<p>
</p>
<p>No, it is up to 10% TOTAL.</p>
<p>Maybe you shouldn’t have been so quick to throw away those applications. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Application fees are waived for low-income applicants who know to ask for the waivers. And NO college admission office makes money off of application fees–all college admission offices have more expenses than their office-specific sources of revenue.</p>
<p>codesun: I also recommend the links that tokenadult has provided above. It seems to me that Harvard (more than other top colleges) is really sincere about recruiting low income applicants. </p>
<p>Should your daughter apply to Harvard? I suggest you do not worry so much about the SAT score and even less about your income level. If Harvard wants your daughter they will make it affordable for her to attend. Instead, try to find out exactly how exceptional your daughter is in the contest of her public school- is she just “doing very well” or is she one of the best students they have seen in that school for the last 3 years or so? If the latter, then she may be competitive for Harvard.</p>
<p>Edit: I agree, the SAT of 2100 is not all that impressive by Harvard standards, but if your daughter is motivated by her desire to get into Harvard, who knows, she may work hard and do much better next time.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>While certainly the admissions offices aren’t profit generating branches of the school I can’t believe it costs the school $75 in man-hours to take a quick look or two at an underqualified applicant and throw it into the reject bin. Then again, maybe I’m just a little jaded after hearing the practices of some grad school programs that advertise a minimum GPA of 3.0 but actually apply a cutoff of ~3.7.</p>
<p>The Harvard dean of admissions has said that 88-90% of their applicants qualify for admission to Harvard. 27,462 students applied. Even if the obviously unqualified students were immediately thrown into the reject bin (which Harvard says isn’t its policy), there still would be a lot of work to be done.</p>
<p>Although some on this site seem to be encouraging substantially higher test scores, an average of 700 on each test…along with low income and any evidence of being able to do high caliber college level work* are great qualifications for applying to any school in the US she thinks she’d like to attend that has a generous financial aid policy.</p>
<p>Also look into Questbridge.</p>
<p>(*Has she taken any AP’s? Scores of 5’s…or possibly 4’s? Any SAT II’s? Are those scores 700 or above?)</p>
<p>“Yes, yes, that’s right – no one should opt for Harvard, regardless of how much financial aid they get and how much they’d have to pay… or not!”</p>
<p>If you can afford it, why not? Or if you can afford having tons of loans before Grad. School why not? Not everybody in this situation. We do not know if we will work tomorrow, but we definately know that we do not have ton of $$.</p>
<p>I believe owlice’s post was tongue-in-cheek, MiamiDAP</p>
<p>My D received the Harvard application, based on her SATs and, I believe, our zip code. Our zip shows us to be in a lower income area but we are of moderate income ourselves. The letter was directed toward the “high achieving, low income” student and very kindly explained the college admissions process. From the letter we gathered that Harvard has a very sincere wish to reach out to these types of students. D also got a questbridge application and others like it - I feel it was the zip code + scores.
If we were lower income, she would have taken the 3rd SATII and gone for it!</p>
<p>Of all the packets and info that my S received the past year, the most memorable was a personal phone call from Harvard! I never quite understood how/why he received it. His SAT scores were good, not perfect and I don’t think they would have access to his grades, which were excellent. In the end, he never even applied!</p>
<p>Older D with good grades and scores from a top prep wasn’t recruited like younger D with lower scores and grades from an inner city public.
She received a big application pkg from Princeton among others ( but they often visit her school so her name could have gotten on the list that way)</p>
<p>The kid received the Harvard app, right after the end of her junior year. Her ACT and SAT scores were fairly high. That app was basically the start of the application tidal wave.</p>
<p>Anyway, the thickness of the application floored her. We chuckled and determined that the size of the application and what it entailed chased away quite a few potential applicants. BTW, Harvard was never on her list to begin with - lol</p>
<p>i think its part of a conspiracy LOL. just when i had my son comfortable with the reality of finances and cost, in comes the harvard package!</p>
<p>parent56,
If you tell him that a lot of above average kids get these packages in all income areas, he will have no problem pitching it.</p>
<p>he knows that and accepts it but… i have refrains of marlon brando…“I coulda been a contender” running through my head</p>
<p>" just when i had my son comfortable with the reality of finances and cost, in comes the harvard package!"</p>
<p>Harvard has probably the most generous financial aid in the country. For most people – including some who would be considered reasonably well off – the problem is getting in, not finances.</p>
<p>Right along w/NSM, Yale is right near the top. Y is my alma mater and I actively recruit in the Detroit school district (which I attended as well) on a volunteer basis. Yale and Harvard and some others really, really are sincere in trying to attract students from lower income, rural or inner city schools. They put their money where their mouths are – all to search for those few “diamonds in the rough” who will contribute greatly to the college community and afterwards. Yale has a program where it pays expenses for current undergrads to travel back to their hometowns if they do several recruiting trips at targeted high schools – schools that traditionally don’t even have Ivy- type applications submitted. This is a lot of money for what Yale believes is a long-term investment.</p>
<p>I got a chance to hear Dr. Ben Carson, hometown: detroit, Yale class of 72? tell of his story rising out of his difficult circumstances. It fueled me all the more as I continue to nudge Detroit students towards Yale (and like schools).</p>
<p>Ben Carson is my hero. I read his book “Gifted Hands” to my sons when they were young. I’d love to hear him speak.</p>
<p>DD got Harvard’s mailing this week also. She received Princeton & Yale’s about 2 weeks ago. She will be NMSF; I’m pretty sure that our zip code is not flagged for low income, but we are in TN so it may be a quest for diversity :)</p>
<p>Harvard has the prize so far for longest letter enclosed: 3 pages 
And she won’t be applying.</p>
<p>S got the Harvard application too. I could tell he was flattered and proud and I’m letting him be. He knows the odds. I’m so tired of repeating the dismal stats. Is it so darn wrong to let the kid feel a little excited that his scores attracked positive attention?</p>