<p>Hello, I am a QB finalist, first-gen, and very low income (~15K). Both of my parents died in the summer after my sophomore year and I spent a year out of school to cope, which basically destined me to be a junior when I should've been a senior, which I am now. I wrote about this in my personal statements and feel confident that I discussed it well. These are my other statistics:</p>
<p>SAT: 1900
GPA: (W) 4.01 (UW) 3.66
Rank: 24/544 (top 5%)
SAT II: Wasn't able to take (couldn't get fee waiver in time and can't use money for additional stuff ----> 15K)
APs: WHAP (4), EngLang (5), APUSH (5), and I am taking 6 AP classes this year (intent on taking 4 tests)
Teacher Recs: Don't know, but both teachers know me very well and one of them is absolutely great at recommendations
Interviews: Yale (Above Average), Princeton (Excellent)
EC's: 4 years of Volunteer tutoring, AP Club President this year as well as Academic Decathlon Club President, and I founded a Student Union
Personal Statements: Written well and I explain all of my grade dips, primarily a result of taking care of ailing parents and not having good financial opportunities.</p>
<p>Given this information, do I have a chance at Princeton? I know that my stats are well below the average, but I think I told my story well and I had teachers who recommended me well</p>
<p>I’m extremely sorry for your loss, and commend you for your strength in bouncing back - i’m not sure I could. </p>
<p>I’m not sure about your chances because I think Princeton requires two SAT Subject Tests. That being said, I’m not familiar with QuestBridge, so I don’t know whether that changes the requirements.</p>
<p>“When applying for admission to Princeton, you must submit official scores for either the SAT Reasoning Test or the ACT (with Writing, where available). All applicants must also take two SAT Subject Tests.”</p>
<p>I don’t think Princeton will accept you if you didn’t submit SAT Subject Test scores. You are eligible for the SAT fee waiver program, but you didn’t get one (because of your own fault).</p>
<p>^I live in an economically poor area. The waivers dry up so fast, you have no idea and when you struggle to pay for groceries and barely get by paying the water bill and the electricity bill, it’s kind of hard to spend about 100 bucks for two tests</p>
<p>I’ve been near homelessness a few times in my life and it always starts out with stuff like this. It eats me up inside that I couldn’t take the tests because I knew it was required by Princeton. I applied to this school because it looks at my entire situation and not just two things like other schools do. I will be disappointed if I don’t get accepted and if I do get rejected, it will likely be because of that issue, but my family has always been poor and I can just add a Princeton rejection check on the list of things robbed of me because of my family’s poverty</p>
<p>You ever wonder of what your life would be like if you weren’t poor? I can’t. I don’t even know you.
You can’t ever change your background. And it’s these moments where you look at what you’ve been given in the scope of things, just how little it all really is in comparison to everyone else’s, and you just… feel like banging your head on a wall. Because that’s what that feeling is, nothing more than a wall you feel like you can’t break, because your hide doesn’t feel thick enough.
Never, ever lament your background. I’ve learned that the hard way. All you can do is keep your head low and bear the weight of the world’s burdens on your shoulders, because even if opportunity doesn’t present itself to you, you can only laugh at the irony of fate in the end. You may not achieve what you want, you may not get accepted to Princeton, and for all I know, you may end up homeless in a few months.</p>
<p>But what I do know is that if you allow it to be, that’ll just be the story of someone great in the making.</p>
<p>People with more money definitely have more options and more opportunities. Welcome to the real world. Nothing has been “robbed” from you. Some people were just born into wealthier families.<br>
You are obviously an extremely self-motivated person. Take that trait and let it drive you to be successful no matter where you end up going to college. Don’t let it lead you into anger, resentment, and self-pity.
If you don’t go to Princeton, it is not the end of the world. My aunt is a Princeton graduate and it is not like some golden ticket.<br>
We can only control those things within our control – your attitude is within your control and the admission decision is not.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Princeton will probably send you an email saying your application was incomplete. Admissions officers don’t even open your application file until all of the required materials (such as SAT Subject test scores) are submitted.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, if all doesn’t go well with your other schools may I suggest possibly taking a gap year and spend that time taking the required subject tests (with fee waivers) and possibly doing an internship? You’re right, Princeton (and actually many other schools) would be willing to look at your application holistically and consider the hardships you have had to face when considering your academic and extracurricular achievements. </p>
<p>Anyway, I wish you luck in all of your future endeavors. I can see that things have been hard for you, but you’ve still achieved a lot of academic success against all odds. And I heard a quote somewhere that “it doesn’t matter where you start in life because it’s what you do with your life that will determine where you end up in life.” I hope that motivates you to keep moving onwards and upwards. :)</p>
<p>At the very least, contact admissions and tell them that you couldn’t take the SAT II’s because of your desperate financial situation. Princeton admissions makes the rules, and can break them if they care to. If they say no, you’re out the cost of an email. Or try to get your guidance counselor to call.</p>
<p>I’m really sorry PhilosopherKing if you were offended by my statement. I, too, live in an economically poor area, but as I’m not a U.S. citizen/pr I am not eligible for fee waiver. Furthermore, reporting these test scores to each also costs a fortune. </p>
<p>Princeton recognizes and respects your economic difficulty, but it has its own admission criteria set forth for a reason.</p>
<p>Really, there is no point of asking of one’s chance for top universities. I saw you posted the exactly same post to other university threads such as Stanford’s, but why does it matter? You do realize that your scores are inevitably going to be the biggest obstacles in the admission process and you have a relatively low chance compared to other academically superior students with 2200+SAT and 3.9+GPA. Nevertheless, you do have a chance, and you seemed to be aware of this fact. These people have no idea what your chance would be. All CCers can do is to give you consolations. There are other great universities where you have decent probability of admission and get financial aid. There is no need to be hung up by only Ivy-plus universities. I suggest you to just cross your fingers and hope for the best. Good luck.</p>