<p>do your part get your 3.8 GPA and participate in every EC activity in the books; some fine schools out there will accept you and them tell you you need $60,000.00 dollars in debt so you can attend their precious grounds… what a joke and an unfair game they play with all well intentioned students…“accept by denying” LOL</p>
<p>A joke? An unfair game? Nonsense. </p>
<p>A high GPA, good test scores, and quality ECs will get your application considered, but paying for college is the responsibility of families. Parents and students who want a college education should be expected to save and borrow to pay for it. Schools do what they can to help some students with college costs, but no school owes a student help with college costs. The aid a school offers often reflects the degree to which the school wants a student, which is why many people advocate that students who want aid apply to schools where their qualifications place them at the top of the applicant pool.</p>
<p>Some institutions do give naive high school kids the impression that if they apply and get in, the financial aid fairy will take care of $$ issues…but in general, institutions are not trying to play “unfair games” with applicants; they have to balance all other expenses with financial aid. Some reject applicants because they request financial aid; some accept them and hope they can come up with the funds.</p>
<p>The financial aid fairy took care of stuff for me. You sound bitter - however, there are plenty of opportunities out there for an excellent student to get full rides (especially if they are a national merit scholar) if they don’t insist on going to a top level school.</p>