<p>
</p>
<p>They may be. However, generally speaking, the language in the college viewbook and the reality may be very different. In other words, not all “100% need” schools offer the same financial package. They can’t offer what they don’t have so, in general, schools with very large endowments like Pomona and Swarthmore tend to offer larger packages to “need” students" and tend to offer smaller loan components.</p>
<p>Given your son’s geographic background from a less affluent farming community, I would be a little hestitant to seek out colleges that cater exclusively to a wealthy, white suburban clientele. I would tend to favor schools that are at least comfortable for someone from a less “preppy” environment. Two statistical measures that can shed some light on a school’s culture in that regard are the percentage of students who qualify for financial aid (close to 50% is good diversity for an elite college) and the percentage of minority students. I would look for a minimum of 30 percent non-white or non-US, with closer to 40% being an indication of strong diversity – although this can vary a bit depending on the geographic location. For example, schools in California and the northeast have larger minority populations to draw from than schools in the southeast and midwest and thus have the potential to achieve more diversity.</p>
<p>As a side benefit, national statistics show that schools with whiter and wealthier students tend to have more problems with heavy drinking scenes – something that your son wants to avoid. Large minority enrollments and more socio-economic diversity tend to correllate with lower drinking rates on campus with African-Americans and Asian-Americans being the two groups with the lowest heavy drinking rates in national surveys.</p>
<p>The reason that your son’s labor on the family fish farm can be a positive on the application is that many elite colleges are making a concerted effort to expand their recruiting beyond the “trust fund” crowd. I think that emphasizing the nature of your community and your son’s employment can be a plus in terms of admissions, where standing out from the crowd and bringing a different perspective to campus is valued by admissions officers.</p>