<p>jinglebells85:The bios I found do not include GPAs/LSATS/MCATS, etc. In my opinion and I believe you will find out, GPAs, standardized tests scores, number/grades in AP courses, etc, only are important to gain admission to a college, advanced program, etc. Once you’re accepted nobody will care anymore about this info (except you, parents, grandparents) and you will not be able to find this info on people’s bios, resumes, CVs, etc…</p>
<p>As I have S in a medical residency program, my mind just went to thinking about med residencies. So I googled different elite/super elite residency programs and went rather quickly through alphabetical lists of faculties to try to demonstrate that one can go to a good, not necessarily an elite college/med school, and still be successful. Two of the people I found are Chairs of Surgery (Yale, Northwestern).</p>
<p>After your response and to carry my point further I did search for best Chicago law firms and began looking through alphabetical lists of lawyers at two firms and quickly found.</p>
<p>At Kirkland and Ellis law firm:
Kenneth R. Adamo - Partner
Albany Law School
Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute for college</p>
<p>Dario Avram - Partner
George Washington University Law School
UC San Diego for college</p>
<p>At Sidley Austin law firm
Hugh Abrams – Partner
Graduated law and college from u of Illinois.</p>
<p>I next searched biggest Illinois corporations and found Archer Daniels Midland. The Chairman of the Board and CEO (Patricia A. Woertz) graduated from Penn State (not Penn the Ivy) with a BA in accounting. One Chicago Trib article indicated her total yearly compensation package was roughly 15 million.</p>
<p>I assume your father was a very intelligent, hardworking student with a great application as being the core reason he was accepted at Yale University and/or Yale law. Graduating from Yale is a very, very nice cherry on one’s career cake. I’ll guess that he has had a successful law career as have many other graduates of elite programs. But as my quick searches indicate, it’s not the only way to go nor does it assure a successful career, or happiness in life.</p>
<p>Getting back to financial aid, as I recall from days our family filled out aid forms, an aid offer was only good for one year and you had to reapply each year. So in your discussion with BOTH parents you may want to ask if you can rely on their financial support to continue after first year if you eventually choose to go out on a limb at an elite school, especially considering your family’s changing circumstances. </p>
<p>Also make absolutely sure you have both a great academic and social senior year in high school. Good luck.</p>