<p>If we had discovered College Confidential before our daughter applied to Stanford, she never would have, and chances are, we probably would have told her not to waste her time (and our money on the app fee). But, thank goodness we didn’t!! She applied to Stanford as her “reach” school and got accepted with a 1890 SAT and one AP class. What Stanford did was look at her in the context of what was available to her and how she took advantage of that. She was #1 in a small school, took the only AP class that was offered, had as rigorous a class schedule as she possibly could have with what was available to her, as well as being in a few activities both inside and outside of school. Yes, there comes a point when looking at a student’s application that there probably isn’t a chance they would get accepted to Stanford, but you just never know. Stanford admissions saw something in my daughter that they liked and felt she would be a good fit for the school. She graduated this past June and obviously Stanford knew what they were doing.</p>
<p>In regards to home equity, here’s what Stanford says:</p>
<p>How does home equity affect the calculation of the parent contribution?</p>
<p>The family that has equity in a home is typically in a stronger financial position than one that does not. For that reason, we believe that it is important to include home equity in the consideration of a family’s ability to pay for educational costs. However, a large amount of equity is not particularly helpful if the family income does not support use of that equity. In Stanford’s calculation of the expected parent contribution, we cap the amount of home equity considered at 1.2 times the total family income.</p>
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<p>Although Stanford does “include” home equity in the calculation, it may not affect the calculation. And Data10’s point is correct, even though lower income families (<$60,000) see the highest benefit from Stanford’s generous FA, families making upward of $200,000 can receive some FA.</p>