<p>I'm curious if the following will influence admission.
First, my mom passed away when I was only 6 years old.
Next, My income stands below $50,000.
Finally, if my dad never had college education does that change anything?</p>
<p>I'm a pretty advanced student, but it often seems that money and having a single parent makes it much harder to get involved. Sports and after school extra curricula are really hard for my family to set up because my dad works 5 days a week all year long. I was wondering if colleges would see that because of my situation, my minor extra curricula and athletic position could be accounted for.</p>
<p>I'm currently standing at a 4.0 and am taking IB and honors. I'm not asking for chancing, but will top schools such as Stanford, USC, UC Berkeley, and Harvard take me as some sort of minority for a single parent and small income? I'm trying my best to stay ahead of the curve and practice for SAT and ACT as that is really all I can do at home. Also, my brother is attending OSU with little to no financial aid (he was a bit lazy and never applied), would I receive money going into college for having a sibling attending college at the same time?</p>
<p>Thank you in advance.</p>
<ol>
<li>Not to my knowledge, but maybe. </li>
<li>Yes, it will make it harder</li>
<li>Yes, it will make it easier</li>
</ol>
<p>@Mandalorian
Thank you. I always thought that if you had lower income, elite colleges would want you more because you’re the minority and the person who can make a difference from hard work. But to come to think of it, why would they want to support so much financial aid on a student when they could enroll a rich student and give hardly any? I read this in an article somewhere I think but I was kind of skeptical about it.
Anyone else help me on this?</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus
Wow. Amazing article. I can’t tell if I’m supposed to be impressed, depressed, or happy. I think it’s awesome that someone that lives in poverty is able to do something so substantial… 9 for 9. At the same time, however, I feel sad because I didn’t try all these kinds of things. I am only a freshman, so hopefully I can take a similar road to impress everyone, just like he did. Very inspiring story. I appreciate the post!</p>
<p>How does your brother pay for college with no financial aid? Your father should file the papers necessary to get financial aid because it certainly sounds like your brother may qualify for some financial aid. Who declines free money to go to college? You apply each year and they can fill out the FAFSA now with 2013 figures for fall aid.</p>
<p>Since you are only a freshman, you have time to do your best in your academics and take a challenging schedule, and try to find ways to participate in your school and/or community. Don’t waste your time prepping for SAT/ACT now. You can do other more interesting things at home if you can’t find a way to participate at school. Find the time to develop interests and peruse them on your own. Hone your intellectual curiosity Read widely, that will help with your scores too. Maybe learn some computer code, there are plenty of free tutorials online. Or participate in citizen science projects, google and find some. Or participate in community history projects or work on an oral history project, creative writing, art, music, whatever interests you.</p>
<p>Almost all colleges try to promote first generation college students. All top colleges look for talented underprivileged students, but those students are mostly very competitive in all the usual ways. There are at least 30+ colleges that meet full financial need of all students. Many more give quite a few full need packages and some offer packages based on merit, usually gpa+SAT/ACT combination. Out of State colleges as a general rule do not. So don’t pick your colleges yet, but use some of that vast spare time you have to investigate colleges and what makes each unique and interesting. Maybe your library has some resources, like the Fiske Guide etc.</p>
<p>As an OR resident , the UCs are not a good option, due to the cost of OOS tuition and lack of FA. You should check out the Questbridge program (see the sub-forum under the FA & Scholarships forum).</p>
<p>P.S. when mentioning OSU, you should state which OSU you’re talking about as there is more than one.</p>
<p>@BrownParent
@entomom
Hey guys, thanks for the information and I really appreciate all of it. To start, I should mention my brother is attending Oregon State University. The way he is able to attend OSU is from an accident that occurred a long time ago. After the accident he received some compensation and it was put into a trust fund.
I also understand the UC’s are not going to my best option, but I was hoping USC would help with funding if I was admitted because it is a private institution. I haven’t looked into the aid as much as I should.
And to BrownParent, I would really like to attend these types of projects but it’s so difficult. My dad doesn’t exactly have the best habits and again, he works 5 days a week from 6:00 AM to 4:30 PM. I have to walk to my orthodontist because he can’t pick me up and take me their in time before they close.
I’ve also tried my hardest to pick up a challenging course, but it looks like the most difficult things I can do right now is Spanish 2 to make things harder. I could take pre-calc, HL chemistry, and maybe AP or HL biology, but none of this will count towards any credit. They won’t count as any credit because my school only offers IB chemistry, biology, and pre-calculus. I’m trying my hardest to make my workload harder because it’s easy right now, but it seems like nothing can get harder for my freshman year.
My schedule was all the core classes such as world history and biology, and the more difficult classes I took were chemistry (elective), algebra 2 (ahead of curve), and Spanish (elective). I’m having an extremely hard time finding anything to do to get more ahead because the only offered things are HL and AP courses online that won’t count for credit.
Another thing I’m curious about, is that I am not sure if I’m considered a first generation college student. My mom attended a university in Korea, but she passed away when I was six. Also, obviously, she didn’t attend school in the US. I don’t think that makes a me a first generation college student, does it? </p>
<p>Try the net price calculators on college web sites to get an idea of what their financial aid offers will be like.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus
Almost all ivy league/top 20 schools offer 100% financial aid for my family, but I will check up on some other schools. Thanks for the tip!</p>
<p>Can anyone else maybe address the issue if having a single parent will improve/hurt my chances?</p>
<p>Typically, being an orphan and having a single parent, especially if the single parent didn’t graduate from college, will help. You suffered a devastating loss at a young age and you had to overcome everything that came with it (emotional unstability, change in finances, having an adult who may no longer be able to care for you due to grief…)</p>
<p>Top universities are looking for high-achieving, lower income, students, especially first generation. </p>
<p>
You’re right, and the other poster was wrong. Colleges want to see determination and character. They know it’s unlikely you’ve been coddled and spoiled. And THOSE qualities matter very much for success in college, much more than a high ACT score (to a certain extent - as long as you have 24-25+: determination and an ACT 18 won’t get you too far). Your experience and perspective in class discussions, which are an essential part of learning at these colleges, will be invaluable. </p>
<p>Thank you to all poster thus far.
Is anyone else willing to shed some light? :)</p>
<p>I would differ somewhat with @MYOS1634’s point about lower income students at elite colleges. Yes they like students who have faced challenges and done well, but they also like full pay students. If you look at admission stats for elite schools you can see that. Stanford had 1707 freshman students last year. Only 1080 applied for FA, and of those only 895 had any need. </p>