<p>What is the chance of my S getting into a Ivy League school or other top/private school with a family income of $39,500.00? Im worried about my S fitting in with the other students because he is very shy and he does not interact well with wealthy peers. Do top schools or other private schools attract wealthy families? Do the top schools prefer wealthy families? What about not very selective private schools? Do they attract rich families?</p>
<p>His GPA at the end of sophomore year was 3.91 (it was on his report card.)</p>
<p>Math is his thing. He likes playing computer games, but I think he plays to much.</p>
<p>Unless your son has shown exceptional competence in math (Clubs, Olympiads, College Classes, Competitions, etc.), an all round education is better, especially in top tier schools. Other than that, it should not matter much where someone goes to school. A good student will do well regardless of where he studied.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about the wealth demographics at top schools. Many of them are need-blind with financial aid and have a majority of students on need-based financial aid (Yale comes to mind with 73% of students receiving FA). The top preference is ability, not wealth, so don’t worry about it. I’m going to apply for full financial aid (EFC is definitely <$5,000 per year) and I don’t think it’s going to affect my application adversely.</p>
<p>I think the ivies are actually rather generous with financial aid. You get a fair amount of lower-income students attending, because hey if they’re bright kids they can get a top-notch education for a low cost. In fact I think one school (Harvard?) has free tuition for families that make under 60K/year.</p>
<p>In my experience it’s the smaller private schools, LACs and certain state schools that have a lot of students from more affluent backgrounds.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about the income. A lot of people who go there are rather rich, true, but if he gets in, then he’ll be fine. People don’t ask what your family’s income is. And it doesn’t affect your admission chances. Just the amount of financial aid you get.</p>
<p>The colleges with the wealthiest students are often ones with the highest costs but the worst financial aid. Less wealthy students get admitted, but choose not to go there because they can get better deals elsewhere.</p>
<p>^^ USC is a good example. 50k per year and not even Ivy League.</p>
<p>Ivies go out of their way to admit a couple of people from every demographic. When you’re so elite/exclusive/whatever you can hand pick what your student body demographics are. For whatever reason the ivies love to seem like they have one of everything…rich poor white black dwarf ninja etc etc.</p>
<p>This is why you can have the best stats in the world and still not get admitted…they don’t want a skew of rich smart white kids. One girl from my HS got into MIT with a 3.6 UW and almost no extracurriculars. Guess what her race was?</p>
<p>Although some of the Ivys and similar super-selective schools are generous with financial aid for those whom they do admit, be aware that:</p>
<p>a. They admit very few of those who apply, so consider them as admissions reaches for everyone.</p>
<p>b. Applicants from wealthier backgrounds tend to have more opportunities to build up impressive credentials (including grades, honors/AP/college courses, test scores, and extracurriculars) that admissions people see in the holistic reviews. Most students from lower income backgrounds have fewer opportunities to do so (although one who does may impress the admissions people even more, due to starting “behind”).</p>
<p>c. To the extent there are legacy preferences in admissions, that can both reduce the chance of admission for those without legacy preference, and raise the family income levels of the students who are admitted.</p>
<p>You will still see students from wealthier families in abundance in the super-selective schools.</p>