I wanted to know how hard or how possible (if possible) it is to get a full ride or a great amount of financial aid to attend any of the Prestigious Ivy Leagues. My mom makes around $30,000 a year and my dad makes less ($10/ hour). I have good grades. I’m going into Junior year w/ approx. 101 GPA and I’m going to be taking the SAT this Fall so I don’t have that grade as of now. I have a good amount of extracurriculars- Robotics team captain, Mathletes President, Math honor scciety, Mock Trial Club, SPARC Community Service Club.
Full ride = NO. All Ivies include a student contribution in their calculations. Run the Net Price Calculators on each school on their web site.
You need to know your parents combined annual income for the year to run the NPC and estimate your costs. But most top schools give very comprehensive packages to students with families that make less than 60k per year. Some do not include a student loan component either. But there is always some work study and summer earnings expectation. At least that is what they say. My daughter did work study but actually didn’t seem to have a summer earnings but maybe because she was in a designated scholars program. They were also very generous with paying for summer classes on occasion.
The trick is to get an admissions acceptance and since you can never be sure of that in colleges with 10 pct and less admissions, the thing to do is to also look for other schools you know you can get in and afford. A tad less selective are at least 60 more colleges that guarantee to ‘meet 100% of need’. so one thing is to figure out what your ‘need’ is according to these colleges and see if your family can cover their portion. Many people cannot as colleges expect a reasonable chunk to come from the family, excepting very low income at very rich colleges. Good for you thinking ahead.
SAT/ACT scores are really key for elite admissions and for many colleges that give merit aid, so to be aware of that and to prep is a good strategy for you. Did you take the PSAT as a sophomore?
p.s. Prestigious isn’t capitalized as a descriptor, and you don’t need to call Ivies prestigious because everyone knows that. It is like instead of saying you want a kitten, you want a Soft Kitten. Or that the President is the Only President. Or it occurs to me you may be only wanting to get into the Ivies that are Prestigious and not the other ones, losers.
All of the Ivy League schools would likely offer an admitted student with family incomes like you’ve described very, very large grants. You might still be expected to work a part-time school year and a summer job, and some might include a modest loan. Usually, for low income students, the Ivy League schools are the least expensive – if you get in.
Have you looked into Questbridge? Don’t delay. Deadlines are coming up.