I’m not the best person to give writing input. There are plenty of people here who are highly skilled writers/editors who would be willing to give you some feedback via PM if you ask nicely.
You needed to remove your essay for privacy reasons and to prevent plagiarism, not because it was bad.
Yes, delete from this thread.
Oh god you almost gave me a mini heart attack! I was like “NOOOOOOOOOOOOO was it that bad?”
I did remove the essay (I apologize if I’ve broken a rule on college confidential, won’t happen again!). I was thinking though, “who would want to plagiarize THAT” haha
Anyways thanks for the heads up!
I’d run your essays through Grammarly or something similar as well.
You can send me your new essay if you wish.
You should still apply to UMN Twin Cities CLA for History+Honors college. The scholarships are very stats-based and their honors college is quite good, as is History.
@Mcunn226 Couldn’t have survived my presidency without Grammarly, my trusty bodyguard lol.
@MYOS1634 Thanks and sent!
Fill out the Request info form for both Penn State and UMN Twin Cities - I doubt they track interest but it’ll take you 5mn and it can only benefit you if they do. Indicate interest for Paterno Fellows (PSU), Honors (UMN-TC).
How did it go? What school are you going to in the fall?
@nomood: none. HKim was either offered admission without sufficient financial aid or turned down everywhere.
Being DACA is a huge burden that limits opportunity to otherwise deserving kids - especially if they happen to live in a state with high cost public universities and no provision for non citizens who graduate from the state’s high schools.
I looked at that thread. It seemed to me that all the options offered were name recognition schools. What about schools like Troy University (where a lot of my friends got Armed Forces subsidized degrees—yeah, many never heard of that school before they looked for free options, but they all work in high income jobs now with degrees from there) , Prairie View, North Carolina Central, a number of schools that need a lot of digging to find but would have paid for high stats students to come to their schools.
@cptofthehouse HKim certainly was led astray by his GC. Troy, Prarie View and NC Central might have given hkim nice packages, but none of those schools would have provided a full-ride. Hkim’s EFC is 0 as well as DACA, so he cannot get Pell funds, or take out the $5,500 direct student loan. Hindsight is 20/20 for sure, and it will be different the second time around for HKim.
Those subsidies aren’t available to DACA/undocumented/international students.
I don’t expect DACA Students to get the Armed Forces deal. But there are schools that do give full rides to top students, international included. I did not check whether Troy or the other schools mentioned exclude international students in their full ride packaged, or if DACA students are specifically excluded from the international students cadre.
I have noticed on this board that when high star, high need students look for matches, it’s the name brand schools that any one can google “colleges that meet full need” that come up. It takes a lot more work to find East New Mexico Tech, North Valley State has full rides for top students. Apps to such schools with a letter from the GC confirming demonstrated interest would go a long way.
I’ve recommended such schools to kids From an economically challenged area from troubled family settings because commuting to the CC or nearest college not realistic. None of the kids International, not DACA and none had fantastic stats. They did get full rides. Only one partook because going that far to an unknown was not something most of them could bear to do.
I agree that when some students say they are willing to ‘do anything’ to go to college, that doesn’t include going to a school that’s not a top named school (in their opinion).
Here, the problem is that most colleges that do cover full need are highly selective. Full rides for stats have become quite limited compared to even 5 years ago (for instance, Prairie View or FAMU’s full rides aren’t available to DACA students, some full rides simply no longer exist) and full tuition merit wouldn’t help a kid whose family makes 15k a year.
Troy used to offer a full ride for stats open to internationals but no longer does.
Another issue for top students at nationally-ranked high schools who want sequential majors is that the small college with a full ride may not have their major or may run out of classes for them to take after a year. In that case, it’s better to take a gap year.
HKim is taking a gap year and will figure things out for next year.
I’ve noticed that schools once listed as giving automatic full ride scholarships no longer do so. It’s become more difficult to root out schools that do so. Painstaking work, as one must look on the websites of the colleges to see if there are any full ride awards and then figure out about how many, and what upper level stats would give you a fighting chance to get the awards. For International and DACA students, another level of research needed to make sure they qualify.
But the number of applicants with high stats is few to these schools, so the possibility is distinctly there. Certainly a greater chance of getting one of these than getting into the top schools that meet full need of getting full ride merit scholarships from the schools with great name recognition. Especially for international students. The competition is far less acute.
Hopefully hkim gets his PR this summer, so all the international talk is moot. Then at a minimum he will qualify for UIUC’s Illinois Promise which is a full ride, and he can target other schools from there. https://osfa.illinois.edu/types-of-aid/other-aid/illinois-promise/
If he doesn’t get his PR by EDI time, I expect he will look at the schools that consider DACAs as domestic students: e.g., Emory, Pomona, Tufts, Oberlin and Swat. If anyone has any schools to add to that list please do. NU does, but Hkim was denied admission there this year, so that will probably not be an ED target next fall, nor perhaps on the list at all. We shall see what the next 6 months bring hkim.
Are there any schools that do not have such name recognition as these who will accept international students, and DACA students and have them eligible for full ride awards they may have?
Getting accepted to selective schools is very difficult, even for US citizens, forvanyone even with great academic stats. Getting full ride awards from them has minuscule chances, practically none. I’m not talking about just one person here but a number of students in this situation.
If admitted to these colleges, the full ride would be automatic because they meet full need and HKim lives on an annual income of 15K.
All admitted students with Pell Grant income levels would get full rides, that’s about 10-15% admitted students.