<p>my mexican friend is hoping to use that to tip the scale of admissions in his favor. he said it helps A LOT. true or false? i am also first generation student but not low income.. will that help me?</p>
<p>First generation helps for admission at colleges/universities that are specifically interested in helping first generation students.</p>
<p>Low income will change the dynamics for financial aid.</p>
<p>Tell your friend to investigate Questbridge</p>
<p>QuestBridge</a> Home Page</p>
<p>But, neither first generation, nor low income will guarantee you admission anywhere. You still need the grades and a good sense of direction. If you have no idea what you'd want to study in college, and no way of demonstrating that you are ready for college, you will get exactly nowhere.</p>
<p>yeah of course, that is a given. i just wanted to know it it actually helped</p>
<p>But for Questbridge, SAT matters heavily. Hopefully your friend did exceptionally well.</p>
<p>I wish I had known about QuestBridge before I applied ... (but no worries, I'm pretty happy with where I'm going.) </p>
<p>As a general enquiry, I'm also a low-income student -- although it doesn't matter much for me anymore, it will be for my sister. What I didn't make a big fuss of in my essays was my family background and our struggle for survival -- to me that was an aspect I wanted to get away from, not focus on. However, should some of my sister's essays put more of that background into play? Should you just ask your guidance counselor to take that into account in your recommendations if that's something you don't wish to really write about?</p>
<p>It would certainly not be disadvantageous to put that background into play. If she can write original, genuine essays about it instead of asking for pity, of course. </p>
<p>Either way you will have to check whether you are applying for financial aid, so the essays will not give her an admissions disadvantage at need-aware schools.</p>
<p>Whether it helps a lot depends on the college. I don't know of any place except Berea College -- a place that accepts only low income students -- where being low income helps a lot.</p>
<p>Also, probably the majority of colleges aren't able to meet the full financial need of low income students, so being low income isn't an advantage if one gets an acceptance, but can't afford to attend the college. The most generous colleges are places like Harvard, that accept fewer than 10% of applicants and have some of the most outstanding students in the country applying.</p>
<p>Any students who'll need financial aid to go to college should take a close look at the financial aid web pages of colleges before choosing which colleges to apply to. No reason to raise your hopes and waste your time applying to a college that either won't meet your financial need at all or is noted for giving so-called aid that is very unreasonable amounts of loans (Some students have posted that they were offered loans exceeding more than $20 k a year, when on average, college students in the U.S. take out a little less than a total of $20 K to pay for their entire college experience).</p>
<p>Make sure that you apply to a safety that you know you will gain entrance to and can afford. For many people (including some middle income ones), such a safety will be your local community college.</p>
<p>Being Mexican is a plus because while Mexicans make up a large number of Hispanics in this country, relatively few go to college.</p>
<p>my friend didnt take the sats yet.</p>
<p>The majority of universities are need blind in their admission so income whether high or low should not be a factor at all. As for first generation it probably does help but certainly not "A LOT." For sure not nearly as much as a lot of other things like grades, standardized scores, extracurriculars, and probably even not more than underrepresented minority status.</p>
<p>Being a first generation and low-income student will help your friend a bit, but the fact that he is Mexican will probably be his biggest advantage.</p>