Hi, I am a low income student interested in attending tufts school of arts and sciences. I just found out that Tufts is a need aware school. How difficult will it be for me to get accepted? My “stats” are just about the average for tufts profile and my extracurriculars are quite decent but nothing outstanding. But I live in Hawaii (I think its supposed to help). Will the fact that I am a low income student decrease my admission chances by a great deal? From my research, (only?)11% of tufts students receive Pell Grants.
Off the top of my head, and don’t take my word on this for Tufts, but I’d guess that it’s impossible to say how one school views need in a candidate. This probably changes year to year, too, because the circumstances of the university would change somewhat too.
Have you looked at schools that offer good aid for students with need?
Vassar
Grinnell
Haverford
Several Ivies
This list is a little old, but it’s a good place to start. These are college that “took the pledge” to keep student debt low.
You have to look and see if Tufts meets “full demonstrated need”- meaning that if you are accepted, they will give you all the money you would need to be able to attend. Need aware could possibly hurt you, if you are in the RD round and they’ve given out a lot of financial aid already, but that shouldn’t discourage you from applying. Without knowing your exact stats it is harder to chance you, but as long as you are in range, I would recommend applying because you never know. Also, you can look for outside scholarships that would help you pay for college. Did you score high enough on the PSAT to be a national merit scholar?
What are your stats?
Is your efc zero?
When you run the NPC, is the number something your parents can afford?
Boring white kid with no hooks here, who also needed a substantial amount of aid. I currently attend Tufts and have plenty of friends who got in RD who also needed financial aid, so it’s definitely doable. If the admissions committee wants you, it doesn’t matter if you need aid or not. If you’re on the border, that’s when it’s considered. Consider applying ED and definitely make your essays as stellar as possible.
Need aware becomes more and more important as the profile is less and less compelling. Between five students at the bottom and one pick, the choice will not go to the one who needs the most aid.
@rokrea For most of the admission process, Tufts is need blind. They may be need aware for borderline applicants. Regarding you chances of admission, first you should be able to handle Tufts rigor if you’re going to get accepted, hence being a low income student in no way hurts your chances of an acceptance. Speaking from my experience with the FA office, I can say they are extremely generous towards low income students! My family earns less than 25k and Tufts gave me a grant in excess of 70k and an option for work study. All the aid I got included no loans! For low income students, I can say Tufts is one of the most generous institutions.
The best advice I can give to you would be to work extremely hard on your essays and let your personality shine though in you application. Tufts is getting harder to get into each year as seen by this year’s mere 14% acceptance rate. This rate will even be lower for the class of 2021. Good luck with your application process!
Hey, so I am an incoming freshman for the class of 2020 at Tufts. Something to definitely look into if you are planning on applying to Tufts as a low income student is the Questbridge organization. It’s a need-based scholarship program that matches low income students to top tier universities. Definitely check it out and message me if you have any questions. Tufts likes to accept low income kids through Questbridge because it makes them look good. It could also definitely improve your chances. Also, if you get the scholarship, it’s a full ride for four years. They picked 25 of us last year.
Tufts is really generous - I have a kid there who is going to be a senior! Actually all high level schools that are difficult to get into have quite large endowments. I have heard that income under $125k a year at the most selective schools will give you almost all if not all need. I may be wrong but read about a few. Just get accepted first!
P.S. Kalaheo No Ka Oi! :D/
If you live in Hawaii and are ethnically Hawaiian/Pacific Islander that’s a HUGE draw, especially at an East Coast school.
@Qwerty568 im korean so probably not so much haha
If you are Korean I unfortunately think that’s going to cancel out the “hook” of being from Hawaii.
@Qwerty568 I heard many schools considered the geographical location of a student’s residency. And Hawaii is one of the underrepresented states on mainland schools especially the east coast so i think it helps at least to a certain extent
@rokrea It definitely helps to be a resident of Hawaii, but Asians (such as Koreans) are an overrepresented majority at top schools, so I was saying the benefits of living in Hawaii are likely mostly or entirely negated by being Asian.
@Qwerty568 Oh I see what you mean. Do you also know how being an immigrant might increase or decrease the admissions chances? I have a green card and have lived in the US for 3 years.
If you have a green card I’m pretty sure you will be treated as a domestic applicant. Might be an interesting story but won’t seriously affect your chances.
@Moorefun My daughter is waiting to hear if she’s a QB finalist. Tufts is her #1 choice and she’s thinking about only ranking Tufts. There are 12 slots for schools you can rank this year. They are flying her up for the Voices of Diversity Arts & Sciences this month. Do you think that means they are interested? How many schools did you rank? Thanks.