Is it possible to be REJECTED from a college because you are too poor?

Applying to College
1

<p>I go to a public high school and am really poor. I have good grades and a good SAT score. Not the best, but very good.</p>

<p>They exceed the average SAT scores and GPA for the school I want to go to.</p>

<p>But the school I want to go to is NOT need blind. That's right NOT need blind.</p>

<p>I applied early action and will find out in a few days whether I got in or not. For some reason I am sensing a rejection or deferral because my family is extremely POOR. There is no way I would be able to afford it if I got in there and I was hoping to pay it off with years of loans/financial aid.</p>

<p>I know schools don't just accept all wealthy applicants, and that they have to give out a certain amount of money.</p>

<p>But just wondering: Honestly, if you cannot pay the money to attend at all and there are others that can pay full-ride or much more than you can, do they have a significantly better chance of getting in than you do? Especially if the school is NOT need-blind (they check to see whether you can afford them or not)?</p>

<p>What do you think/know about this issue? Again, my stats meet the averages at this school (I won't give out the name of it). If I don't get in, could it really be only because of the fact that I can't pay?</p>

2

<p>Yes, it’s possible. I think it’s more likely to be the case where they are need-aware and also guarantee meeting 100% of need, but I’m not too sure there are too many schools that do that. (Perhaps WashU?) </p>

<p>There are some schools that promise to meet 100% of need and CLAIM to be need-blind in admissions, but that also peek, and thus dodge the occasional bullet on having to pay for a student they would rather not pay for. Yes, it’s incredibly unethical, but it’s kind of hard to catch them at it unless an insider blows the whistle.</p>

<p>In the case of a school that doesn’t promise to meet 100% of need and is also need aware, I suppose they could offer you admission, but also not offer you much of an FA package, but that would cut their yield, so it’s entirely possible they just won’t offer you admission because they know you’ll turn them down. So they’ll either make it possible for you to attend or they just won’t extend the offer, unless they know you’ll be getting some outside funding.</p>

<p>In short, there are so many possibilities here, you’ll never know why they turned you down, whether for family income, grades, ECs, essay, letters of rec, etc., so don’t even bother to figure out why - just move on to the schools that will accept you and make it possible to be affordable.</p>

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<p>If there is no way you can afford the net price after financial aid (check its net price calculator for a financial aid estimate), then it was not even worth applying to that school. So don’t stress over admission or rejection, since you won’t be attending anyway (taking more loans than the direct loan limit is generally a bad idea).</p>

<p>Do you have at least one safety to which you are certain to be admitted to and certain to be able to afford?</p>

4

<p>You need to apply to schools that meet 100% need.</p>

<p>Need blind schools can meet 100% need, but many simply admit you and don’t care whether you can pay. If you can’t pay, it’s not their problem.</p>

<p>[100%</a> Meet Need Colleges | CollegeGreenlight](<a href=“Colleges with Need-Blind Admission for U.S. Students”>Colleges with Need-Blind Admission for U.S. Students)
Those schools meet 100% need: it means that if they admit you, they’ll cover your financial need with financial aid (grants, loans, work study). Some will even be grants and work-study only, no loans.</p>

<p>As a freshman, you’re allowed to borrow $5,500.</p>

<p>Some schools are actively trying to attract very low-income students. Many are elite LACs and are on the “100%” list above.</p>

5

<p>“Meet 100% need” schools’ financial aid offers and net prices can vary significantly, due to:</p>

<ul>
<li>Different definitions of “need”, due to different institutional methodologies for calculating expected family contribution.</li>
<li>Different expected student contribution (work earnings and direct loans, usually between $4,000 and $10,000 per year).</li>
</ul>

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<p>^^ Yes but for low-income applicants, the 100% meet-need schools are still overall more generous (and much, much more likely to offer financial aid packages that don’t include loans) than schools that don’t promise to meet 100% need. That’s why for some people a private school can be cheaper than a public, in-state university.
(The other case of private colleges being cheaper than in-state publics is for high EFC families whose child gets a lot of merit from a private college bringing the cost to below full in-state costs when in-state publics are expensive.)</p>

<p>OP: if you need a lot of financial aid, be sure to run the Net Price Calculator on EACH website to see how much the school would cost.</p>