Do need blind colleges look at an applicants income and consider that they have had less opportunities than others?
In other words , are low income students given a little slack for the application process?
Or do colleges not look at income at all when admitting applicants?
It depends on the school. Most of the time, the answer is no. Most admissions are need-blind, so they won’t know unless you talk about your family’s situation in your essay. That seems hard to do without coming across as self-seeking. But whether you’re rich or poor, unless you hook, a 1450 SAT won’t get you into an Ivy.
Of course, it is extremely unfair that, as a low-income student, you won’t have as much money to spend on retaking the SAT or ACT to get your best score. But the testmakers allow low-income students who are eligible for certain government programs to take the exams without their typical fees.
You’ll likely get lots of federal aid and grant money if you use your opportunities right. And by choosing a major that intersects your passions with demand, you’re charting a path to remove yourself and your family from the low-income bracket.
Schools will show favorability to you if you’re a first generation college student. But if you aren’t, I think you’ll see a negligible admissions boost at most.
(There are a few exceptions for extraordinary cases. Look up QuestBridge.)
The very top colleges are need blind AND will give enough aid to make college very cheap. And while a 1450 will not get you into any Ivy, a 1400 or above will put you in the running for such top schools. But few studennts score this high. Plenty of colleges may be need blind and not look at income. But they may leave a big gap between what you need and what they will provide.
The best strategy is to consider a number of colleges, say, over a dozen. Run the NPCs (net price calculators) at each; these can be found at each college website. You will also be much more likely to get fin aid or merit aid at schools where your GPA and SAT/ACT are in the top 25%. Colleges want to get the best students they can and will pay for them, by grants and scholarships. If you are a very student with high GPA but lower than expected SAT/ACT scores, many colleges are test-optional.
If you can give more info about your academics, that will help with posters helping out.
I second a look into QuestBridge.
Yes I knew about questbridge and I plan to apply! Thanks @coterie @PetulaClark . Would applying though questbridge shown colleges the income situation? Say I don’t get matched through questbridge, but if I use qb applications for normal admissions processes, will colleges then give me slack? Thanks
I am also first generation, so I guess that helps me
Well said, @PetulaClark
I can’t speak for how much being low income affects regular decision. Officers do keep in mind your background, for instance, a 1500 in a low-income neighborhood school means a lot more than a 1500 from an elite school.
First generation will help you a lot. If you’re looking for a saving grace, that’s it. Being low-income means that you’ll have a much lower price tag than most.
Speaking of which, can you please quantify what you mean by “low income”? And what are your objectives (test scores, GPA)? If you don’t want to post it publicly, PM me, Petula, or a user you trust.
Yeah, I should’ve been specific, I’ll pm you!
As to financial hardships, two opposing things are both true. Colleges, even the wealthy ones, are businesses. But they don’t just want a bunch of rich kids. Cynically, it looks bad when they have too few (under 10%) of students with Pell grants. Makes them look too elitist. The second thing is that colleges are also agents of change, with liberal outlooks. They want to have a wide range of students, including students from lower income backgrounds.
I am first generation, low income (less than 35K), I go to BU with about 50K in finaid. I still take the loan out for housing, mind you, so I will be in debt, but it is better than being all 65K a year in debt.
I am not sure I was given “slack”…I wrote an essay about some pretty large obstacles/hardships in my life, never mentioned money, but honestly it was probably safe to assume that my essay was partially related to financial problems given the circumstances I mentioned. I get what you mean by few opportunities. Some people post on here about all these different EC’s that involve a lot of money, or going to these nice schools with all these different opportunities that I (and maybe you) didn’t have, and you can get kind of worried that you might not be good enough. While colleges may not give “slack”, they DO recognize no everyone has the same background, and I think it is fair to say they judge you accordingly.
And as crazy as this sounds, try some private schools with hefty price tags. Sometimes, they are the ones with the money to give. And being first gen and low income is sometimes viewed as “adding to diversity”, a.k.a. not everyone is rich from a nice happy suburban family (not that there is anything wrong with coming from that 
not trying to sound cynical or biased, just the cold hard truth from the mouth of an admissions officer I talked to once).
I have the same question as well. I’m a low income junior in highschool and I wonder why the are only universities and colleges that are willing to give huge financial packages to low income students so hard to get into? Like no wonder your financial diversity is low. Don’t they consider that it’s more difficult for low income students to achieve higher merits. High achieving low income students are rare, but what about the rest of us?
Yes. If you demonstrate it in your essays, or if your recommendations mention it, they will certainly consider it (not negatively)
I wouldn’t call it getting “slack” but rather recognizing the value of a different set of life experiences. I was told one of the best applications at a top university came from someone who had to work at McDonald’s after school to support the family and couldn’t do any extracurricular activities. Colleges know the income percentiles of different SATs as will as the disadvantage of not having test prep or being able to repeat the test. They know AP exams can be prohibitive even with the waiver and will not disqualify you for lacking AP scores. That said, academic standards like class rank, course rigor, and GPA are all heavily weighted, and essays/recommendations become particularly important.
Trust me, they absolutely consider that. Check out the QuestBridge result threads and you’ll see that it’s not about the test scores. I know plenty of people who got an 1800-2000 who are at the top universities and LACs because of QuestBridge. The average for all students tends to be 2150+.
The problem is: