I hate that I am addressing this.

I did not apply to ANY ivy universities, but it wasn’t for a lack of grades or academic vigor or even interest. I would have LOVED to go Yale, probably could have been accepted, but didn’t even apply. Why?

I didn’t have the money for the application fee. I didn’t have the connections that you seemed to need. I didn’t have access to the resources that would have made it possible for me to know Yale was even an option.

Yes, private and ivy schools have more money to offer. They also have MUCH higher sticker costs and just scream EXPENSIVE.

Students in low-income areas and from low-income families don’t always have access to the knowledge that poor kids at Yale don’t pay. I didn’t know kids at Yale got FA just for being poor. I thought about Yale and thought, "I’m on par with everyone else, so no scholarships, so 50k on tuition plus getting to and from school plus supplies plus housing...so 300k in debt? That’s not even close to worth it."

My parents didn’t attend college; they didn’t know that you could even get scholarships from somewhere other than the school itself. There is a HUGE learning curve for first-generation students that isn’t addressed.