<p>Post #4:
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<p>It seems to me this is bad advice. If you want to attend a very selective school, you need to apply to a lot of them to have a chance of being accepted at one of them.</p>
<p>If you are applying to Stanford and MIT, two top 5-10 schools in both Physics and ChE, why not also apply to another school that falls in this category for both Physics and ChE and equals or surpasses the level of financial aid compared to both these schools, namely Princeton?</p>
<p>Oh, and applying to 12 schools in this day and age would not be too many.</p>
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<p>If you mean UT Arlington, what indicates that it will give sufficient financial aid grants or scholarships? Neither UT Austin nor TAMU have assurance of affordability, so they cannot be safeties.</p>
<p>It seems that everyone else here is suggesting additional reaches, but ignoring the fact that the OP has no safety and could get shut out (including admission to UT and TAMU but with insufficient financial aid).</p>
<p>[National</a> College Match Flowchart](<a href=“http://www.questbridge.org/for-students/ncm-flowchart]National”>http://www.questbridge.org/for-students/ncm-flowchart)
[How</a> Do You Apply for the National College Match?](<a href=“http://www.questbridge.org/for-students/ncm-how-to-apply]How”>QuestBridge | National College Match: How To Apply)</p>
<p>I think you should look at Questbridge for deadline information. 75% of their finalists are first generation. There is no hard and fast income cutoff but if you have an EFC of 0 and a family income under $60K for a family of four you probably qualify economically. Of course your scores and GPA have to be stellar and you have to be supermotivated. You are. Hoping this helps!</p>
<p>I applied to 11 colleges (I’m a rising sophomore now). </p>
<p>I only had a few reaches and the rest matches/safeties. </p>
<p>I applied to about 3 regular and the rest early action to maximize scholarship opportunities. I ended up being accepted to Harvard (no loans), but had I not, I still would’ve had good back ups (even if I had to take out $5k loans a year to help my family pay) like UPitt (full tuition), URochester, and so on. </p>
<p>The $800+ in application fees and SAT score sending was nothing compared to the amount of money a college would expect me to pay if I didn’t get scholarships. The number of applications you send in is best for your personal circumstances. There’s no such thing as too little or too many. Your list is selective heavy. While you should apply to selective schools that give great aid, don’t apply to too many and be disappointed come spring when you have no acceptances/can’t afford. If your parents don’t want to tell you how much they can pay, you really need to apply to a bunch of places where 1) you’ll be happy, 2) you’ll still be academically challenged, and 3) you can afford. It would be best to apply to places that give away a lot of scholarships. </p>
<p>(May have cross posted with others, haven’t read the thread).</p>
<p>Application fees can be waived at many colleges for lower income families</p>
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<p>financial safeties as well, since my EFC is approximately $0</p>
<p>Is that from a single parent income or both parents? If you have a non-custodial parent, then that parent’s income will be considered at the best schools on your list that meet need.</p>
<p>You have to be really low income for that (I believe Pell grant eligible is the standard most colleges use, but I could be wrong). </p>
<p>I’m not low income so I didn’t get any waivers. We’re “middle class” (not CC middle class, actual middle class).</p>