Anonymous
Post 02/01/2026 09:23     Subject: Is being low income at a top private an advantage this year?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Low income, on financial aid at a top private. Top 25% GPA, good SAT.

Does being low income help this year with admissions at Ivys and T20s?


This is just a total guess, but I would think it helps but not nearly as much as a low income kid who didn't go to a top private. You're kid had lots and lots of advantages that most low income kids don't get.


I think it is the opposite. This way they get a low income kid who is also a sure bet academically
Anonymous
Post 02/01/2026 08:59     Subject: Is being low income at a top private an advantage this year?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Low income, on financial aid at a top private. Top 25% GPA, good SAT.

Does being low income help this year with admissions at Ivys and T20s?


Yes it's an advantage at any school right now!


If you're that low income with Ivy stats, go Questbridge. That's the ticket in.


Or Prep for Prep


Oliver Scholars!
Anonymous
Post 02/01/2026 08:53     Subject: Re:Is being low income at a top private an advantage this year?
Anonymous wrote:Low income alone isn't a hook – your child's attendance is costly to the school, and that means AOs need more justification to admit them despite the financial burden. If you mean FGLI or URM at a top private, then yes, that has always been a huge advantage in admissions, not just this year.


First-gen legal immigrant is the new golden-ticket.

As far as immigrants: it is an excellent proxy for brown people. Europeans are no longer immigrating to the U.S., nor have they for decades.
Anonymous
Post 02/01/2026 08:49     Subject: Is being low income at a top private an advantage this year?
Anonymous wrote:QB kid at our private was rejected from Princeton, who accepted a few donor + legacies kids this year early.


The exact opposite happened at our school. So. Our anecdotes cancel each other out.
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 17:12     Subject: Re:Is being low income at a top private an advantage this year?
Anonymous wrote:Low income alone isn't a hook – your child's attendance is costly to the school, and that means AOs need more justification to admit them despite the financial burden. If you mean FGLI or URM at a top private, then yes, that has always been a huge advantage in admissions, not just this year.


Even better if your kid plays basketball or football, which is a sport that brings in money from donors and ticket sales to privates.
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 17:11     Subject: Is being low income at a top private an advantage this year?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Low income, on financial aid at a top private. Top 25% GPA, good SAT.

Does being low income help this year with admissions at Ivys and T20s?


Yes it's an advantage at any school right now!


If you're that low income with Ivy stats, go Questbridge. That's the ticket in.


Or Prep for Prep
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 17:10     Subject: Re:Is being low income at a top private an advantage this year?
Low income alone isn't a hook – your child's attendance is costly to the school, and that means AOs need more justification to admit them despite the financial burden. If you mean FGLI or URM at a top private, then yes, that has always been a huge advantage in admissions, not just this year.
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 16:47     Subject: Is being low income at a top private an advantage this year?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Low income, on financial aid at a top private. Top 25% GPA, good SAT.

Does being low income help this year with admissions at Ivys and T20s?


This is just a total guess, but I would think it helps but not nearly as much as a low income kid who didn't go to a top private. Your kid had lots and lots of advantages that most low income kids don't get.


It's the opposite. FGLI from top privates are the golden goose. They count for FGLI for the college, makes the college feel good and helps with those stats, yet they know the kid can do the work.


Yes. And it’s not just that they can do the work. It’s that they won’t experience cultural dislocation when dumped into a residential school full of rich kids. (Or at least, it won’t be the first time they’ve experienced that kind of cultural dislocation.) Acculturating strong FGLI students and/or athletes, then sending them off to top colleges, is a cottage industry at top private schools and has been for decades.


This is a big part of it. Look at an ivy league basketball roster sometime--it's a lot of kids who were recruited to schools like Harvard-Westlake on scholarships.


Same goes for Ivy League football teams.
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 16:45     Subject: Is being low income at a top private an advantage this year?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Low income, on financial aid at a top private. Top 25% GPA, good SAT.

Does being low income help this year with admissions at Ivys and T20s?


Yes it's an advantage at any school right now!


If you're that low income with Ivy stats, go Questbridge. That's the ticket in.
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 16:44     Subject: Is being low income at a top private an advantage this year?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:At our private feeder, urm and fg seem to have an admission advantage and they do very well in ed for elite colleges. Special fly in programs, admission events, free tutoring, etc. And these kids are sometimes, but not always, on financial aid. Some of these families are wealthy. (For some schools, FG counts if parents received degrees from outside the US). My kid receives financial aid at our private, and that alone does not give an admission bump.


Not highly selective ones.


Agree--it doesn't help at all if it's a selective school. SO MANY applicants, especially Asian-American ones, are UMC or MC and have parents with degrees from outside the USA.
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 16:39     Subject: Is being low income at a top private an advantage this year?
Anonymous wrote:At our private feeder, urm and fg seem to have an admission advantage and they do very well in ed for elite colleges. Special fly in programs, admission events, free tutoring, etc. And these kids are sometimes, but not always, on financial aid. Some of these families are wealthy. (For some schools, FG counts if parents received degrees from outside the US). My kid receives financial aid at our private, and that alone does not give an admission bump.


Not highly selective ones.
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 16:30     Subject: Is being low income at a top private an advantage this year?
At our private feeder, urm and fg seem to have an admission advantage and they do very well in ed for elite colleges. Special fly in programs, admission events, free tutoring, etc. And these kids are sometimes, but not always, on financial aid. Some of these families are wealthy. (For some schools, FG counts if parents received degrees from outside the US). My kid receives financial aid at our private, and that alone does not give an admission bump.
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 16:27     Subject: Is being low income at a top private an advantage this year?
QB kid at our private was rejected from Princeton, who accepted a few donor + legacies kids this year early.
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 16:19     Subject: Is being low income at a top private an advantage this year?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:YES.

Read up on the SFFA supreme court decision from 2023.


SFFA = universities cannot examine an individual student’s skin color, and then lower the admissions standard based on their examination of the student’s skin.

That would be racist, obviously. But it was what universities did for decades; first as “racial quotas,” which were then disguised as “affirmative-action,” and finally disguised again as Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access (DEIA). Only certain groups were given these advantages, while Indians and Asians were excluded, because they benefit from unearned Indian and Asian privilege.

However, SFFA still allows universities to use “proxies” for race: low income / FARMS status is one of those proxies.


What is FARMS?


“Free and/or Reduced [price] Meals.” It is an acronym used to describe students who have applied and been accepted into state and/or federal public assistance programs where they receive free breakfast and lunch provided at school.

There are strict income limits. Only low-income families are eligible for this assistance.

Its relevance here is that low-income families generally “tend” to be URMs or: under represented minorities (ie Latinx or Black), though of course public assistance is granted with ZERO regard to race. For example, there are plenty of white kids (and even a few Asians) who qualify for FARMs assistance in places like West Virginia. The majority are URMs, however.


Lots of Asian kids in certain zip codes in NYC qualify for FARMS. In fact, Stuyvesant High School in NYC is about 50% FARMS kids, almost all Asian.



I never said there were no Asian students among FARMs kids; re-read my post. There are students of every race who are FARMs.

I even put the word “tend” in quotes as a clue I was not making a universal statement.

It’s generally true that FARMs stats frequently overlaps with URMs, and it passes muster with SFFA.

In any event, as someone up-thread mentioned, this is likely examined granularly, down to the zip code, by admissions offices seeking “balanced diversity” without running afoul of SFFA.
Anonymous
Post 01/31/2026 16:16     Subject: Is being low income at a top private an advantage this year?
There is a difference between being low-income and being first generation.

From what I understand, first generation is more of a hook than low income.

But maybe there is t a difference?

I would think that being full pay is more important t than ever with all the efforts to make school more affordable for low income.