<p>Northstarmom, what are some top colleges are attempting to diversify by adding more low-income students?</p>
<p>Medha,</p>
<p>Your “problem” is not that you are a low income student, but you are a low income international student. Most U.S. colleges are not need blind to international students so your ability to pay will be a factor because:</p>
<p>You will not be eligible for any federal aid (Pell, SEOG, stafford or perkins loans)
You will not be able to work (other than on campus or for the school).</p>
<p>Many schools that are need blind to international students and will be generous to someone in your situation are also some of the most difficult to gain acceptance.</p>
<p>you can try edupass</p>
<p>and I think there is a sticker at the top of the financial aid thread of schools that offer good aid to international students.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=151609[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=151609</a></p>
<p>sybbie, Ya but at the same time I go to school in US and if I receive my Green Card within 2 and half years I’d qualify for Fin. Aid. I just want to cover all the bases and be prepared pretty much!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If it is still 2.5 years before you are ready to attend college or you are willing to wait 2.5 years until you get your green card to apply, that is one thing. </p>
<p>However, until that happens, you will be in the international pool for admissions purposes.</p>
<p>I know I’ll be in the international pool till then. But I want to be prepared for both the situations (Being International and Domestic).</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>SilverClover, this is the mom with D from your high school, where do you get the application vouchers, and what is the criteria for them? You can pm me if you wish, thanks.</p>
<p>GA2012mom, </p>
<p>Not silvercloud but, The college board will give you 4 fee waivers (that is what they are called). If your D is eligible to take the SAT at her school using a fee waiver she will be able to get the 4 fee waivers.</p>
<p>In addion, the NACAC (National Association for College admissions Counselors) also has a fee waiver. You can check their website (it has to be signed off by your GC).</p>
<p>If you search the parents thread, I remember there was a listing of schools that will waive their application fee. </p>
<p>For example mount holyoke college will waive their fee if you apply on line. I think that tulane will also waive a fee.</p>
<p>If you look up the common app, you may even find some schools that take the common app that will also waive the applicaiton fee.</p>
<p>Smith also waives the fee if you apply on-line.</p>
<p>I believe that one is eligible for fee waivers by qualifying for free or reduced school lunches, which is a good reason to fill out that info if one is eligible even if one’s kid doesn’t plan to buy those lunches. This, at least, was how fee waivers were determined at S’s h.s. Unfortunately, lots of kids who were eligible didn’t bother to fill out the info, which caused them to miss out on the fee waivers as well as hearing about programs for low income students – things that GCs used the fee waiver info to determine eligibility for.</p>
<p>NSM,</p>
<p>You are right. If your child is eligible for free or reduced lunch they are eligible for fee waivers from the college board ( I think it is 1 SAT and I SATII subject test) and 4 college fee waivers.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info, will look into that, as D will be applying Yale SCEA, but then…hopefully not, has a list of about 8 others, and I have an EFC of $0, and app fees add up for all, but very stressfull thought for low income single parent household</p>
<p>If your D’s EFC is 0, I don’t suggest applying to Yale SCEA. As a low income student with presumably the stats to apply to an Ivy, she doesn’t need any EA tip if Yale even gives one. The top schools are trying very hard to economically diversify by attracting more low income students.</p>
<p>While if she got into Yale SCEA, due to her very low EFC, she’d get a wonderful financial aid package, she may not get into YALE SCEA or may be deferred. If so, she will have to send out more applications in December, which is very hard due to GC’s schedules, students’ understandable depression about being deferred or rejected, the Dec. holidays’ being upcoming, and midterm or other exams occurring.</p>
<p>In addition, despite the fact that Yale has great aid, if she applies more widely, she may be able to get even better deals from other colleges. For instance, I know an Ivy professor whose D turned down Harvard for Wake Forest or UNC (Sorry, I can’t remember exactly which one) because the college offered the D a full ride plus guaranteed paid summer internships abroad. The D figured she’d take that deal, get good grades, and apply to Ivies for grad school. According to her parents, their D has had amazing summer experiences and doesn’t regret turning down Harvard.</p>
<p>I strongly suggest that you have your D apply to some in-state public colleges, and get those apps in early. She also should check what merit aid they offer, and make sure she gets those apps in early. If she’s strong enough to be considering Yale, she’s probably a strong contender for merit and other assistance at your state universities, including your flagship.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Which ones specifically Northstarmom?</p>
<p>GA2012mom,</p>
<p>Has you D considered applying for Questbridge (Yale is now one of their partner schools)?</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.questbridge.org/[/url]”>http://www.questbridge.org/</a></p>
<p>Gamom,
I just checked your back posts, and see this is what you posted recently about your D’s 7th grade and most recent SAT scores: D - 7th, 510 V - 450 M, SAT 680 V, 670 M</p>
<p>Your D’s scores right now are low for Ivies even for low income students. However, with study, she may be able to raise her scores a lot. My S had 7th grade SATs of 520v, 520 m and studied a lot, took the SAT 3 times, and his last time-- spring of junior year-- got a 760v, 780 m.</p>
<p>One doesn’t need to pay for those expensive courses to raise one’s scores. It can help, however, to attend the one free session that places like Kaplan offer in attempts to get you hooked so you’ll pay hundreds for their system. There is valuable info in that one session. S took that, but did not pay for their course.</p>
<p>On the College BOard site, there also is, I believe, at least one practice exam and some tips. It also can be helpful to go to your local bookstore and pay the $12 or so to get an SAT practice book. 10 Real SATs is very helpful.</p>
<p>Virtually all of the top private universities – Ivies, LACs like Amherst, Williams, etc. are trying to economically diversify. The same isn’t as true for state universities, which have lower endowments, thus less $ to provide need-based scholarships.</p>
<p>If your D is trying to go to the best college possible, take a look at Oxford College of Emory University. It’s a 2-year college that feeds into Emory. All students who go to Oxford College will automatically go to Emory. It has some nice merit aid as well as good need-based aid. She may have a better chance of getting into Oxford than Emory, though I think she also can apply to both.</p>
<p>She is going to retake SAT in Oct., also IB candidate, got 6 and 6 on her two SL classes junior year, has 5 AP’s, Latin lit, vergil, bio, chem and ush, 4 on all 5 of them. All IB’s and AP calc senior year. She is also URM (black) and first generation college, oh, and 700 writing on SAT. Lastly, pretty fair EC’s with school government, club officers, and is in a club sport that takes up 3/hrs day/6 days week, though not quite good enough for varsity.</p>
<p>I appreciate all the advice, I don’t know alot obviously from personal experience on admissions, and am very appreciative of all advice from CC.</p>
<p>Oh, lastly, she is at governor’s honors program right now, 6 week program, 730 of the brightest kids in all subjects in the state, i lovingly refer to it as “nerd camp”.</p>
<p>GaMom,
What is your D looking for in her college experience? Possible majors, factors (location, diversity, class size, urban/rural, climate, would she consider an all-female school or church-based school, etc.) that she thinks are important in her selection? Has she gotten any national or state awards such as in Junior Classical League? In line to be National Achievement Scholar (would need a PSAT score of about 190 or higher)?</p>
<p>I’m black and have 2 sons both of whom were in IB programs. I know a lot about college opportunities particularly for African Americans, and am happy to share info. If you don’t feel comfortable posting more details on the board about your D, PM me, but do it soon as I’m going to be offline for a few days later this week.</p>
<p>GA,</p>
<p>Since the jury is still out on the writing, your D would be in a much better position if she were to break 700s on the CR & the Math. </p>
<p>I can tell you for the 5 years that I have been on the boards (and the over 10 years I have been working with students in the college admissions process) that blacks are bringing their “A” game to the table. Not to put her on blast but NSM is Alumni interviewer for an Ivy and a long time poster so she has seen a lot of studnets over the years.</p>
<p>While CC is not representative of all blacks applying to Elite schools from what I have seen and based from my own experience with my D (a rising senior at an Ivy) many black students have scored in the mid to high 700s There have been quite a few first gen URM kids scored in the 1500s over the past few cycles (look up post by Drosselmeir whose D is a rising sophomore at Princeton). </p>
<p>I still go with my previous suggestion that your D should apply to questbridge. I would also recommend looking in to Amherst diversity weekend (check their site) and applying to Windows on Williams.</p>
<p>good luck and welcome to CC.</p>
<p>Northstarmom- being $100,000 in debt coming out of college is more worth it to me that to have to give up my dream school. I was lucky in that my grandfather is giving me interest free loans, which I suspect might turn into a graduate present (he’s certainly in the position to do so) but I had no idea about that when I was applying for schools and was ready to bare the brunt of my $50,000 a year school. </p>
<p>I suppose not everyone is like that. I would suffer socially and academically if I went to a large state school and there are really no small schools that I could handle within a 5 hour drive of my house (most are religious/very socially conservative which would mean complete isolation for me based on my visits there). The closest is probably William and Mary which still requires a plane trip which is a significant portion of my expenses. I’m willing to put myself in debt in order to give myself the best chance at a positive college experience rather than one I would hate like so many of my friends who went to a college based on their financial aid packages.</p>
<p>GAMom- The counselors at your D and my’s school are pretty much clueless. We joked in my senior class that they were getting paid to twiddle their thumbs. I don’t know which counselor your D has, but I suggest you make SURE she double checks that they have everything in order- mine was pretty clueless and even asked me where Dartmouth was. I can understand not knowing Brandeis as a Georgia counselor, but you should know Dartmouth and William and Mary. O.O</p>
<p>I got fee waivers off of college board but also some schools have their own system- I think for NYU they had a page on the website where you counselor had to fill out a form saying that they got free waivers. I know I managed to get more than 4 fee waivers but I don’t remember which schools had their own and which I used college board’s. Worse comes to worse, contact the school and see their policy or if there’s any way that the application is free (often doing it online is). My experience was the counselor just filled out a form and signed it and did no verification about my free lunch (which I was on, but she had no idea). Maybe this has changed in the past 2 years, or maybe my counselor was just completely in the wrong. :P</p>
<p>I figured I’d throw my two cents in on this. </p>
<p>I’m 25 with a zero efc and have been that way since 23, the year you are considered an independent student for financial aid purposes. Before turning 23 my middle class parent’s income gave an efc of about $20,000 and neither of us could afford to pay in cash so I took out the loans I could to pay.</p>
<p>Now that I have an efc of zero I get offered this per year:
$4250 Max Pell
$4000 s.m.a.r.t grant
$4500 Subsidized Stafford
$5000 UnSubsidized Stafford
$xxxx Seog if I apply early enough</p>
<p>Now, let’s take UT Knoxville:
Cost of attendance for Independent Students is estimated at the max just like OOS but anything over tuition & fees isn’t required. (well besides books, but yeah, amazon…)
COA ~$18000
Actual Tuition & Fees ~$5300 (just the pell grant almost covers it)</p>
<p>Personal expenses:
Room + utils/net/cable in 4br house ~$300
Food, gas, and incidentals < $200
So bills average around $6k per year and I work part time to cover them, even though it’s not necessary. When I was 21 I decided to take 2 years off to try and get setup this way and I’m glad I did. Over 23 + 0 efc + in-state + good GPA + roomates + work = Completely debt free education! (depending on the school)</p>