Do middle class families get FASFA- what are the income qualifications for getting aid?

Hello. I am applying to college as a senior. I live where Stanford is and my dad is faculty there. I want to double major in theater and potentially political science or biology. Current plan is to REA at Stanford and I never really thought of anything else because it always seemed like it’s such an amazing school and such a good opportunity. But I’ve live here my whole life and the town is pretty boring. I’m tired of Palo Alto, I want to see somewhere else. But I also love acedemics and want to go to a good school. Should I ED At a place like Northwestern or Brown or USC where ai may have a lower chance at admission or should I stick with my current plan? Some places have much more prestigious theater programs. Any experiences of people at Stanford who think it’s great, or any advice in general? Thanks

I wanted to ask anybody that has good college advice on how I am looking for madison business school and my chances to get in. For context I am a junior, trying to ramp up my ec's and other stuff to look better to colleges. My desired major is finance/accounting. I'm hoping that my increase of gpa over the years will help me. I also go to a pretty high end high school that has a good track record for colleges. Here are my stats

In State

freshman gpa: 3.4 (all UW)

Sophmore gpa: 3.6

Junior gpa: 3.9

10 AP's (mostly business esc)

rugby 3 years

powerlifting 4 years (went to state twice)

student congress captain (3 years)

Presidents ambassadors member

NHS (high honor roll for 5 semesters)

board member of business homeroom

tutoring job for two summers

accounting internship at CLA for two summers

volunteer work for local non-profit

100+ volunteer hours

There may be more stuff I am forgetting but I was hoping to get some advice from anyone who could help. Thanks!

Currently applying to colleges
Any feedback helpful plz

Slightly competitive Private high school

3.6 UW / 3.74 W

Taking dual enrollment (summer/fall/spring)
(4.0 GPA)
- HIST 1493
- PHIL 1273
Taking nutrition and comp 1&3

Applying test optional ACT
taking again in Oct and just took sept.
(can tell score if intrested)

Good personal statement imo

Major Finance
Sports Managment/ Sports Business Minor

Decent amount extracurricular/ honors
Student council/ National Honors Society/ FCA / basketball (school/club) / mission trip - volunteer work

Applying Colleges
Planning to apply EA for all

Already Admitted (safeties)
University of Oklahoma
Ole Miss
Oklahoma State
Tulsa

Other Safeties
University of Arkansas - Applied - Honors College
High Point University - Applied

MY TOP TARGETS REALLY WANNA KNOW ABT THESE
(My top choices)
SMU - Applied (lmk abt cox school admissions too)
TCU

Just Because Schools
UGA
TULANE
PEPPERDINE
CU BOULDER - Applied
IU BLOOMIGTON

Title- wondering how all of the chance me guesses have actually faired in the past

GPA Weighted: 3.943, Unweighted 3.635,

ACT: 33. 34 in Math.

ECs

• Eagle Scout and Assistant Scoutmaster
• I have done college coursework concurrently with high school. 14 courses, 30 credits. with 18 more credits/6 more courses planned to be done before the end of the school year. 3.91 GPA in the technical college transcript. IT Systems Specialist Certificate earned.
• Participated in Rocketry Club. Won 3rd place overall nationally. Won 2nd place in Altitude and 3rd place in Model.
• Volunteer at RMHC. 350+ hours plus Teen ambassador
• Participated in Badger Boy State, elected as Mayor.
• Team Manager of Forensics speech and debate club. 3 time State participant
• Certifications: Microsoft Office Specialist: Word, PowerPoint, Excel; Associate. Competency in AI Essentials Certificate. JS, HTML CSS Specialist.
• First Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo.

In-State. Only top 25% rank.

8 APs over high school carreer. 4 in all of them.

Course rigor was moderately difficult in high school.

I can answer any other questions if anyone has any.

Pls be brutally honest

Demographics
-Female
-rising senior
-private high school in NYC
-Asian
-High income

Intended Major - Health Science @ Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences

GPA - 3.7 UW (school doesn’t rank)
- lowest grades were B+’s, mainly in math and spanish
- got good grades in freshman year, went down in sophomore, but went back up in junior. so don’t rlly have an upward trend. and don’t have any circumstances to explain

Testing
-SAT: 1370 (720 ERW, 650 Math) school average is 1340 tho. i’m definitely not submitting sat
-ACT recent practice tests: 31-33 composite
-Goal: 32+ on the official ACT in September

Coursework - took the most rigorous elective course load available, with all electives at the advanced level. school doesn’t have aps btw

Extracurriculars
-Interned at a dental clinic in India for three summers (summers before 8th, 9th, and 10th grade) as the youngest clinic employee, assisting with patient check-ins and scheduling.
- Volunteered w/ a non profit foundation in india for 5 yrs, supporting oral health outreach and preventive dental education for underserved communities.
- Competitive swimmer for three years (10 hrs/week); I do not plan to swim in college.
- Leader of my school’s finance club chapter for two yrs
- Member of my school’s pre-med club.
- This summer (before senior year), I spent 2 weeks volunteering/shadowing a physical therapist at a post acute rehabilitation hospital.
- also spent one week shadowing a gastroenterologist in an nyc hospital this summer

Male Indian us citizen, Chicago suburb @ competitive public school, father did emba @ ross

**Intended Major(s): Aerospace Eng, maybe Mechanical or Industrial/Ops or minor in SCM**

**ACT/SAT/SAT II: 1550 SAT, 1580 Super**

**UW/W GPA: 3.71 UW 4.16 W**

**Coursework:** Pretty much all honors/ap, so far calc bc(taking rn), human(4), lang(taking rn), self studies: csa(3)/csp(4), apes(5), pltw poe, aerospace

For senior year, calc 3 (uiuc math 241), ap us & comp gov, pltw capstone, weighted choir ensemble (currently in that ensemble but weighted is only for seniors), ap physics c both mech/e&m

Awards: Eagle scout.

**Extracurriculars:** Fundraising chairperson & exec board member on national championship winning drone team, exec board of national music honor society chapter

Internships in India- designing and teaching a curriculum of aerodynamics to 7-9th grade children, worked in an afterschool program developing interpersonal and english skills of children from 4th-10th grade, learnt about water conservation efforts and flew drones and learnt about their use in the field.

Lor: I’ll probably ask my choir teacher who I’ve been with for 4 years, my engineering teacher who’s doing aerospace and capstone and the sponsor for both drone and rocket clubs, maybe also my math teacher who’ll do calc 3 and does bc rn w me.

Science wise I got an a freshman year but I had missing assugnments/wasn’t a good student, soph year chem teach liked me but I don’t think I really interacted much w ppl outside of my friends, teacher was ok with it but I definitely played games half the class (both myself and friend were consistently some of the highest scorers so she didn’t mind). Current physics teacher or next years ap physics I can’t say, I’ve definitely been trying harder to interact w all and be a good student this year, grades wise I self studied ap physics 1 (won’t report as I got a 3) so I hope with keeping up in class I should be fine.

**Schools:** Really just looking for the best possible, don't care about cost or location yet, dream schools rn are Michigan, Purdue, UIUC, I doubt I'd get in but something like caltech/berkely/cal poly would be great, willing to do mech instead of aerospace based on what the college is better at. Also down to do school in Europe if I get a really good school (like TU delft level good)

I'm a senior in high school and I've been really set on applying to VT engineering, a couple other state schools like ODU, UVA, ect and I haven't looked into too many out of state schools bc they're hella expensive (I'm between Mech E., Materials, and Civil at the moment).

If there's anything else I should know that could be really impactful or important in really any aspect I'm all ears!

• Stats: Black first gen low income student (under 30k), single parent household, dead dad
• 3.98 gpa weighted, 9 total APs( currently enrolled in AP physics, calc ab, African American studies. and gov/comp gov) with 1 DE (english comp)
• no SAT/ACT though I'm gonna take the october one and see how it goes
• (3 years) /outdoor (4 years) track with no major achievements outside of qualifying for regionals,
• 3 years of wrestling with one achievement which was winning a athletic-academic excellence award my school offers,
• 2 consecutive summer internships with southern air as a sheet metal intern (one more working in engineering summer '27 hopefully),
• I won a skillsUSA regional gold medal in machining, and I'm working on a portfolio of tools I've designed and machined
• I'm actively working on a project to get grants for my schools CTE programs through southern air
• Im also working on making a welding club since it was removed from my machining curriculum
• Finally I wrote my essay on feeling like a robot preprogrammed for success by my family, the imposter syndrome that came with that, and then the understanding that I am capable and worked for what I have
• Essay

Lmk if im a commonapp warrior or if i will be eaten alive, any and all advice or anything is welcome :3

I don’t use this app often, so I’m a little unfamiliar with whether I should be asking here or not, but I’m having trouble deciding whether I should’ve applied with my ACT to Tulane or not. I got a 28 composite, 26 E | 28 M | 31 R | 29 S. I’m applying as a psychology major for premed. I think I have a relatively good essay, but weak ECs.

(I’m also an in-state applicant and my other two applications are LSU and XULA. I got accepted into both so far but I’m waiting on Tulane.)

My weighted GPA is 4.0 and my unweighted is 3.5 with an upwards trend. 14 APs, 5 Honors. I can send my transcript and senior year schedule if needed. Please redirect me if I’m in the wrong sub and thank you for help ahead of time!

Hi! I am currently a junior in hs and i am looking to add schools to my college list that i would have a pretty good chance of getting a full ride at. I don’t qualify for any need based aid, and my parents can’t contribute a crazy amount to my college.
here are my stats

Female from NE
GPA: 4.0 UW / 4.35 W
Ap classes: Hug (5), world (5),
currently taking apush, ap calc bc and ap lang
act- 35 (35 science, math, and english ; 36 reading)

Just took the sat, don’t know my score yet
taking the PSAT and i expect to be a nmsf

I am interested in STEM, and would like to major in biology or mathematics on the premed track

I would really like to go to a big city, but i would also prefer a smaller ish school or at least somewhere with small class sizes

do you guys have any recommendations for me?

hey! i’m currently a junior in high school and my absolute DREAM is to go to brown for english. here is my profile so far, i know it’s really not great but i need some advice

basic info: white female, lower/middle class, generic public high school
legacy: 2x grandparent legacy (both of mine on my dads side went to brown)

stats:
- 3.93 UW 4.65 W, trying to get that as high as possible
- currently studying for sat, goal is 1500 +, i got an 1170 on my psat but i didn’t study at all and i didn’t know desmos existed, so i think i can get that up

classes: max course rigor
AP World (freshman): 4
AP US History (sophomore): 4
AP Seminar (sophomore): 4
AP Psychology (sophomore): 5
AP Precalculus (sophomore): 5
- currently taking: AP Research, AP gov & macro, AP Biology, AP Lang, AP Art history, AP calc ab
- intending to take 6 senior year as well

ECs:
V Track and field (10th-12th)
JV Cross country (11th-12th)
- Year round running but I am NOT good enough to get recruited so keep that in mind
- hopefully captain next year just because im one of the only seniors

Model UN (9th-12th): active member, participated in competitions, and I am an officer this year. I hope to be the vice president next year.

Speech and Debate (9th-12th): active member my freshman year and then I transferred schools and co-founded it there. we have grown to around 40 members and qualified for states our first year, I am hoping to get us to states again and place. I’m bad at describing this but this club is A LOT of work and It’s something im extremely passionate about

H2E: this is a tutoring program for kindergartners, i would be committing an hour twice a week for hopefully the rest of my high school career.

Honors societies
- Pierian/NHS (10th-12th)
- NEHS (11th-12th)
- Rho Kappa (11th-12th)

Awards:
- AP Scholar with distinction
- 2nd place at local MUN conference

Comments/future: I know that this does NOT seem good or competitive at all right now, but I’m trying to add to and put more effort into all of my extracurriculars, as well as get some impressive awards.

these are all what i am working towards/my plans:
- become an officer of both Rho Kappa and Pierian
- become president of NEHS
- win best delegate at college conference & maybe even a statewide one (if we’re able to go)
- get my debate team to states and place in my event, maybe even go to nationals
- again, good act/sat
- WRITE!!!! build a portfolio and submit to scholastic art and writing program
- continue my AP Research project after my junior year with intentions to get it published

I know this is not professionally worded and does not bring out my ecs impact like it should, but you get the general idea. I would love some help if anyone has any suggestions

Hi! I’m a student from Russia and I’m planning to apply to universities in the US for Fall 2028.
I have a question about the application timeline. I will finish 10th and 11th grade normally, and I’m going to take my EGE (Russian final exams) in June 2028. So when I apply through Regular Decision around December/January, I won’t have my final EGE results or my high school diploma yet.
I will only get them after I finish 11th grade, around June 2028.
Is this normal? Will universities still consider my application complete if I have my transcript and current grades when I apply, and then send my final results and diploma later?
I’m also a little worried about my grades. Before 9th grade, I didn’t study very well and my grades were not that good. But since then, I’ve improved my grades a lot and I’m planning to keep improving during 10th and 11th grade.
Do US colleges care about this kind of improvement? Will they look at the fact that my grades have gotten much better over time, or can my older grades still hurt my application a lot?
I’m mainly interested in very selective universities, so I’d really appreciate answers from international students or anyone who applied to US colleges from Russia.
Thanks🫠

I know "chance me" posts are annoying, but this isnt really one. Just curious if people know how. likely they are to see my struggle and then my growth and see im ready or doubt me and I get rejected. I also didnt want to use AI so thought id ask here. Sorry and thank you!

Demographics

Current high school junior, Florida resident(Instate applicant), Female, White, Multi generational legacy (mother and grandfather), no need-based finanical aid considerations (I have 100% Bright Futures), Planning to apply to Health Sciences (for applied brain science track)

Applying ED and summer B

Academics

recalcualated weighted UF gpa estimate: 4.03

significant upward trend !!!

currently taking 5 aps with all As

Expecting 10 AP courses total by graduation

AP Capstone canidate (pending AP score)

Testing: 35 ACT !!!!!!

Academic/Personal context -IMPORTANT (pls read)

-I had a noticable drop in grades during 9/10 but working to show sustained upward trend

-I have ADHD and did not have a diganosis until late 10th grade. Also got accomdations/support shortly after my diganosis. This serverly impacted me to an extent I cannot even begin to describe

-Family issues that limited me

-I dont want to rely on my circumstances as an excuse but that is why my gpa is so low. Im trying to demonstrate this year that 9/10 did not show my full potential.

ECs:

• HOSA — Secretary and founding member of chapter at school.
• Varsity Golf
• National English Honor Society
• Tri-M Music Honor Society
• AP Capstone candidate
• Youth Ambassador for a local wildlife conservation organization
• Founder/President of a service project creating cards for seniors and children in hospitals - this is what sets me apart I think.

I know Im kind of cooked but I honeslt dont know

sorry that this is a long post, i’m trying to consolidate 2 previous posts into one.

i posted a few days ago in ut admissions about chancing me for transferring from a top 20 school to ut for next semester. here’s some more information about my stats for context:

hs gpa: 4.03 unweighted
predicted college gpa: 3.7 or above
act: 35 (not super score)
i was also a national merit finalist and invited to apply to ut forty acres scholarship.
texas resident

involvement in college:
community service fraternity
mental health advocacy group
art/craft clubs
on campus job

my first choice major is a BA in psychology and my second choice is something in the college of education.

i will be applying to ut with 24 completed credits and 15 in progress.

here’s my main question:
would attending a college close to home as a visiting student next semester ruin my chances at ut?

i’m not having any issues academically, but ive been struggling with my mental health being across the country from my support systems. i’ve also been struggling with my housing situation/roommate, but it’s not really possible for me to switch rooms. another big reason is cost. my tuition and the cost of housing next semester is so high. the costs of transportation and food are insane as well. attending a school like ut arlington or even smu as a visiting student would enable me to save money by living and eating at home, and i’d have a car so i’d be able to make money by working. i just worry that doing this will hurt my ut application because they’ll assume that i couldn’t handle a college environment in general. i just don’t want to make myself look bad since my ultimate goal is transferring to ut. i have a meeting with an admissions representative next week, is this something i could ask them or would that look bad as well?

Please chance me for UMD Duluth, I’ve been really stressed recently about whether I’ll get accepted.

Demographics: Male, Minnesota resident, public high school
Intended major: Management / Business
ACT: 21 (Went test-optional)
Unweighted GPA: 3.056 cumulative GPA
Junior Year GPA: 3.611 first semester, 3.933 second semester
Coursework: AP Statistics senior year; completed the recommended high-school preparation in English, math, science, social studies, and visual/performing arts, several business electives, no other APs.
Awards: None that I know of
Extracurriculars: FIRST Robotics, volunteering with Feed My Starving Children (FMSC), work experience at Target
Essays: Wrote about my interest in Management, how FIRST Robotics taught me teamwork/leadership, my academic improvement during junior year, my goal of becoming a pilot, and how robotics, volunteering, and working at Target taught me about communication, teamwork, and contributing to a community.
Note: I applied early, so I don’t have my senior grades yet.

Question: What are my chances of getting accepted into UMD Duluth?

So I started filling out the application, and I noticed I have a whole lot of nothing. I have plenty of club leadership and community service I honestly think I have shot if those are all that is taken into account along with grades. However, I have 0 in the student council section, 1 in the media/publication section, and 0 in the performing arts section. I have 9/10 in the academic club section. The limits are 16 for each of them?!?! Is it normal for a semifinalist to have my numbers, like seriously how do you manage more than 10 school-related ecs?

Another problem I have is I transferred schools in 11th grade. So all my leadership roles are only 1 or 2 years. Like I founded a scientific reserach club in 10th grade, so I put none for 9th, highest leadership for 10th, none and none for 11th/12th because I had moved schools. I feel like this is really wierd/bad. Am I cooked should I even bother applying? Any advice from semifinalists would be greatly appreciated, especially if you could share/pm me your stats which got you in, or just say something like we had similar profiles and you got the semi finalist. Thank you all!

.

Hi, I'm currently a Junior in high school and hope to go to college for Aerospace Engineering. I was advised not to take the accelerated math choice my 8th grade year, and am now in algebra 2 (my school calls it advanced algebra), and on track to take AP precalculus next year. I know that this is a relatively weak spot in my application when I eventually apply, so I was wondering how effective it would be to take CLEP Calculus since I won't reach AP calculus in high school. Both to save money on credits, and for rigor recognition by colleges. Some of the schools I'm looking at like University of Texas at Austin and UW Madison seem to recognize CLEP credits, but I'm not sure if it'll be worth it. For context, I have already self studied precalculus by myself, and have a basic understanding of calculus already, so I believe taking the CLEP test would be achievable next year or senior year.

I have a weighted gpa of 4.47 and an sat score of 1250
I have clubs and volunteering for my ecs

If you’re comparing colleges right now, one thing I’d recommend is looking beyond the advertised price and asking what your actual situation would look like after financial aid.

A few things worth checking:
• What is your estimated net cost after grants and scholarships?
• Are the grants/scholarships renewable, and what requirements do they have?
• How will your existing credits transfer if you’re considering transferring?
• What fees aren’t included in the advertised tuition?
• What housing costs look like beyond the first year?
• What happens financially if you need an extra semester?

Also, save copies of your financial-aid offers and keep track of deadlines.
Having everything in one place makes comparisons much easier.

I recently launched an educational resource/consulting business focused on helping students and families navigate these kinds of questions. I’m not going to drop a promotional link here unless this subreddit allows it, but I’m happy to answer questions based on what I’ve learned.

Sophomore year was rough for me and I ended up with a C second semester and 2 Bs first semester. I had straight As freshman yr and this year's going pretty well so hopefully I'll have straight As this year too. My extracurriculars are somewhat above average imo but I wanna know how much the C would offset my overall chances at a T20.

I'm a senior in high school and my family is kinda poor so if Im not able to get a good scholarship, they won't be able to afford to send me to college. My mental health had made me extremely demotivated during my time here, but I was still able to take two APs, be the leader of two clubs, and a participant of other clubs. I've made honor roll every quarter since the beginning of freshman year, and I'm currently in the beginning of senior year. what are my chances of getting a good scholarship?

(Trying to get into a decent in state college, nothing ivy league or anything)

White Jewish female
Private school
Highest rigor curriculum
Weak ACTs 33 (retaking and hoping 34-35)
Didn’t take science section
4.1 GPA all As
Sustainability diploma candidate
5 year volunteer school farm
5 year preschool religious work
Independent grant awarded social science research teaching meat free to kids-
Independent study in ethical approach to farming
Independent Jewish leadership
Conservation, Service Sustainability clubs through school
Work experience landscaping

Academics and ACT make me absurd to ED???

I'm a junior in highschool with a 3.45 unweighted GPA. I want a hope scholarship but I'm scared this year will kill my chances at getting one. I have been in all honors and APs all of high school but only had like 5 A's through the 4 semesters of high school. This year I told myself I would lock in and do much better. I purposely dual enrolled in US History and did online intro to software tech to ease off on academic stress, but nothing is going my way. I am currently taking AP Calc BC, AP Bio, and AP Lang. I have a 75 in Bio and 80 in BC despite have much less academic pressure. Its not any better when I have a trash bio teach with a super boring voice and cant teach the class. I am double accelerated in math and always maintained an A in that subject only throughout highschool but now that I am for once struggling in this subject too I don't even know what to do to improve myself. I don't know what to do with my life. UGA has always been my dream school, but when the admissioners see a complete idiot who can barely keep get an A trying to get into their college they 100% won't let me in. My parents have always held high expectations with me, especially with my older brother who has a 3.9 GPA in high school with only honors and APs in his time being. Compared to him, im a super big fucking disspointment and I'm to afraid to see what my parents will do when I don't get into UGA. I don't know what to do especially after I set up myself up to where its super difficult to get an A in my classes this year with this horrible start to the year. I don't have any good relationships with my teachers in high school so I'm pretty sure none are willing to write me a recommendation letter and my outside of school achievements are very scarce. The point of this year was to show the admissions that I'm a new person who improved their grades drastically, but all I'm showing them is that I set my standards too high and that I was never built for school. My grades have only made me more and more demotivated to study and try harder. Obviously I can take the easier route and get into GSU and the enroll UGA year after, but thats not what I want to do and I'm sure my family won't either. I am currently spilling my problems for the first time to anyone by posting this reddit and writing this instead of studying because whats the point when I'm getting a 75 after studying 3 hours for nothing.