Pyramid of success wrote:
You need to be smart (34 or higher on ACT), be fast (415, 910 should do it), and poor (parents make under $80,000). If you are those things, they want you.
Oof these threads sting. I checked all 3 of those boxes in HS. Because I checked the poor box, I had no clue that I could gain admission basically anywhere. No family knowledge or guidance. No one saying “you can easily go to HYP—take advantage!” Blue collar surroundings and mentalities.
I WAS recruited, unsolicited, by Columbia—I have no clue how they found me—but their financial aid department calculated I would still have ~$20k in loans per year. This was in the late 1990s, which I understand was before the Ivies became ultra generous with poor folk (is that true?). The prospect of $80k undergrad debt scared me away—that was almost as much as our mortgage.
I took an athletic scholarship to State U instead. $0 debt. I now live in a neighborhood full of Stanford and Ivy grads so I guess it all worked out, but I’m embarrassed by my unimpressive education that gets condescending “oh, how...nice” comments from my socioeconomic peers. I am jealous of their networks, their invitations to go to Sydney with old roommates, etc.
I read a study a few years back (out of Princeton!) that people like me who gained acceptance to Ivies but chose not to go end up doing as well financially as those who actually attended the Ivies. I’ve done well but I wish I would have gone to Princeton or similar.
Good luck, OP. I advise you to go to the best school you can. It’s impossible to get that “branding” later in life. In a globalized world, that elite branding is getting more valuable, not less.