<p>If your family is in a low-income bracket does that really help your chances of being admitted? Exactly what is the cut-off point for the low-income bracket? Just been wondering about this.</p>
<p>At most colleges, being poor probably hurts your admission chances because you need a lot of aid, and most colleges' financial aid is limited.</p>
<p>The colleges where being poor can help are places like Harvard because they have huge financial aid budgets, and have a hard time attracting qualified low income students. Consequently, if one is poor and has excellent grades, class rank, scores and ECs (which could include things like working a job to help your family), you'd have a better than average chance of getting into a place like Harvard, where most of the 20,000+ applicants also have excellent grades, scores, class rank and ECs, but few such applicants are poor.</p>
<p>My family is poor (total income less than 20k for 2005) but it didn't seem to help me much either.</p>
<p>Admissions at most schools are "need blind". They do not look at your financial situation to admit you. They look at your academics, test scores, activities, etc..</p>
<p>No, relatively few schools are need blind. </p>
<p>Amherst College
Boston College
Bowdoin College
Brown University
Claremont McKenna College
Columbia University
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
Davidson College
Duke University
Emory University
Georgetown University
Grinnell College
Haverford College
Harvard University
Lawrence University
Mass. Institute of Technology
Middlebury College
Northwestern University
Pomona College
Princeton University
Rice University
Swarthmore College
University of Chicago
University of Notre Dame
University of Pennsylvania
Vanderbilt University
Wake Forest University
Wellesley College
Wesleyan University
Williams College
Yale University
...and possibly a couple more I forgot.</p>
<p>Here's a good article on the subject.
<a href="http://www.tuftsobserver.org/news/20050218/eyes_wide_shut_needblind_.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.tuftsobserver.org/news/20050218/eyes_wide_shut_needblind_.html</a></p>
<p>Being poor is an advantage if you make the most of it and overcome your financial circumstances. If your family doesn't make much money, you probably didn't go to a great high school, and you haven't had piano lessons or SAT prep classes, and you probably had to hold down a part time job to help out your family. However, if you are able to overcome these obstacles and still succeed, then every college will be fighting over you and you will probably get a full ride to any school you want!</p>
<p>Is that a list of schools that are need-blind? I know my mom is a widow and only claimed 12 K last year, I believe, and she has two kids (me and my bro) but I have a 3.967 GPA, good tests scores, EC, sports, AP classes/Honors etc. I'm wanting to go to Vanderbilt.. do you think the income bracket will help/hurt or neither?</p>
<p>
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<p>Keep in mind that there are plenty of need-blind schools that do not promise to meet your full need (I'm not sure all of the colleges I listed meet full need). There is a HUGE difference. I suggest you carefully check out
1) If they guarantee to meet full need
2) What the average debt is upon graduation
3) What proportion of the average package is grants as opposed to loans</p>
<p>I do know that Vandy promises 100% need met, and avg debt upon grad is 19,585. Avg grant I think is 25,500 something, while avg finacial aid package is 32,500. I just wanted to be sure that it wouldn't hurt my chances...</p>
<p>I think that you should run your numbers through a few financial aid calculators and see where you stand. There is an interesting discussion going on nwo about the death of the dream school on the parents forum. I would also suggest giving it a read.</p>
<p>Overall being poor is not an advantage. However as has been previously noted, at a select number of schools being poor may be viewed as a "hook".
Amherst recently announced an expanded effort to recruit low income apps and even mentioned a potential target SAT score - 1385. I suspect that if you have above that number, close to a 4.0 cum and excellent ecs you may gain a small advantage at the top LACs and Ivies. However, to improve your chances youre probably going to have to apply ED, so you have to be very careful to which schools you apply. H, Y, P and Penn are all good bets as are Amherst, Swarthmore, Williams and Pomona. So statistically the number of poor apps who actually gain advantage from that situation is probably extremely limited.</p>
<p>"I suspect that if you have above that number, close to a 4.0 cum and excellent ecs you may gain a small advantage at the top LACs and Ivies. However, to improve your chances youre probably going to have to apply ED, "</p>
<p>If getting scholarships is important in order for you to go to college, do NOT apply ED. ED really is only for people who don't need to count on financial aid to go to college. Colleges are not expecting very poor students to apply ED. Since you're poor, you need to be able to compare financial aid offers, something you can NOT do by applying ED.</p>
<p>When it comes to ECs, you would not be expected to have ECs equivalent to middle and high income students. If, for example, you can't participate in school clubs because of having to work or having to babysit siblings, make sure that your guidance counselor explains that in her/his recommendation. Colleges take into account such situations and can be as impressed by such ECs done by low income students as the colleges may be impressed by state level awards for ECs done by middle and high income students.</p>
<p>Berea College in KY admits only the neediest (it is competitive however). It offers full 4-year scholarships to cover tuition and can offer free money to cover up to all room, board, and other expenses depending on the family's situation.</p>
<p>Definitely worth a look...and it is considered the top Comprehensive College - Bachelor's south in USNWR.</p>
<p>to respond to you original question, the cut-off point to be considered low income is usually eligibility for Pell Grants, under 40 grand or so. Some state schools are now guaranteeing "no loans" instates for low incomes, UVA and North Carolina come to mind.</p>