Free/Reduced Lunch Scholarship?

Northstarmom
Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:50:51 +0000

Doing the paperwork so you can qualify for free/reduced lunch will help you, I believe, get fee waivers for college applications and for, I believe, SAT/ACT testing. Do talk to your guidance counselor about this.

It also probably would provide GCs the proof that that they may need to include your being economically disadvantaged in the recommendations that colleges require GCs to fill out.

Yes, colleges such as Harvard, Amherst, Stanford want to attract high achieving low income students, and are very generous in their financial aid. However, do make sure that you have safeties that you know you can afford because most colleges lack the resources to meet the financial need of all of their accepted students – even students who are middle class. Consequently, overall, it is more difficult for low income students to get the aid that they need to attend colleges.

Typically, for many students – including middle class ones – their financial safety (school they know they will be accepted to and can afford) is a 4-year or 2-year college that they can commute to.

Don’t look at CC and assume that most students in the country are going to private schools thousands of miles from home. Most students in the U.S. go to colleges within 250 miles of their homes, and also take into consideration their finances when figuring out where to apply to and where they can go to college.