<p>If you include my parents' income now I'm not low-income. 10 years ago for sure. I grew up in housing projects with my mom. Really sucks cuz my parents didn't have time to save money for me, but now they make a little more (dad mainly) and I get the shaft.</p>
<p>Now I'm independent and have been for 4 years so I'm really po' even though I make a decent hourly wage you can't work too much while going to school. I tried the 40 hour thing during the school year, insane! My finaid package at Brown wasn't even close to a free ride and even "cheap". Luckily, I have a rich grandfather who is saving me.</p>
<p>I think my mom made $15000< for like ever, she works at a different place now so maybe it's a little higher income</p>
<p>1) How do you think being low-income has affected your education? It makes me work a hell of a lot harder than all the rich kids I know
2) Which elite schools are you applying to (and if you care to elaborate, why?)? Firstly applying ED to Penn, cause of Wharton. If I get rejected/deferred, then basically everywhere
3) Are your parents/school counselors/friends supportive of your elite school ambitions? Do they have faith you will get in? My mom is supportive along with all my friends, they all think I have a good shot
4) Do you have faith you will get in? At times I do, at times I don't
5) Do your parents/counselors/friends know about the financial incentives at the elites? My mom does</p>
<p>How can people be surprised that there are many low income students on here? Where else can you get free help with college admissions?</p>
<p>I applied this year, but I'll answer anyway because family income was less than 20,000 when I applied.</p>
<p>1) How do you think being low-income has affected your education?
Education-wise it wasn't as bad as one would think. Although the majority of my classmates took prep courses or had access to tutoring or private admissions counseling, I was able to keep up, if not out do, people with about 20 bucks for an SAT book. In fact, I made money tutoring people. I think I suffered most in homework and free time/money for ECs. Often working and helping the family out kept me busy.</p>
<p>2) Which elite schools are you applying to (and if you care to elaborate, why?)?
I applied to some schools through Questbridge (Stanford, Columbia, etc) as well as Georgetown, Brown, and Yale knowing that if they really wanted someone they would find a way to make the aid work.
I was rejected from all of the private colleges I applied to except the one I will be attending in the fall. UCs seemed more forgiving towards my stats (one wouldn't think it, but I was accepted to every UC except UCB). The downside, their financial aid offers were lacking. I got a few scholarships, but it was a shock that I could afford to go across the country more than I could to a college within the state.</p>
<p>3) Are your parents/school counselors/friends supportive of your elite school ambitions? Do they have faith you will get in?
Generally, although all of us knew it was somewhat of a stretch. I think the school counselor was almost too supportive. She just nodded along to whatever I wanted to do instead of giving me a practical consultation.</p>
<p>4) Do you have faith you will get in?
I didn't at the time, but I didn't so I was right in my feeling.</p>
<p>5) Do your parents/counselors/friends know about the financial incentives at the elites?
No. Since few at my school apply to private colleges, my counselor didn't even know how to get an application fee waiver. This was perhaps the most frustrating part: knowing that incentives were out there but not knowing hot to get to them.</p>
<p>My parents refuse to divulge their income to me. They seem embarrassed about it...
I know it's less than 45k though.</p>
<p>1) How do you think being low-income has affected your education?
It hasn't. Though having lazy parents (which causes low income) has: they make fun of people (including me) who like to learn and who try hard... for a long time, I despised hard workers and passionate people just like them, but not any more.
In regards to the education system, there are no private/magnet schools anywhere near me, so being rich wouldn't make a difference. I would go to the same schools and have the same teachers.</p>
<p>2) Which elite schools are you applying to (and if you care to elaborate, why?)?
Definitely CalTech, MIT, and Harvey Mudd (dunno if it's considered elite). Probably Princeton, Columbia, Harvard, and UPenn. I like science, and I like smart people. And it'll probably be affordable.</p>
<p>3) Are your parents/school counselors/friends supportive of your elite school ambitions? Do they have faith you will get in?
They sort of look at me weird when I tell them and then don't say much. I suppose this means they don't think I'll get in. Depends on what you mean by supportive: yes, they would like me to get in... no, they don't actively help me or even try to stop hindering me. But people always ask me if I know that MIT is hard to get into... pretty depressing =-). Most people don't know where I want to go to college and barely anyone knows my stats, so I don't really care what they think.</p>
<p>4) Do you have faith you will get in?
I know I should be accepted, but college admissions isn't perfect.</p>
<p>5) Do your parents/counselors/friends know about the financial incentives at the elites?
I would be very surprised if they didn't.</p>
<p>I'm not sure if I really qualify for the "elite" portion of the question but I'll be attending George Washington University in the fall and just the TUITION is about 40k a year. </p>
<p>1) How do you think being low-income has affected your education? </p>
<p>I think it has made me appreciate nicer things more. </p>
<p>2) Which elite schools are you applying to (and if you care to elaborate, why?)?</p>
<p>I applied to Georgetown (rejected) and was accepted in George Washington University (expensive).</p>
<p>3) Are your parents/school counselors/friends supportive of your elite school ambitions? Do they have faith you will get in?</p>
<p>Yes as long as I managed to afford it without too much debt. Yes, they had faith. </p>
<p>4) Do you have faith you will get in?</p>
<p>No, I was worried. </p>
<p>5) Do your parents/counselors/friends know about the financial incentives at the elites?</p>
<p>"How can people be surprised that there are many low income students on here? Where else can you get free help with college admissions?"</p>
<p>Because most low-income students would not even think about elite schools. They are daunted by the pricetags, unaware of financial aid incentives (hence Harvard's recruitment program to attract low-income students).</p>
<p>"Why did you select $45,000 to be the cutoff for low-income? I thought the US Government cutoff was significantly lower."</p>
<p>This is the cutoff used by many schools (i.e. Harvard, Stanford) to determine which students should get full tuition.</p>
<p>1) My parents make less than $45,000 annually together, but as I am fortunate to have a wealthy aunt, I attend the high school in her city, where competition around academics abounds. The zip code of the city my highschool is located in is ranked the #54(or some number like that) wealthiest zip code nationally. Our public school is ranked #7(or something) of ALL schools in California from our testing. Basically everyone goes to tutor on weekends or afterschool, everyone is involved in activities or clubs, and everyone is motivated to learn. Even though my family may be less well off as a lot of my classmate's families, they still offer to shell out thousands of dollars for a tutor for me. But I refuse to because, well, I'm smart enough to know that that's just a waste of money. I guess it's a disadvantage that I'm a poor kid who attends such a rich school with classmates who are ahead of me only because they have more money. But whatever.</p>
<p>1) How do you think being low-income has affected your education?
Bad math, science departments. Not many APs. No competition.</p>
<p>2) Which elite schools are you applying to (and if you care to elaborate, why?)?
12 schools in all, HYPS, four UCs, and some other private schools across the country.</p>
<p>3) Are your parents/school counselors/friends supportive of your elite school ambitions? Do they have faith you will get in?
I guess so. </p>
<p>4) Do you have faith you will get in?
Not at all.</p>
<p>5) Do your parents/counselors/friends know about the financial incentives at the elites?
Yes.</p>
<p>I got into Yale, Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, Boston College among the colleges I applied to, and will be going to Yale!</p>
<p>1) How do you think being low-income has affected your education?
I actually live in a suburb because my mother works 3 jobs to make sure I can go to a good public school, even though she makes only 45K total. My dad makes some money but he lives in another state and doesn't really provide financial support.</p>
<p>2) Which elite schools are you applying to (and if you care to elaborate, why?)? Only Amherst and a few other top LACs.</p>
<p>3) Are your parents/school counselors/friends supportive of your elite school ambitions?
They have more faith than I do, honestly, because they think I'm pretty smart, but I really know the truth: that I have less than a little chance of getting in (mostly because I have few ecs).</p>
<p>4) Do you have faith you will get in?
Already answered above</p>
<p>5) Do your parents/counselors/friends know about the financial incentives at the elites?
A little, I told them I would do my best to take care of it on my own.</p>
<p>i live with my mom. she makes around 20k per year. My parents are divorced and my dad makes 65k but doesnt help much.</p>
<p>thru most of my childhood my parents were together and i guess i was middle class. around 80k but we always lived in apartments b/c they had lots of debt. anyway, times are different now.</p>
<p>im apply to cornell and uva. I doubt ill get in to cornell, and if I do get in to UVA, itll only be because I'm in state and im black</p>
<p>My dad is dissallusioned because he thinks that since im a minority I could get into harvard or yale. He grew up in the 'real' affirmative action days so he thinks thats still the way things are</p>
<p>Im applying to cornell b/c my aunt went to cornell and she always talked about how much she loved it and how it was such a great experience. Im applying to UVA because its a great value instate, and it has one of the highest minority populations</p>
<p>I know this was back awhile. but i found it and thought it was a good topic to talk about.
1) How do you think being low-income has affected your education?
I think it has affected it more than I would like to believe... there were times when I would be homeless living in and out of different places and couldnt keep up with school work.. besides that I just didn't have good prep and couldnt really afford educational extras. I also work every day after school and on weekends to help pay for bills and extras.</p>
<p>2) Which elite schools are you applying to (and if you care to elaborate, why?)?</p>
<p>I applied to Uchicago.. deferred just waiting then Northwestern and Swarthmore. i want to go to uchic or swarthmore because of the no loan based need.</p>
<p>3) Are your parents/school counselors/friends supportive of your elite school ambitions? Do they have faith you will get in?
Only my counselor knows where I've applied.. my parents have never really been concerned with my academics... pretty sure the last report card they looked at was from freshman year. </p>
<p>4) Do you have faith you will get in?</p>
<p>That's all I have right now.</p>
<p>5) Do your parents/counselors/friends know about the financial incentives at the elites?
Not really... only like three kids in my class applied to an elite school. basically no one knows. I didn't even know about questbridge until it was too late.</p>
<p>I'm a parent in a low income family, somewhat my own fault, but I'm
a long time lurker and poster here and on other sites so I'm aware of
the "game". Don't know that it does much good though. My kids both
applied (will apply) to some elites, but they're reaches for kids in the
3.5 gpa 1350 sat range. (I found money for both to have tutoring) We
focus on the next level of school, but still full need LACs and lower state
colleges with honors programs. There's a reason these schools have Pell
grant rates in the 12 to 20 percent range - they let low income kids in.
I suspect the actual rate of low incomes at the elites is actually lower
than their pell grant stats and most of these kids are carefully recruited
with an eye to minority enrollment. One of the issues we've had is that
the kids don't always want to go to the elite schools - they recognize
the kind of kid/income level that go there and are not comfortable,
don't see themselves in that environment. As for the high school, there
has been difficulty getting into the top track at an early age, counselors
tend to assume low income kids are not as bright and the college advice
for both kids and parents at our public hs is terrible. The counselors have
little understanding of the financial complexities facing good low income
students. They see 'the game" from a more middle class perspective.</p>
<p>1) How do you think being low-income has affected your education?
It hasn't, really, because although my parents don't have much income, we are financially secure. I've attended very good public schools.</p>
<p>2) Which elite schools are you applying to (and if you care to elaborate, why?)?
Dartmouth, Stanford, Columbia, Brown, Northwestern, JHU, Amherst</p>
<p>3) Are your parents/school counselors/friends supportive of your elite school ambitions? Do they have faith you will get in?
Parents: yes. They're slightly too confident.
School counselor: She tells everyone they won't get in anywhere.
Friends: They think I'll do really well.</p>
<p>4) Do you have faith you will get in?
I already got a LL from Dartmouth :D. I do not think I'll get into Stanford, Columbia, or Brown. I think I have a decent shot at Northwestern, JHU, Amherst.</p>
<p>5) Do your parents/counselors/friends know about the financial incentives at the elites?
Yep. That's why I applied to them-- my parents knew how generous private schools are to low-income families.</p>
<p>What are the income ranges of lower-class, middle-class, upper-class, etc.? My family makes more than $45,000, but I'm not sure where we'd be placed.</p>
<p>1) How do you think being low-income has affected your education?
I feel more determined than my classmates sometimes. I live an hour away from school, so my parents had to spend a lot of money on gas alone. And I stopped spending money on lunch and clothes in order to get SAT prep books or classes.</p>
<p>2) Which elite schools are you applying to (and if you care to elaborate, why?)?
I'm applying to a lot of top 20 schools including the ivies, Stanford, etc. because these schools are top of the line. So if for some reason, I no longer wanted to major in what I planned to major in, then these schools will still have awesome programs in other fields, so I wouldn't feel as though I've sacrificed much in that sense. And also their financial aid packages are incredible, which is a plus.</p>
<p>3) Are your parents/school counselors/friends supportive of your elite school ambitions? Do they have faith you will get in?
They have ALL been very supportive. My counselor, though, has been more realistic than my parents or my friends about my chances because he realizes that I applied to a lot of lottery schools and my chances are about as good as any other applicant's.</p>
<p>4) Do you have faith you will get in?
I already got into my top 2 choices with LLs, so at this point, I don't really care whether or not I get into my other schools. I mean, I still don't want to be rejected, but I know getting into all the schools I applied to is impossible. So if I get rejected from a lot of these other schools, I'm fine with that. But I'm hoping that the admissions officers read my application on a good day. :)</p>
<p>5) Do your parents/counselors/friends know about the financial incentives at the elites?
Yes. My parents and counselors are very aware about it. My parents were apprehensive about me applying to so many schools, though, until I told them about the fee waiver. After that, they didn't care about cost because there wasn't any.</p>
<p>Nice thread, and I recognize some people already. Should I wave:)? Anyway I found CC through the SAT forum. I didn't even venture into the college forums for ages.
1) Low income came by choice because of my late dad's job tht he loved but didn't pay much. He was an idealistic and I am very proud of him and the sacrifices he made for his principles. My mom is on his pension now but unwell. My relatives keep saying wht if sth happens to ur mom, how will u survive and kept pushing me to stop schooling and get a permanent job.
No prep classes, APs but I get my hand on used books, library. There were no elite schools nearby, so I travel to the next town to take the AP exams.
Personally, I don't live a luxurious life n I don't complain. I only owned one CD, never gone to movies these few years, etc. But I DON'T feel weird bout it.
2) Elite schools are LACs like Amherst. No IVY.
3) They think I am a walking joke
4)My faith wavers. Sometimes I am very optimistic, other times, I become Doubting Thomas
5) No. Not even the counselor knew. I told my mom, she believes me now.</p>