<p>I'm a new member so was unsure where to post this message so I posted here and also in the College Admissions area. I don't know if this is allowed or not??</p>
<p>I realize that need blind means that one is admitted regardless of finances. However I would like to know if admission officers see the FA application when reviewing an applicant or do they just look at the occupations of the parents to get a general idea of the family's circumstances. I am really interested in the more selective schools (HYPS) that are actively recruiting lower income students. </p>
<p>We live in an upscale town that has a repuptation as having an excellent public school system. Each year our public high school sends at least a dozen kids to Ivys with Harvard having the most acceptances. MIT and Stanford are always well represented as well. The average price of a house is about $750,000 and median income is around $120,000. We were fortunate to have bought a house here 30 years ago before we had children because if we were to try to move into this town today we would not be able to. One reason that home values have gone crazy in our town is the quality of the public schools. Our income is right around $50,000. I have my own business and have barely been braking even for the past 10 years. We have no savings only a small IRA that we managed to contribute to when we were younger. We basically live month to month. Our nest egg will be our home value when it comes time for us to retire. We cannot refinance because we would not be able to afford a higher monthly payment. By our town standands we are definitely the exception. I realize that this does not in any way compare to an inner city, poor applicant however I would like to know if a familys financial picture is considered during the admission process.</p>
<p>We are a blue collar family while the majority of people in our town are professionals. My son who is in the top 3% of his HS class of 300 works very hard to keep up with his more privileged classmates. While most of his friends attend prestigious summer school programs, intern at various places (jobs secured by parents) or travel during the summer, my son works 50 hours a week doing landscape work and construction. We are also not able to afford SAT classes or private tutoring but he managed to score above a 2200 the first time he took the test by self studying. He will take the SATs again in hopes of raising his score.</p>
<p>Our hope is that he can gain acceptance into one of the schools that has the new financial aid initiaive in place. But because we are not from a stereotypical lower class, poor town I am concerned that the admissions officers will take for granted that my son is privileged like the majority of his classmates and not see how he has really achieved on his own. Does anyone have any first hand knowledge or suggestions relating to my concern?</p>
<p>Perhaps your son could focus one of his essays on the 50 hours per week construction/landscape job?</p>
<p>It shows that he is responsible, hard-working and quite frankly, most kids don't work that kind of hours unless they need the money.</p>
<p>We live a simple life on a farm and like you, we don't have money for summer enrichment or SAT prep classes. My son wrote about his work on the farm and was accepted at every college he applied to (Including UCB and Stanford).</p>
<p>I agree with FresnoMom that your S should emphasize his work in one of his essays. In addition, you may want to check out this thread for a great guide to self studying for the SAT:</p>
<p>Look for my posts in the middle of the page with a summary of the Xiggi method.</p>
<p>I think your plan on targeting some of the most selective schools that have excellent FA plans is good. I would also add some of the top 25ish schools with half to full tuition and even full ride merit scholarships. You can find sticky threads at the top of this forum that discuss these schools. And here are a couple of my favorites by the long time poster curmudgeon:</p>
<p>A top student who does 50 hours of backbreaking work every summer sounds like a winner to me. I think the essy advice is great & I wish you luck with admissions.</p>
<p>Thanks also for all your great suggestions. Entonmom, thanks for the links especially the Ziggi Method for Self Studying. His critical reading score is the one that he needs to work on for the next testing as he got a high 600. Math and writing were mid to high 700's. Do you have any other suggestions for Critical Reading prep other than the Grammatix guide?</p>
<p>I'm actually not sure that he should take the SAT's again for fear that his math and writing may go down, especially since he only got 2 wrong in each section this past May. How bad would it look if he went down on the 2nd time around. And do SAT's matter all that much once you are past a certain score?? or in the colleges median range. I don't know?? </p>
<p>My son is also interested in a few smaller colleges like Pomona and Amherst so I'm researching their financial aid. But from reading the post from accepted students this year it looks like the FA is not all that good.</p>
<p>So I guess I just have to hope that he can convey his work ethic and determination as well as who is he in his essays. He really has benefited from his association with his classmates because it's allowed him to see how the "other half lives" and I think it's given him the drive to do as well as he has.</p>
<p>Chriscross, it is not that easy picking the school that is most likely to give a good financial aid package to your student. Just because a school is need blind does not mean that it gives 100% of need, that its definition of need fits yours, and that the financial aid package is not loan heavy to meet the need. Some schools that are NOT need blind are more generous to those students they do admit, and some of those schools are need blind to all but the last group of students they are considering. You can look up the particular colleges and see what % of need they meet and what % of what they meet are in grants vs loans, but those are averages that may not apply to a given student. </p>
<p>That he is doing the type of physical labor in the summers and making a goodly % of his spending money will be noted. Also all apps I have seen, ask write up front if you are applying for financial aid. There are also questions regarding your job and education, so the app itself is a decent indicator of socio economics.</p>
<p>My D didn't use Grammatrix, she used Maximum SAT and liked it. We considered getting Grammatrix, but the website is a little funky and there was some question as to how reliable the company was in responding to orders at that time (two years ago). I'm not sure what the situation is now.</p>
<p>This is only my personal view, but I think of 2250 (like the old 1500) as being a highly competitive score for an unhooked candidate for HYPS level schools. I'd say 2100 is at the low end of competitive and likely will need something else in the application to bring the student to the AOs attention.</p>
<p>Most schools superscore, so there is not a great problem with scoring lower on parts of the SAT. However, could be spending his time doing something else more productive, that's what you have to balance.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Our hope is that he can gain acceptance into one of the schools that has the new financial aid initiaive in place.
[/quote]
Those schools are huge reaches for everyone. The need-blind schools aren't going to reject your son because they mistakenly believe he is privileged, but his chances of admission are a long shot in any case. Yes, it is possible -- but targeting those schools is not good planning, any more than it would be a good financial plan to buy a bunch of lottery tickets. </p>
<p>Yes, he should apply to those schools if he would like to attend -- but as a family you should focus on other alternatives where he has strong chances of admission and is also likely to get a strong aid package. Your home equity and self-employment status are wild card factors that will make it harder for you to predict what your aid package will be --so you need to include both 100% need schools and schools that award substantial merit aid in the search. Any student who has a chance at colleges like MIT and Stanford also can qualify for substantial merit aid at colleges that are somewhat less competitive for admissions.</p>
<p>Since your son is interested in LAC's like Pomona or Amherst, that's great, as there are may be many that will offer strong merit aid -- but not at that level of selectivity. Curmudgeon is the parent who knows a lot about this -- his daughter turned down a weak financial aid offer at Yale and an even weaker one from Amherst to attend Rhodes with a full ride, and hasn't been disappointed -- she has had to work hard at Rhodes but also has excelled there, so it turned out to be a good match and right on the money.</p>
<p>Chriscross-
Our family's circumstances are almost identical to yours including income, son's SAT scores etc..., although we do not have home equity similar to yours. On FAFSA, we explained extenuating circumstances which you will be able to do as well.
My son was accepted to Penn SEAS class of 2012 with a good financial aid package. He was also accepted to Lehigh, Bucknell and Boston University engineering with grants, scholarships equaling full tuition. Our family and son's contribution estimated at $8,200 including work study. He decided on Penn due to no loans, but higher family contribution.
One strategy that we employed was for him to apply to 4 'sister' schools (not ivy league) that compete with each other for students in his target. We were then able to compare financial aid packages and work with FA committees to 'negotiate' better offers. This worked as a back up!<br>
He also applied to 3 ivys and was waitlisted at each and then taken off waitlist at UPenn recently.<br>
Please PM me if you would like more specifics.</p>
<p>I think what you need more than need-blind admissions is schools that meet 100% of need. Most schools in that category are need blind anyway. Secondly, try to get a feel for how need is determined. The big question in your case is, do they include any home equity as an asset? Finally, how is the need met in terms of loans, work-study, and grants. In addition, do outside scholarships reduce loan, work-study, or grant?</p>
<p>Here are a few scenarios at URichmond which is need-blind, meets 100% of need, uses FAFSA, does not count home equity as an asset, limits loan and work-study to $4000, and uses scholarships to reduce loan and work-study before applying it to grant money.</p>
<p>I agree with Standrews. However, you need to run through a few fa calculators to make sure that your need fits with most such schools' definition of need. I know ever so many families with strong students who felt that by applying to school that meet high % of need, they would be in good shape. It was a big shock to them to find out that they qualified for little or no financial aid. Some of them did pretty well on EFC through FAFSA, but when they used PROFILE or a college's own application or supplement, the need number was greatly diminished. If you truly fit in a category where schools that use PROFILE will consider you for large amounts of aid, you could do well that route. Otherwise, you may want to look at schools that have merit awards, and where your child's stats are high enough up there that they have a chance of getting a piece of that pie. </p>
<p>In my opinion, everyone should have a financial safety and it should be built into the admissions safety. If your state school does not tend to give out much in financial aid/merit money and the costs there are high, even if it is a great admissions safety, it might not be a good financial safety.</p>
<p>I can't add anything to the great advice you've already received. Your son sounds like he'll be a great candidate for merit aid at some very good schools - which aren't necessarily the ivies. From your description he sounds like a smart young man who knows the value of hard work, which will carry him far. Good luck!</p>