Please chance me at these highly selective school

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I am a high school senior and am applying to Mount Holyoke, Dickinson (possibly ED2), Lehigh (other option for ED2), and some safe state schools I know I will get into. The problem is I’m very low income, and Dickinson and Mount Holyoke are both need-aware, meaning they will see they will have to pay a reasonable sum for me attend (basically the entire cost). I know this makes me less desirable, but do I still have a chance at these schools? Meanwhile Lehigh is need-blind, meaning they do not see how low income I am, but is more selective. I honestly don’t think I could get into either one RD, so I want to use my ED2 wisely- but don’t know which one to try for. I would be amazingly happy at either, but really am going for whichever one I can be accepted to. If none of these schools work I will probably go to my local college, Rowan University, and would prefer not to. I have been on a tour/taken a class at both these colleges as well as done a successful interview.

I am a white female
I have a 95 GPA
SAT score of 1330
I have taken
Freshman :
Honors History
Honors Algebra 2
Honors English 9
Adv. Spanish 2
Honors Economics
AP Physics 1
Latin 1

Sophmore:
Adv. Latin 2
Honors US history
Honors Precalc
Honors English 10
Honors Spanish 3
Honors Biology
Honors Chemistry

Junior:
Art 1
AP US
Honors Calculus
AP Language and Composition
Honors Spanish 4
AP Biology
AP Government

Senior:
AP Environmental
AP Literature
Honors Statistics
Band
Culinary
AP Pyschology
Music Theory

I was President of/ Founded:
Book Club
Latin Club

Executive Committee/leadership in:
Math League
SIA (community service)
Marching Band
American Red Cross
Student Coalition

Participant:
Science League
Indoor Percussion
Key Club
Certamen

I have around 150 volunteer hours, have run 2 food drives, one mental health drive, one clothing drive, assisted in awareness campaigns, ran a school wide ‘Equality and Acceptance’ day, helped set up a blood drive, and won a scholarship to Indiana University Summer debate camp.
I have dozens of awards for my dancing, all my clubs have a wide variety high standing awards (1st, 2nd, third in the country kind of stuff,I can go into specifics if it helps), Gold on Etymology exam, National Latin Exam, and am a National Dance Showcase Star Champion (high dance award).

I can speak Russian, and read and write Spanish. I am a complicated first generation college student (we don’t know if my dad went to college), from a very low income family and my mother is from Russia. I play the percussion.
Thank you so much for the help!

2

It should be irrelevant to you if a school is need aware or need blind; meeting full need is the important thing. A school’s being need blind or aware doesn’t affect how much you like a school, but rather only the chance of admission. If you otherwise like the school and it’s a good match, apply. At over 400 schools there is no application fee; apply for a waiver from others if it’s truly a burden. Check the school’s Common Data Set section H for the percentage of students receiving financial aid; the higher percentage, the less need-aware is an issue. Also check the net price calculator (colleges defined “need” differently, using FAFSA or PROFILE options).

3

If your parents are divorced, check whether the college wants the financial information from both parents. If so, and the non custodial parent is uncooperative, you may not be able to get financial aid at that college.

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/2083835-faq-divorced-parents-financial-aid-and-net-price-calculators.html

4

Yeah at a lot of colleges they want em to submit the CSS profile noncustodial parent waiver, which I have all completed. And while i shouldn’t be effect my admission, realistically if a college sees someone with the same statistics as me that will pay, they will inevitably chose them. Both colleges do meet 100% financial aid, which is amazing. And I also will be receiving fee waivers for all the colleges that require it. I’m just not sure if I would be able to make into either them, so I want to make sure whichever one i apply to ED will (hopefully) accept me. Thank you for the help!

5

Have the colleges granted the waiver of non-custodial parent information?

If not, you are basically waiting for three acceptances at each college:

  1. Admission to the school.
  2. Granting of the waiver of non-custodial parent information.
  3. Financial aid that is sufficient to make the college affordable.
6

Yes they all have luckily

7

Luckily statistics alone can account for as little as 20% of admission criteria at some schools (but they must be high enough to show you can handle the workload).

8

I did not know that- thank you! I think in this case i’ll apply to Dickinson ED2 and Lehigh and Mount Holyoke RD

9

I believe applying to a Need Aware School and Need Blind school is different. Let me use my family as an example. My daughter’s EFC is $18,500. She liked Middlebury, Hamilton, Kenyon, Colby, Skidmore and Mount Holyoke. After we did the NPC, Colby was the best. Colby, Skidmore, Mount Holyoke and Kenyon were need aware. We figured the money for a student like her might run out after ED2, so figured applying early to a Need Aware school might be the difference, and the Need Blind schools which were a little lofty, we didn’t believe money would be the deciding factor. If they wanted a ballet dancer from our area, maybe they would pick her.
In our case she would have been psyched at any of theses schools. She applied Early Decision to Colby, and did not use ED2, because at that point all schools were close to equal, Mount Holyoke really was the favorite (and fortunately for us, she did great on her SAT, which does have a big effect on MERIT), but we wanted the ability to compare cost. If Skidmore was a top contender, she should have applied ED2 there, and I believe it would have made a difference. She got deferred at Colby, denied at Middlebury, and Waitlisted at Skidmore, Kenyon, Hamilton, and happily attends Mount Holyoke.
Mount Holyoke is going to become WAY more competitive this year, as they over enrolled last year, and move up to 30 US News and 65 THE/WSJ college rankings.