<p>Hi. I heard that colleges are placing emphasis on kids that come from low-incomes. I also noticed that most of these colleges are need-blind, which confuses me. Coming from a low-income background myself, I'm just wondering how colleges that don't look at a student's FA situation also "value" it? </p>
<p>The only reason I'm asking is because I don't want my situation to go un-noticed if it really does matter.</p>
<p>The point of need-blind admissions is that they won’t refuse to admit you because they don’t want to give you financial aid. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t say that having a low income is good, but colleges recognize that it makes things more challenging for you, and will consider your application accordingly.</p>
<p>So I don’t have to explicitly mention it anywhere? It’ll just be on the FAFSA?</p>
<p>You don’t have to specifically mention it. They will know your situation when they see your financial aid applications.</p>
<p>I think this may be a larger factor than many people recognize</p>
<p>Coming from a low income family myself, I would hope that admissions officers recognize the additional struggles that others don’t experience</p>
<p>Seconding amarkov.
But having a low income certainly does not hurt you (in terms of admission). In fact, it can actually be advantageous if applying to highly selective universities. (but of course, your grades must match the university’s standards)</p>
<p>The biggest indicator of an applicant’s income level aside from Fin Aid/FAFSA is the school report that accompanies your transcript. In it, your guid counselor will fill in demographics of your school such as:</p>
<p>% of students on Federal subsidized free or reduced lunch – single best indicator of relative income levels at your school</p>
<p>% of students attending 2 or 4 year colleges</p>
<p>^ That’s actually not a good thing for me :/…</p>
<p>A LOT of my the kids at my school have parents with very high incomes, A LOT. Regardless, thanks for all the replies.</p>
<p>If you’re an international student, yes it will hurt you. For need-aware school’s at least.</p>
<p>At a need blind school, adcoms will not see your finaid application.
The school and community demographics can affect the way they view your achievements- it’s not a indication if your family is low income.
They aren’t placing “emphasis” on low income, but on kids who are achievers despite challenging circumstances.</p>
<p>At some colleges, an essay which gives a good description of overcoming adverse situations (including poverty) may make a favorable impression on an admissions reader. The admissions reader may see that, between two applicants with similar courses, grades, and test scores, the one who got there despite coming from a poor family may have higher ability and motivation than one from a wealthy family which provided all of the advantages (tutors, test preparation, etc.) that the poor family was be able to provide.</p>
<p>I think low income only helps at the top schools - small privates that have need blind admissions and that meet 100% of need. I limit this to small schools because they’re more likely to go through your application more thoroughly, carefully considering your circumstances. The fact that you are low income but still a high achieving student is definitely a plus in admissions to such schools.</p>
<p>For other schools, and I’m mainly talking about public schools now, it’s a bad thing. Not only is aid worse here, but admissions is more stats-driven, and low income students simply don’t have the same opportunities (SAT prep, extracurriculars) as more privileged students.</p>