I heard that if you are poor you get a full ride if you get into an Ivy League. Is this true for all ivy leagues? My family income is 1 working parent $52k/year supporting a family of 6. Is that “poor” enough?
Where is your other parent?
Have either of your parents remarried?
Are either of your parents self employed or own a business
Do either of your parents own property outside your residential home?
The Ivies look at the income and assets of both parents. There is no such thing as a full ride to the Ivy League because all of them require a student contribution from work between 2 and 4k.
Are you a US Citizen/Permanent resident as your ability to pay will be a factor in admissions to some of the Ivies.
Your biggest challenge will be cracking the single digit admissions rate
Sort of. Full ride often is meant to indicate a merit type of scholarship. So the more correct way to characterize it is that they will meet 100 pct of need, some only offer that to a US citizen or perm resident. Often if income is less than 60k there will be no parental contribution required, student loans will be minimized or replaced with grants and student contribution will be minimal beyond work study. See financial pages of each uni and you can refer to the table at the bottom of this article, there are more colleges than just Ivy League doing this.
Do your parents own a business?
Do they take business deductions?
Do your parents own property other than their home?
Do your parents have savings/assets/investments?
You mention having only one parent working. Do you have another parent at home or are your parents divorced/separated?
BTW…if you don’t live in Calif, take Berkeley off your list. Your family will be expected to pay more than it likely can afford per year…$23k plus EFC plus about $9k in self-help.
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Your biggest challenge will be cracking the single digit admissions rate
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Yes, particularly since you’re an ORM and your test scores are very good, but high for HYPS.
For Stanford and the Ivies, you absolutely should retake the ACT. Have you tried the SAT? Maybe that is a better test for you. Your 32 composite is fine for most colleges. However the “top Ivies” (whatever that means) and Stanford attract tons of applicants with extremely high standardized test scores…tons. Less than 10% get accepted, and in the 90% who are denied admission, most are extremely well qualified applicants.
In addition, I’m hoping this isn’t your whole application list…because if it is, it is extremely top heavy. You need some match and sure thing schools on your application list.
Your schooling at these generous schools will not be free even if you are accepted. Depending on the school, you will have a student contribution which can be several thousand dollars. In addition if your family has a family contribution as the college calculates, your family will be expected to pay that.
What is your GPA?
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your test scores are very good, but high for HYPS.
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oops…should be…NOT high for HYPS
If it is, it shouldn’t be. A scholarship is a scholarship. Some are merit based and some are need based, but it’s really nobody’s business which is which. Poor kids at an elite school shouldn’t have to use different terminology so everyone understands they’re poor.
You should be eligible for QuestBridge. Apply to Ivys and other top colleges through that program.
^^^ Definitely check out Questbridge. If you get matched, you don’t have to worry about textbooks or transportation.
The deadline is September 28, 2015 - apply now!
Also consider Gates Millennium if applicable.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/gates-millennium-scholarship/
And, if you are actually a competitive student for Ivy League admissions, you should look into the Jack Kent Cooke College Scholarship.
@Madison85 I was planning on applying to that. How many winners are there? And what does it mean to get “matched.” I thought it was like a contest or something like who can write the best essay and who has the best stats etc.
@thumper1 nah its not all ivies lol. I applying to all the top UCs as well 
and yeah I live in California. And my G.P.A. is 4.0 unweighted, rank 1 in my class. Took all the hardest classes and every AP class ever offered in my school.
@mom2collegekids i live in California. I have a question, is getting into Berkeley as an engineer as hard as getting into an ivy league? Berkeley seems like a practical choice for me while ivies are like a dream
@sybbie719 other parent lives with us but is not employed. They’re both still married, never remarried. Neither are self employed or own a business. They own the house and are U.S. citizens
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is getting into Berkeley as an engineer as hard as getting into an ivy league?
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Ask @ucbalumnus He’d know
That’s funny, I kept reading ucbalumnus as “UA Birmingham Alumnus.” Read slower 50, read slower. UC Berkeley, of course, that makes sense.
It is hard to gain admission to UC Berkeley in impacted majors such as engineering. It is hard in non-impacted majors, too. It may be easier, though, than the sub-10%-admission privates, especially since they will consider your achievements in a local context, where you excel.
UC Berkeley will meet all demonstrated need, but will be very generous with self-help first, before resorting to grants. Private schools who meet full need will be more generous with grants.
@mom2collegekids
@sybbie719
@thumper1
@ItsJustSchool
I just made a “chance” thread with some of my info to put things in perspective. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1791391-chances-for-ivies-and-top-ucs.html#latest
Thanks again for the help guys 
I would strongly suggest you retake the ACT and/or SAT for most of the schools on your list.
The schools with generous need based aid are highly competitive…and gaining acceptance will be your first hurdle.
even though you have a 32 composite the 28 in reading might be an ouch in elite college admissions.
A 32 composite is good for some schools and will get some merit, but not good for even admission to Stanford or HYPS unless everything else about your app says “Superman/woman.” Even then there are plenty of Super kids with much higher ACT applying to those.