schools that are known for meeting 100% aid (as they determine) you have to be VERY competitive for admission, and judging from what jshain said, you should not bet on getting into any of these schools (they are top schools).</p>
<p>If you find schools that meet “100% of Need” and do not require a lot of loans you very may be able to afford college … the big catch is schools that that meet “100% of Need” and do not require loans are among the toughest in the country to be accepted to.</p>
<p>Another track is to find lower cost alternatives … merit scholarships can pay for a lot of school … and your local state schools can be cheaper alternatives (especially community colleges for the first 2 years) … and living at home while attending school can save a ton of money.</p>
<p>LOL, I apologize for my mistake. I meant “incredibly low” obviously :P</p>
<p>When you wanna select a college go to collegeboard, then in at that college’s page go on the Financial Aid section and see what percentage of aid they meet.</p>
<p>Lol yeah I didn’t know what u were talking about with EFC. But I’m hoping to at least get into BU I’m hoping that they grant me a lot of aid. I just didn’t know what schools factor that in for decisions. Some favor economic diversity since they don’t get it a lot.</p>
<p>BU gives out mainly merit scholarships.
And schools will only know your economic situation during admissions if 1) you write about it in your essay or 2) they are need-aware</p>
<p>I talked to a admissions officer from Dartmouth. Maybe she wasn’t supposed to say this, but she did. She told me that if I was low economic to make note of that somewhere, and that schools like Dartmouth take that into consideration when evaluating a applicant because of opportunities etc. I’m assuming need blind aid would be more favorable to myslf.</p>
<p>greenpaisley46, BU just isn’t going to grant you as much aid as you are hoping for. Your (current) 1750 SAT score is going to put you at the “bottom of the food chain” for any merit-based aid there, assuming you can even get in.</p>
<p>BU meets 90% of aid, which isn’t bad, but considering the fact that some colleges meet 100% it could be better. I’d advise you to look into those colleges.</p>
<p>alyssaz: what the Dartmouth officer said was correct. This is no “revelation”. However, there is a difference between 1) need-blind admissions (meaning they will accept/reject you without regards to your ability to pay), 2)holistic evaluations where a person coming from a less affluent background are still judged in the context of their community/family background and 3) the handful of schools committed to meeting 100% of demonstrated need.</p>
<p>1) and 3) don’t always go hand in hand. If you find a school that practices need-blind admissions – what happens if they can’t meet your monetary shortfall?</p>
<p>There are only very very few need-blind/meet 100% financial need colleges. And as you can imagine, the competition to these is hyper insane.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure I can get in BU with a 1750. I’d be surprised if I didn’t. I don’t need merit based. I need “need based”. The majority of school these days are need based anyways</p>
<p>From CollegeBoard:</p>
<p>Scholarship opportunities:
Trustee Scholar Program; full-tuition and fees (renewable); candidates nominated by high school principals, headmasters, or students. University Scholarships; half-tuition (renewable); based on exceptionally strong high school academic record. Dean’s Scholarships; $10,000 (renewable); based on strong academic credentials, for students who have applied for need-based financial aid but have financial resources that exceed cost of attendance. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship; full-tuition; for academically gifted students with proven leadership abilities and strong commitment to social justice and community involvement.</p>
<p>(This about BU by the way)</p>