<p>How much does low income/ disadvantaged environment affect the application? And how do adcoms find out? Do they ask for background info on the app?</p>
<p>Yeah they ask for it; it helps a lot. (Even though they say admissions is need blind.)</p>
<p>So how do they ask for it? Is it part of their application? Or do they find out when requesting for financial aid?</p>
<p>Pretty much the latter; that and noting when kids ask for fee waivers when aplying originally.</p>
<p>And parent's occupation and education, high school attended, extracurriculars, work experience of the student, comments from the teachers and GC, essay, zip code...</p>
<p>Most of the time it is pretty easy to tell upper middle class or wealthy background from working class. None of this is perfect.</p>