<p>How do colleges differentiate between socioeconomic classes? I have not seen a single space about income of family. Only place I can think of is the financial aid packet but I thought admissions people don't see that, only the financial aid people?</p>
<p>They can often tell by zip code, if they’re familiar with the various high schools and where they draw from.</p>
<p>My zipcode doesn’t say much. I live in an apartment complex, with half of our districts upper middle, and the other lower/lower middle.</p>
<p>Applications may ask for some information about parents, such as years of schooling and their jobs.</p>
<p>By the way, what prompts your question?</p>
<p>Well many people say that it gives me a better chance getting into a school with my such low income. But no where on my application does it indicate that.</p>
<p>Good question: two ways I can think of for you to get this (helpful) info to the admissions readers</p>
<p>1) state it subtlely in one of your essays
2) MAKE SURE your guidance counselor states it BLUNTLY. e.g “John has been an excellent student especially in light of the fact that he comes from a very economically challenged background.”</p>
<p>Being very low income will help you at the very top universities and LACs – places like HPY and Amherst and Williams – if you have the stats to qualify for admission at such places. Being low income won’t guarantee you admission, but since such institutions are trying to boost their numbers of low income students, your low income status would put you ahead of a student with similar stats who is middle or high income.</p>
<p>In general, however, being very low income will be problematic because it will be hard for you to get the large amount of financial aid that you’ll need, and you’ll also need to apply in a way to ensure that if you get bad financial aid packages (including getting huge loan packages or having a large gap between what you can afford and what the school gives you), you still will be able to go to college.</p>
<p>That means you must apply to a financial safety – a school that you know you’ll be admitted to and also know you will be able to afford. Typically, that means applying to a public 4-year or 2-year college that you could commute to from home.</p>
<p>Northstarmom, thanks for that, but I was actually trying to figure out how to let them know I’m low income to actually get that advantage over high income students.</p>