<p>Well I was wondering if what your parents make in comparison to your academic stats affect chances in admission?</p>
<p>Depends on the school.</p>
<p>Some schools see students from low income families as being extra desirable both because they had a hard climb (and are seen as more motivated than a similar achieving student who started from a high income family) and because of economic diversity reasons.</p>
<p>Others with limited financial aid budgets are need-aware and may reject some needy students because their financial aid budget is not large enough to cover a large number of needy students. Or they may have a need-blind admission office that admits the needy student with a financial aid office that gives insufficient financial aid, leading to an effective financial rejection.</p>
<p>Top schools= need blind= don’t see your FA stats. If you write about how you overcame adversity (ie low income/limited opportunity) then low income is a plus, and it’s ‘diversity’.</p>
<p>Non-need blind: large financial need= negative due to limited FA budgets.</p>
<p>If you are obscenely wealthy & have connections:
Plus. Nobody wants to turn down Bill Gates’ son.</p>
<p>Look for schools that score high on the Washington Monthly “social mobility” quotient. It combines the proportion of Pell Grant recipients (a widely accepted proxy for the number of “high need” students at a college) with the degree to which their graduation rates exceed expectations based on their incoming academic stats:
[National</a> University Rankings 2011 | Washington Monthly](<a href=“http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings_2011/national_university_social_mobility.php]National”>http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings_2011/national_university_social_mobility.php)</p>
<p>Let’s say a University has 1 spot left. And they have 2 students who are equal in all ways except one applicant identies themselves as applying for FAid.</p>
<p>A university may choose the non-FAid student over the FA student because they are looking to fill more seats at the full price. Maybe that year the University policy is that the are “financial aid” sensitive. </p>
<p>A school may change it’s student profile each year. It often has to do with their own budget. </p>
<p>I like #3, the Bill Gates’ son comment. I think Princeton is known for admitting famous kids just for the cool factor more than the wealth factor but a full paying student and with added financial support of a University’s special projects doesn’t hurt…</p>
<p>So I come from a relatively low-income family. If I can pull off top-notch stats would that generally give me more of an advantage? Also, I should structure my essays so that I show that I overcame adversity?</p>
<p>Be careful with structuring your essays to show overcoming adversity. Sometimes it can be cliche. A lot of people write about overcoming adversity. Make sure you make it personal and show rather then tell.</p>
<p>Depends.</p>
<p>for need blind schools, no it doesn’t matter at all. For need aware ones, it does…to varying extents.</p>
<p>For example, every top 15 research university and LAC takes a maximum of 3 kids every year from my country. Almost always, this totals up to…6-8 of the same kids who got in multiple places. And they all get full-aid/close to that. It almost seems like need matters very little when it comes to selecting applicants from countries from where they take only 1-2 kids. I know this refers to internationals, but this argument can also be applied to OOS students.</p>
<p>And, the topic “overcoming economic adversity” has already been overused. I’m serious. </p>
<p>PS Don’t think “show, not tell”. Think “selectively show, and selectively tell”. Read about show and tell in literature, and you’ll understand :)</p>
<p>Hope it cleared some things.</p>