Here are my stats, will colleges look down on low income families, will freshman year pull me down?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I am a junior girl attending high school in California and i’ve been freaking out over colleges considering how crucial this year is for colleges/universities.
GPA FRESHMAN YEAR: 3.0 (English Honors)
GPA SOPHOMORE YEAR: 3.98
GPA JUNIOR YEAR (1st semester): 4.125 (AP Art History, AP Environmental Science, AP Language and Composition)
SENIOR YEAR: hoping to take AP Psychology, AP Biology(?), AP Gov/Econ (?), AP Lit

Class Rank: 42/698 [top 7%]
Extracurriculars: LEO International Service Club (400+ hours), Boys’ Federation (Leadership Club that plans events at school), MESA (Math Engineering Science Achievement Club, our sponsor is USC), ACA (Cancer Awareness Club), and CSF (California Scholarship Federation).

SAT: taking it in march, but I went to Elite SAT Academy and scored 1400-1600 on the tests they produce, but when they gave us a college board approved SAT, i scored 1800+

ACT: not yet taken, but I will

SAT Subjects: Planning to take Math I and Math II

I am also afraid of the AP tests coming and is wondering if i should only take them if i know I’m certain ill get a 3 or higher, how bad would a 2 look on the test?

I come from a very low income family (12,000-13,000 a year with only one parent working), and I’m afraid of how colleges will see that? Would they like a student from a low income family because it shows drive and that they can push through financial issues and maintain themselves, or would they rather have someone who is of high income because of the money they can get from them?

Right now, I have my eyes on UCI, UCR, UCSD, UCSB.

UCI is the one i really want to get into, but I’m stressing over it because I feel like my grades aren’t good enough. I’ve had people tell me that people with a 3.2 and 1600 SAT can get into UCI and that its not as hard as I think it is, but It still makes me worry. I’m also afraid because I didn’t do so well my freshman year and I am afraid of how that will affect my cumulative GPA for when I apply to colleges. Someone please tell me my chances and console of my worries.

2

Don’t take Math1, it’s basically useless. In addition, taking 2 math subjects counts as taking 1… Take Math 2, plus one or two other subjects. Based on the subjects above, you should try English Literature.
Yes, if you feel pretty sure you’ll get a 3 or more, take the test, and don’t if you think odds are you’ll get a 2.
Based on the information above, it looks like your GPA should be about 3.6.
The UC’s won’t factor in your 9th grade results, so that’d really help.
If you take the SAT and score in the 1800s, apply to Questbridge Summer BEFORE MARCH 25. (Get the application ready to go an send it as soon as you have your actual results. Don’t stop preparing with actual materials, keep practicing every day with “question of the day” - that’s free and good practice). You need a rigorous curriculum, be in top 5-10% of your class, and test scores in the 1800s to be considered for that program, but if admitted, it’s free, and it’ll give you a leg up for the elite partner colleges they’re working with.
http://www.questbridge.org/for-students/cps-college-prep-scholarship
The following website is dedicated to helping first generation students (whose parents didn’t graduate from a 4 year college):
http://blog.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/blog/colleges-that-meet-100-of-student-financial-need/
Look in particular at the colleges that meet 100% need. Most of these colleges promise, if they admit you, to make sure you can attend by providing a package covering tuition, food, housing, books, and even transportation - often, without loans.
The colleges you should consider include Gettysburg, St Olaf, Dickinson, Wheaton (Massachusetts), perhaps Occidental. Those meet 99-100% need and may be as generous as the UCs or more. They typically factor in transportation in financial aid.

3

The UCs and CSUs will be great for you. CA has excellent aid for low income students.

4

The UCs and Stanford don’t really use frosh grades.

go to the UC website to find out what your UC GPA is.

5

UCs are ‘need blind’, meaning they don’t look at your finances to determine admission. Being low income, the colleges will know you had obstacles to overcome and they will take that into account. You can discuss this in your UC essay.

6

It depends on the college. As a California resident, UCs and CSUs tend to be relatively friendly in a financial aid sense to lower income students, and UCs’ admissions readers are said to look favorably on those who had to overcome obstacles. Their application process also has fewer potential roadblocks for lower income students than many other schools (e.g. no recommendations used, no subject tests required, no interview, no transcripts at application (self-report courses and grades, to be verified by final high school transcript later). However, the application deadline is relatively early (November).

As noted above, only your 10th grade and later grades count toward calculating your UC and CSU admission GPA; see https://secure.csumentor.edu/planning/high_school/gpa_calculator.asp . See https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist#/list/search/all to check which of your high school’s courses count as “honors”.

You can check each school’s net price calculator to see a financial aid estimate. For someone in your family income situation, UCs will probably give you a net price of $8,500 to $10,000, based on a federal direct loan of $5,500 and your part time job work earnings for the rest. CSUs will probably give you a net price of $4,000 to $6,000 for those you can commute to, but $11,000 to $13,000 for those you would have to live at (the latter may be too much of a stretch financially). Be glad that you are not low income in Pennsylvania or some other state where the in-state public schools are basically unaffordable to low income students with much higher net prices.

Do not bother taking both the math 1 and math 2 SAT subject tests. Assuming that you are considering other schools which require them, you probably need two (maybe three), with at most one math. Math 2 is for students who complete trigonometry and precalculus before the test; math 1 is for those who have up to algebra 2 and geometry.

If your GPA and SAT or ACT are high enough, then you can sign up for UCR’s admission guarantee in June or July: http://admissions.ucr.edu/whyucr/ourguarantee . If the net price calculator indicates affordability, then UCR can be a safety in this case. Of course, you would need to include UCR in your regular UC application in November.

7

^Absolutely include several UCs in your college list. Don’t fixate on any one, though, and apply widely.
The CSU’s (except for Cal Poly SLO) won’t take your background into account at all, they just do CSU-weighted GPA X SAT score.
You are eligible for fee waivers on the CommonApp so use them. Same thing for SAT and ACT fee waivers. You’re trying to do your best to break the cycle of poverty in your family, and getting good grades in such a rigorous program ought to be commended considerng the circumstances you’re facing. :slight_smile:

8

Have you looked into Questbridge? And take either SAT or ACT asap to get a baseline. @MYOS is right about testing so that was good advice.