<p>like do low-income students get a boost in the college admissions process for the UC schools? my friend and i were arguing about it. i said for uc's only being first generation helped whereas he said being both first generation and low-income helps. also do the ivies favor low-income students?</p>
<p>They do take "hardships" and special cases into consideration. A person from a practically penniless family is obviously not going to be held to the same standard as the child of a Harvard grad.</p>
<p>The fact that you're asking this question shows me that you have not researched college admissions enough. Seriously, check out some books and read through through some websites with college admissions tips.</p>
<p>Ouch, that's harsh. He doesn't know; that's why he's asking. x.X.</p>
<p>But yeah. A low income does affect admission decisions.</p>
<p>How is that harsh? He simply hasn't researched it enough. Was I supposed to say it in a different way, all sweet and cuddly, or ignore it altogether? I've read a lot and had a lot of conversations about college admissions and I know I still don't know everything.</p>
<p>Lol, calm down. I was just saying not everyone is as well-informed, and that is why they are asking on this site.</p>
<p>yes i dont know anything about college admissions... i am first generation college student and i am kind of clueless in this kind of stuff... please show mercy</p>
<p>The UC system claims to look at student hardships. Maybe it really does. More generally, colleges claim to take into account low-income circumstances, but some scholars of the admission process think there is still a thumb on the admissions scale for higher-income students at most colleges. See </p>
<p>for links to studies of this issue.</p>
<p>tokenadult, This is one of the few instances on CC where I would take issue with your knowledge. You should go directly to the source, or sources plural, for a definitive explanation of weighting factors in the UC process, which is a public institution with a different mission than the many Privates with enrollment management priorities often overshadowing other elements of the application & attributes of the person.</p>
<p>The UC process in general recognizes the affect of wealth as an advantage (as well as the opposite dynamic), and overtly attempts to correct for that by balancing the various application elements. Specific campuses calculate discrete hardship points, some refining this even more to account for several categories of challenge, non-concurrently. There's an actual formula at some campuses, making it fairly predictable, if you are such a student, to determine where your strongest chances of admission are -- assuming that your application is otherwise competitive on academic & e.c. measures.</p>
<p>In fact, with the broadening of the applicant base in CA to include larger segments of previously non-college-bound students -- such as poorer classes, recently assimilated immigrants from many lands, etc. -- being upper middle class as a UC applicant is no advantage. It is just that it is less of a disadvantage for certain campuses than for others.</p>
<p>The anecdotal reporting of the last 2 years appears to further confirm this trend -- both on CC and in all the personal & professional circles in which I travel. For the <em>reach</em> U.C.'s especially, your application, if you are upper middle class, has to look compelling to be noticed, and your essay must be on the same par. There are far too many from that group applying to those reach UC's. Think of them as parallel with the Elites on the East Coast, which get a ton of relatively privileged applications which look extremely similar in background & accomplishment: many of those will be accepted, but a similar application from a poorer student will get special notice. The difference is that UC, including the reach campuses, get far more "special notice" applications than do the Ivies, MIT, etc. Percentage-wise, fewer low-income students <em>apply</em> to HYPSMC.</p>
<p>Hi, epiphany, are you saying that the UC system genuinely takes into account economically limited circumstances? That's good news. I don't know in general if colleges are on board with that program, but I am concerned enough about the issue to have opened the thread linked to above. Some scholars a few years ago were reporting that colleges talk the talk, but don't walk the walk, in general when it comes to recognizing economic disadvantage. If the UC system is doing better in that regard, that is to the credit of the UC regents.</p>
<p>"Hi, epiphany, are you saying that the UC system genuinely takes into account economically limited circumstances?"</p>
<p>Absolutely. They do walk the walk. Again, it's actually calculated within a point system. And several varieties of challenges, in addition to economic, are considered -- weighted in specific ways, according to the campus in question. This is not something new for U.C., but because of increasing numbers of applicants recently in low-income ranges, it is no longer true that the in-state upper-middle-class student can consider many U.C.'s to be "safeties" (and thus approach their applications with an expectation of admission). More work & care must be put into that application, and still there might not be the desired results, depending on the size & economic make-up of any accomplished applicant pool. This year's UCLA results are signfiicant in that regard.</p>
<p>^^epiphany is spot on. If you look at the individual UC campuses, you'll see that even Cal and UCLA are comprised of ~33% Pell Grantees. That number cannot happen by accident. If the admissions "thumb" favored "higher income students," economically Cal and UCLA would have a lot more full-pay suburbanites, just like HYPSM. Instead, it's a big thumb for lower ec kids, (which also hinders the campus' SAT scores and rankings, which SAT fans tend to ignore).</p>
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<p>Hi, I'm an SAT fan, and I wholly support the UC's decision to recruit poor students.</p>
<p>I too think that SAT scores are one important element in an admission application to the UC system or to other selective colleges, and I also heartily approve of making efforts to recruit and enroll low-income students.</p>