<p>How much of a role does your financial situation play in the admissions game? Not in terms of getting financial aide, but simply in terms of admission. Can coming from a low income household help or hurt your chances? Thanks :)</p>
<p>A lot of schools are need-blind (including harvard - looking at your username), so they do not take into account how much you can pay during admissions</p>
<p>To add to what jgraider said, schools automatically assume that you will be able to cover the tuition, room and board and other fees. You are held responsible for that portion of the bargain. So if you know you can’t pay some of the money and don’t want to take out loans then maybe you shouldn’t be going their.</p>
<p>Being low income helps at a handful of schools that want more diversity and can afford the aid. Being able to pay in full helps at most colleges.</p>
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<p>That would strongly depend on the school in question.</p>
<p>At the schools that are not need blind, not being able to pay the tuition is detrimental to your chances of admission. Contrary to what jgraider said, a lot of schools are NOT need blind. In fact, of all the colleges in the United States, only these very few schools do not take the applicant’s ability to pay into consideration when making admission decisions:</p>
<p>[Need-blind</a> admission - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-blind_admission]Need-blind”>Need-blind admission - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>In other words, not being able to pay in full does not help at most colleges.</p>
<p>The vast majority of the schools in this country do not promise to meet full need with no loans, so in that sense, being low-income may or may not help you get in, but it certainly won’t help you pay for college. Very few colleges are “need-blind,” I have no idea where other posters are getting the idea that many colleges are.</p>
<p>^^ So if you applied to one of those schools asking for FA, it wouldn’t hurt you because they don’t look at that until after admissions? But they still expect you are able to pay it in full if they deny it…?</p>
<p>^Wait, what do you mean by “those schools asking for financial aid”? Financial aid is the money granted to the student by the school, not the other way around…</p>
<p>^ I think you misunderstood. If you applied to those schools and were asking for FA.</p>
<p>well I was trying to keep financial aid out of the discussion. Someone had told me once that being “smart” (even though that’s a vague term) from a low-income, bad high school, first generation household was a good thing, not bad…but i suppose that was misleading.</p>
<p>^Oh okay. Sorry, I thought the phrase “asking for FA” was to go with the noun “schools” immediately before it.</p>
<p>There are those schools that have need blind admissions, then there are those schools that promise to meet 100% of financial need. Only the schools that promises to meet full need will… meet the full need. (although that can be arbituary: your need is decided by the school, not by the applicant or the parents.)</p>
<p>Schools that say they meet full need:</p>
<p>[Schools</a> That Say They Meet Full Need - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/paying-for-college/articles/2008/09/05/schools-that-say-they-meet-full-need.html]Schools”>http://www.usnews.com/education/paying-for-college/articles/2008/09/05/schools-that-say-they-meet-full-need.html)</p>
<p>Edit: sorry for the digression Harvard_Hopeful :p.</p>
<p>Yes, it is a good thing if you’re looking at very selective schools that want to diversify its student body, like what Redroses said. The information on the Questbridge program website phrases this much better than I can possibly can:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.questbridge.org/resources/letter/index.html[/url]”>http://www.questbridge.org/resources/letter/index.html</a></p>
<p>You may want to look around there. I thought it was very helpful.</p>
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<p>Being a high-achieving, low-income student can be competitive at very selective universities. For most colleges, the point is null, since you may get accepted but offered a dismal financial aid package. Unless you are headed for Stanford (or equivalent), being a low-income student is lose-lose. There’s no point in getting in if you can’t pay.</p>
<p>haha ok thanks. I mean of course I’m going to apply for financial aid and take out a loan most likely. I’m determined not to let finances get in the way of the best education I can get. But I know that that is easier said than done. Thanks again! :)</p>
<p>You should absolutely let finances get in the way. Loans are toxic, especially for low-income students. Please, please, do not take out loans in excess of the Stafford load - although I would even be suspicious of that much debt (about $27,000).</p>
<p>THis is what Harvard said:</p>
<p>Harvard is “Need-blind”, which means that need does not affect acceptance</p>
<p>However, they offer full scholarships to families with less than $60,000 on oncome a year. If you make between $60,000 and $120,000 in your house, you wil pay from 1-10% of your family income per year.</p>
<p>^This is not the full picture, assets are also taken into consideration and can make the amount you pay substantially more than stated above.</p>
<p>OP, rather than taking bits and pieces of fact and fiction on a discussion board, get a book (eg. How to Pay for College without going Broke) or read a website (eg. finaid) that gives you a complete picture of how college admissions and FA work.</p>
<p>How would you go about proving your low income status? Essays? </p>
<p>If it’s not seamlessly integrated, you’d risk looking like someone who is trying to deliberately gain an advantage based on an assumption that’s shaky at best.</p>
<p>^ I’d like to know as well. My dad passed away when I was 13, so my family’s been facing financial hardships since. I got a job when I was 14 [youngest age in my state], and I tried to do what I could to help until this year [I quit to focus on junior year, planning on getting a job again senior year]. I don’t want to write an overbearing sob story in my college apps, but I’d like to convey my experience. What would be the best approach to something like this?</p>