Advice for HS Senior from Puerto Rico?

Student Lounge Hispanic Students
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<p>My friend's daughter is a senior applying to colleges, but her San Juan public school guidance counselor just doesn't seem qualified to help her get into U.S. schools.</p>

<p>Her SATs are not good (hovering around 400 in each section), but English is her second language, and she did well on a Puerto Rican aptitude test. I'm hoping that her ESL status will factor in to an interpretation of her scores.</p>

<p>Her grades are very good, almost all As, and she is a very hard worker. Her favorite subject is math (though I don't think she's ready to do engineering). She is from a very, very poor, village background (her mother is a teacher and her grandfather is a community organizer), and for the past 3 years she has volunteered with poor children and is very passionate about helping them. She's an incredibly sunny, sweet girl, a little on the shy side. She's the kind of girl who stays in every night doing homework. Her mother has high hopes for her, but they have absolutely no idea how to navigate the U.S. college application system.</p>

<p>I wonder where she could get in with those SATs. She would also need a scholarship, but she would definitely qualify for need-based aid.</p>

<p>Are there any smaller schools that might be a good match for her? I was thinking maybe an all-girls school. Any tips on any that are really trying to recruit Latin American women? Most of the Hispanic programs I'm finding target U.S. Hispanics, but her background is completely different from that.</p>

<p>Thank you in advance for any advice. It could really change her life.</p>

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<p>Aren’t PRs U.S. citizens? I agree that her rural background will be very different from most U.S. applicants, but if she is a U.S. citizen, applying would be the same as any other U.S. student (except for not having an in-state public university system to apply to?)</p>

<p>It seems like her main problem right now is her SATs, which will hold her back from some of the schools that offer generous need-based FA. Please try asking your questions on the Women’s Colleges forum as well, as some members there might have good information:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/womens-colleges/[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/womens-colleges/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Hi, thanks for your reply. I will try posting it in the women’s colleges thread.</p>

<p>While it is true that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, their experience is more like living in another country – they are educated entirely in Spanish, in a completely different education system, in a very different culture. Her high school guidance counselor has never placed a student in a nonprofit college (although she has funneled kids into for-profit money pits like Devry, which is a whole other scandal), and is of no help to her – this counselor doesn’t even have access to the internet.</p>

<p>I went to an Ivy League school myself, and the couple students I knew from Puerto Rico attended elite high schools on the island. There are, indeed, English-language prep schools there, but they’re for a handful of rich kids whose families have an international orientation. The situation is completely different for the vast majority of PR students in public schools, which have minimal history of sending kids to U.S. colleges and are not comparable to U.S. public schools IMO. I’m not trying to knock Puerto Rico, I just am trying to convey how difficult it has been for her. It was a challenge to even convince her that spending any money on university (such as application fees, which to her are serious money) would be a good investment – they are absolutely shocked by the official tuition, which is way more than anyone in their family makes in a year, so it must be for wealthy gringos. They don’t have any clue that they would be eligible for financial aid. Et cetera. There’s just a complete lack of familiarity with the system, even for students with loads of potential.</p>

<p>I wonder if anybody else has gone through this process or has family or friends who have…</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>Thanks for taking the time to write an explanation, it helped in my understanding of her academic and family background. Unfortunately, I’m not experienced with this kind of situation, we have had members of PR descent, but I don’t think any of them attended a public school in PR. I can only make some general comments, so I hope others here will contribute if they have knowledge.</p>

<p>Since she’s a current sr, I’m afraid it’s too late for some very good programs for summer enrichment or that help with admissions and/or merit aid, such as Questbridge and Nat. Hispanic Recog. Program. I was going to suggest Ventures Scholars, which would at least get her on the radar of participating colleges, but they have a 550 cutoff for the CR & M SAT sections.</p>

<p>I’m not sure how familiar you are with current college admissions and FA/merit aid, so please excuse me if this information is redundant. I can tell you what I think are some of the practical aspects of financing college. To simplify the discussion, I will assume that her family would have an EFC of 0.</p>

<p>For need based FA, her family would qualify for federal and institutional FA. However, there are relatively few colleges that guarantee to meet the full need of the student. And within this category of colleges that meet full need, there are even fewer colleges that do not have a loan component in their FA packages (either for all students or for low income students); the rest have FA packages made up of grants, WS and loans, and the proportion of loans can vary depending on the college and how much they want the student.</p>

<p>As you likely know, these colleges with the most generous FA policies are those with large endowments and are the most selective and academically rigorous in the country. My personal opinion is that she would have an extremely difficult time being accepted at one of these schools, even considering her background, because they would be concerned that she would be successful given the level of the academics.</p>

<p>The vast majority of colleges do not guarantee to meet the full need of students, so they can leave a gap in the amount that needs to be paid, and that has to be filled by the family using loans.</p>

<p>Generally, to be in the running for merit aid, a student should be in the tip top of the candidate pool, top 10% or so. However, when it comes to merit scholarships specifically target towards low income and/or URM students, that changes some as the pool of possible candidates is much smaller. Also, if a scholarship is looking for a specific factor or trait, that will affect who is ‘qualified’. There are many colleges, particularly rural LACs, that are actively seeking to enroll Hispanic students, especially those with MA or PR backgrounds, and they often attract students with merit aid. </p>

<p>The difficulty with the merit aid approach is that it takes a lot of time to research schools, usually by going to their website and seeing if/what they offer as far as merit scholarships. Also, we are a good ways into the application process already, and many merit opportunities require additional applications and/or early deadlines.</p>

<p>I have a thought here, would a gap year be possible? She could work, volunteer, and improve her test scores and then apply as a fr next fall with a stronger academic background and more time to research schools.</p>

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<p>Hi, thanks so much for your thorough advice – I don’t see anything on these boards for kids growing up in Puerto Rico, so this might be able to help someone in a similar situation in the future.</p>

<p>She just heard back and didn’t get accepted into the US state schools she applied to, so she will attend the University of Puerto Rico in the fall. She’s disappointed, but I think her English just wasn’t quite there yet. She could have done a LOT better on the SATs if her English were better. I’m hoping that if she really focuses on her English at university, she can maybe transfer to a good US school, or at least do a semester abroad at one…</p>

<p>Thanks again.</p>

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<p>Thanks for updating us!</p>

<p>I was a CC transfer, transferring can be a good way to start out at a pace you can deal with. I know everyone wants to attend the best school possible, but sometimes the adjustment can be difficult, particularly if language skills are a concern.</p>

<p>Best of luck to your friend’s D!</p>

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<p>aroundtheway, nothing wrong with your D going to UPR. I graduated from UPR 21 yrs ago and got hired directly in the US. UPR has one of the best engineering schools in the US and a lot of companies recruit there.
[Puerto</a> Rico losing professionals to U.S. states ? USATODAY.com](<a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-03-11/puerto-rico-economy-brain-drain-exodus/53490820/1]Puerto”>http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-03-11/puerto-rico-economy-brain-drain-exodus/53490820/1) </p>

<p>Also a lot of schools offer study abroad and there a lot of REU’s in US universities where she can go. I do recruiting in PR for the company that I work for and it is amazing the quantity of students that go abroad for research opportunities or for abroad semesters. I will encourage your D to try both. Also there are many more opportunities for graduate studies adn easier to get into and that in the long run it is more important.</p>

<p>My recommendation for her is to work hard during these undergraduate years and complement her years with as much experience that she can get.</p>

<p>Also consider that she will be debt free when she graduates from UPR due to low tuition costs.</p>