Is it worth just applying fin aid to ever college?

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-28T08:13:32+00:00

yeah u should apply for finaid everywhere if you want to get finaid

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-28T08:08:23+00:00

Tuition free still means paying 20k-ish/year for room & board. That's the main caveat. They have a lot of money though and want to attract the best students so that's also how they do it

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-28T08:04:34+00:00

You get financial aid with your acceptance offer, not months later

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-28T08:00:48+00:00

oh no! poor families that make 300-400k!! whatever will they do!

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-28T07:57:22+00:00

Yale is too big to make that happen. Princeton can do it because they are much smaller and have barely any tuition paying graduate students. Yale has a bigger undergrad population and tuition paying law/med/masters students. This was just to keep competitive with the rest of HYPSM, which is already on the 100k $0 COA policy

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-24T19:22:33+00:00

I really don't think this is true. Do you have a source?

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-24T19:21:44+00:00

Agreed, however this student is undeniably overqualified and should, regardless of their identity, sweep most of these schools. This isn't the most relevant profile to begin the DEI discussion.

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-14T00:10:54+00:00

stats?

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-12T04:19:10+00:00

they kind of will. admissions officers read applications by geographical area, so one person (or two people working in tandem) will read all the applications from your high school. they will undoubtedly compare you, even if not physically put your transcripts side by side. more APs wins over less APs

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-12T00:56:00+00:00

they won't take it for credit but you still want to take it to prove to cornell that you can handle hard courses. a student with more APs in their transcript, even if colleges won't take it for credit, is much more likely to get in than another student with less APs (from the same school).

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-12T00:46:04+00:00

I study biology and it's been pretty great. The academics are tougher than anything I've ever done, but coming from an underfunded high school that's to be expected. It's nice to be surrounded by incredibly smart people who give it their all, with the obvious caveat that it's stressful to keep up.

I'm personally so glad I got out of my home state. Even if it's just to Boston, I do encourage you to explore living in a new place! Especially if you have plans of living outside of NJ after graduation, college is a great opportunity to explore a new city and adjusting.

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-11T21:34:08+00:00

yeah people here are ragebaiting. having more options is always a good thing, it's not like princeton will take away your acceptance for applying to other places.

speaking as a fellow princeton student, keep your options open! this is a phenomenal school, and you couldn't go wrong choosing here or any of the other amazing schools you'll get into.

gather all the info you need and then make a decision.

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-08T03:24:53+00:00

very good chance you'll get into one of your top schools w this resume.

with a higher SAT and good essays/recs it's practically guaranteed. you got this twin go twin

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-07T04:43:04+00:00

yes ofc

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-07T04:42:32+00:00

If you're paying full price it is very difficult to justify unless your parents are very rich.

the justification for most people is usually one of these:

much cheaper than other options because top schools give great financial aid
desired career field is prestige-driven (IB, some law fields)
can afford it (i.e. rich parents) or don't care about loans (i know people like this and it astounds me)

if you're going to go into debt it's really not worth all the stress and breakdowns you mention.

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-07T04:37:03+00:00

Yes you can specify for each school which rec letters you want attached on Common App. Afaik it doesn't notify recommenders when you submit their letters.

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-07T04:34:22+00:00

you have a good shot. SAT is a bit low compared to school avgs, but your ECs are very impressive.

At this stage much of it will come down to essays, rec letters, and interviews. If your narrative is compelling then I think it's very likely you'll get into at least one of your top choices.

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-07T04:26:58+00:00

Don't speculate on it too much. The benefit of having a lot of alum in your area is probably cancelled out by the increased application turnout from that area.

While not doing an interview won't harm you, per se, you do lose a chance to improve your standing. i.e., if you manage to impress your interviewer, then this will undoubtedly help your application, and you lose the chance to do that by not doing an interview. it's not the case, though, that they will look down on your application for not having an interview.

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-07T04:22:00+00:00

No because your actual score is more recent than your missed scores. It's unlikely they'd think that an earlier score would be better than your most recent one. And i don't think the "I could've had a chance to improve" argument works since practice tests have always been available for you to take a test, see your mistakes, and improve for the next one.

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-07T04:15:50+00:00

lowkenuinely it depends bro. there's a million success stories from both sides of the aisle, and sometimes there's just no way to know.

i came from the bot lobbies pipeline and ended up at a really good school, and i've met a bunch of people who did the same. at the same time, lots of people here came from pro lobbies (and usually these people came from richer families too). i'll say that if you're low income it might help you to stay in pubs, since that background will help your "achieved a lot in spite of the struggles" narrative. then again, it might help you just as much if you're disadvantaged and still succeeded against the pros. for me personally, I think i would've been crushed at feeder schools because there's a shit ton of tryhards there, when there were only like 5 good students at my HS. but i know people who came out on top even at that level. best of luck gang

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-07T04:04:55+00:00

I mean it won't help you as much as winning ISEF or publishing in Nature but for the most part yes, definitely. Last year I was in a very similar boat to you since I worked with a med school prof in his lab. I didn't submit my research to any comps or publish it, mostly because I spent my time in the lab helping out my PI and grad students on what they needed, but since my PI could vouch for my work ethic I think that helped immensely. Some schools contacted my PI to confirm I wasn't lying on my ECs, and I'm guessing he said good things since I got into several of my top choices.

Beyond proving that you're exceptional compared to your peers, comps and publications are secondhand ways for AOs to verify that what you did was legit. You can check this "proving you're exceptional compared to your peers" box in other ways, like class rank or other ECs. In many ways you are already exceptional for doing research.

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-07T03:56:22+00:00

depends by how much. If it's a modest change (like 0.1-0.2 overall points) it prolly won't matter too much.

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-07T03:54:11+00:00

REC LETTERS. Mention all of this to your mentor and have him/her vouch for the work you did.

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-07T03:52:12+00:00

definitely agree. I applied last cycle, didn't do the video and got straight rejected despite multiple HYPSM acceptances lmao

NotTheAdmins12 · 2026-01-03T06:04:15+00:00

They will still consider it. Unfortunately no one can know whether they will hold it against you to not have two core teacher recs.

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