<p>you cannot compare yourself to anyone else because you are so different from there. different lifestyles, different upbringings, etc etc. dont feel inferior!!! just worry about what you need to do to better your chances, and life will just fall into place where it’s meant to be. </p>
<p>@IWantStanford16 What do you do in your free time? What are you passionate about? Do you have any extra-curricular activities that you have done for a long time? Make sure you talk about why you enjoy doing what you do and how it has changed you as a person. Remember that ECs are only the icing on the cake that is GPA and test scores. Make sure your GPA is good enough for the schools you are applying to and try and get a good SAT score. Once you have good test scores and high school marks, you are good to go for the majority of schools. For the very very selective schools such as HYPS, you will also need to demonstrate your extracurricular abilities in the application essay. Feel free to send me your admissions essays, I will take a look at them and recommend any improvements that need to be made. </p>
<p>@IWantStanford16 - I’ve read your posts and I have something to say that may well get me flamed, but here goes. Will college be your first extended stay away from home? The west coast is very different from NYC. I know the kids at Stanford come from around the country, but a school definitely picks up the vibe of the place where it’s located. </p>
<p>Besides homesickness being an issue, money will loom large. Kids are going to seem very rich to you. I’m not talking about super rich, either. The majority of students won’t be running off to Cancun for Spring Break, but many of them will be able to call their moms and tell them they need a new rain jacket and one will arrive in the mail two days later. Kids will have money to order pizza on Friday nights. Their teeth will all look perfect. The girls on your floor will all have a big Saturday afternoon planned where they go to Hair Cuttery for a group appointment. Meanwhile, you’ll be working. Or, you’ll be running to the library to see if you can get the books you need for free. If the library doesn’t have them, you may find the best thing to do is to drop that class and find a cheaper one. Sure, you may be able to borrow enough in student loans to live like the other kids for a few years, but then you’ll be left with big time debt. (And you’ll likely need a student loan just to get to and from California, won’t you?)</p>
<p>It’s a tough spot to be in and it was the place I was in during my college years. I found poor friends and I’m sure you would too, but the feeling of having to work twice as hard to get half as much doesn’t go away, because in fact, that is what you’re doing. I’m very happy with how my life has turned out, but if I had it to do over, rather than going to an elite school, I would have gone to my state flagship, which would have only required a $2k payment per year from me to live on campus. I could have done that without loans! Although my parents didn’t have any money to contribute to my education, there wasn’t a single summer I didn’t earn at least 3 grand. When I think I could’ve graduated from a very good school without loans, I feel foolish. </p>
<p>You’re a bright kid and a hard worker. I’m not telling you that you can’t do Stanford, I’m telling you that you might well be happier somewhere else. I believe I would have been. And despite Stanford’s awesome financial aid, you may need to borrow more just to fit in with the other kids. </p>
<p>You’re young and you have the rest of your life ahead of you. You have lots of time to experience Californians and rich people and super smart people. I can sense you really want to break from your past, but at this point in your life, I would encourage baby steps as opposed to giant leaps. </p>
<p>You don’t need expensive SAT prep go get good scores.</p>
<p>It’s entirely possible to succeed regardless of financial status or your high school. There’s no use being bitter towards rich people – you can’t write a check to the admissions office and get accepted. Well-off people aren’t the enemy. Isn’t the reason you want to go to a good college so that you can one day get a good job and make a decent amount of money? When you’re well-off one day, do you want kids to be blaming your children for their inability to get into a good school? </p>
<p>Admissions officers are very well aware that not everybody is offered the same opportunities. People who went to private schools and are very intelligent can get into good universities. People who go to private schools and are very rich can get rejected from good universities. I went to a school surrounded by acres of cow pastures and now I attend a Top 20 university. Don’t let other people’s stats or opportunities discourage you, because they are completely irrelevant to your own situation and application.</p>
<p>^^^Yes, but…the OP would really have to be made of steel not to feel outcast at Stanford. It’s not a question of whether or not she can get in. It’s a question of fitting in once she’s there. Her support system will be gone. And her support system in NYC won’t have any idea how to help her. </p>
<p>Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps makes a nice story, but living it is an entirely different thing. The poor really do have to work twice as hard to get half as much. The cultural and socioeconomic gap between OP and the vast majority of Stanford students will be huge. That’s a lot to take on while presumably living away from home for the first time in a situation that is stressful by design, i.e. she and everyone around her are taking the most difficult courses of their lives.</p>
<p>Right now, OP is feeling the unfairness of life (and income iniquities in particular) from afar. Imagine how it will feel when she knows flesh and blood people who, after FA, are paying Stanford 30k - more money than OP’s family makes in a year - and she’ll see them crying poverty on a fairly regular basis. She’s supposed to make friends with those ingrates? </p>
<p>I really think OP should shoot for different schools - something closer to home, like maybe Columbia? At least she’d be surrounded by the familiar and have her family nearby for support. Or maybe something very affordable, like one of the SUNY’s where she’s getting tons of aid and her loans can go to things that will help her feel normal instead of paying for tuition, books, and travel. Stanford’s got three things which make it especially difficult adjustment wise for OP - 1) privileged students 2) its west coast vibe and 3) her family support system being nowhere nearby. Tackling just one of those obstacles is more than enough for a student’s first time away from home.</p>
<p>@halfemptypockets really,“ingrates”? By your logic everyone is an ingrate compared to Somalian kids… And yes, OP is supposed to make friends with wealthier students. That’s how you network, get contacts, and create lifelong friendships after college when they will all be making nearly the same amount of money. Are students with married parents not supposed to make friends with students with divorced ones? After all, only an “ingrate” would complain about their parents to their friends. OP will be surrounded with people from all kinds of socioeconomic backgrounds, and he/she should try and connect with all of them. It would be foolish not to take the lifelong networking opportunities, not to mention the salary that a school like Stanford gives you compared to something like SUNY just to avoid 4 years of inadequacy.</p>
<p>That’s how rich kids can appear to somebody who is truly poor by American standards. And 27k per year household income is poor.</p>
<p>Everything you say about Stanford being the opportunity of a lifetime is true, BUT it can be difficult to make use of your opportunities when you’re miserable. And, yes, I’m just speculating, but I think OP, from her posting history, would be miserable there. Stanford isn’t going anywhere. It’ll still be there for grad school. The OP has her whole life ahead of her and one of her first big hurdles is to learn how to live away from home. Why not do that where there isn’t so much stacked against her?</p>
<p>@iwantstanford16,
I saw your other post on the parents forum and so I wanted to address your question here.
As a Hispanic kid, whose parents did not attend college, you cannot really compare yourself with students whose parents attended college merely because of the fact that your parents cannot provide any advice or guidance and in fact, some parents who did not attend college actually will try to prevent or sabotage their child from attending college.</p>
<p>Guess what. Colleges know this. You will have huge stars next to your name on the applications folders saying
** You are first generation in your family to attend college
** You are Hispanic
These things make you more unique that you might realize. What language do you speak at home?</p>
<p>And because of this, the “bars” or requirements for admission will be set lower for you than for other kids. After admission season, the other kids (White or Asian from parents who went to college) will then be saying that it was unfair that you were first gen, Hispanic or whatever. So stop whining, do the best that you can, keep asking advice from people on this website who can guide you through the process, and maybe a GC at your school can help as well.</p>
<p>Yeah, I get it. Some people say that “You could be that person joining 30 different clubs if you wanted” and I’m thinking, “No, I can’t due to my over protective parents who don’t let me go anywheredo anything.” Also, my schedule doesn’t work out because our school has all the clubs either tuesday or wednesday so I cannot do all the ones that I want to. And parent input helps a lot. I have parents that criticise me constantly for not being like the super super smart kids and that makes me really depressed because I feel like I failed them even if I’m the kid that has over 100% in calculus and chemistry. I had never gotten a complement from them and when teacher say anything good about me, they ignore it and think the teachers are just being nice. And, my parents discourage me from extra curriculars because it involves too much money($20 is a lot to them) and time from them. They think all you need are good grades to get into a good college. My parents didn’t know about SATs either…they thought it was just some easy test that every one passes. They never bought books or put me in prep classes. Other have told me the classes help a lot. And even if I borrowed it from a friend, there is never a quiet place to study because my parents are fighting all the time. So I totally get you…I hate it when people say “Oh. you’re just a slacker”…um, no I just haven’t had the same opportunities as you. Hopefully, college will be better for us.</p>
<p>@IWantStanford16 : couple of questions: what grade are you in? What is your current weighted & unweighted GPA?
There are different paths for you to move forward depending on where you are at. The fact that with your challenges you are on this site looking for guidance says a lot about you :)</p>
<p>@emburnn, you’re right. However, it’s just that I get upset at times because I wish that I did have better upbringings because then I wouldn’t be in the place that I am in today. </p>
<p>@halfemptypockets it would be very different for me. Although I love my family, it’s not like I’m that close to them. My mom works overnight so I see her in the mornings for like an hour. It’s like this from Monday- Fridays. On Saturdays she sleeps all day and on Sunday’s she’s always busy running errands. Plus, she’s pregnant so yeah. The rest of my family is really independent and distant as well. I live with my grandmother since my dad and mom separated and eventually got divorced. He abandoned us so it was either my grandmas house or a shelter. She goes to church everyday and my aunt who is 21 is the only person I talk to when I’m home. I love in the basement and she lives in the first floor so I have to do my work and all so yeah I’m pretty much always alone. That’s why I I felt as if Stanford wouldn’t be too much of a change in that aspect. Also, I love it when it’s sunny, it just lifts my mood and California has great weather, the kind I love and am happy in. Yes, I would feel intimidated there too much I’d start off with a clean slate and so will they. Therefore, I can get just good of grades as them and do as many extracurriculars. I wouldn’t feel like they had an extra two years anymore. Plus, I’m sure I’d find people like myself who aren’t millionaires or well-off.</p>
<p>OP - a lot of us are immigrant’s sons and daughters that had exactly what you have, perhaps less. The only difference is that we were not allowed to feel sorry for ourselves. We kept our heads down, worked hard and attended the best college we could - which in most cases was not Stanford grade. We spent our adult lives working hard and educating ourselves some more so that our kids could compete for Stanford and the like. It’s time for you to stop feeling sorry for yourself and achieve what you can achieve. </p>
<p>@asukumar Well I wake up everyday at 6:00 and leave my house at 7:00 am to get to school at 8:10, I take the subway. Then I have school from 8:10 until 3:37, and on Tuesdays and Thursday’s I have school from 8:10 until 4:20. On Mondays, I have that medical club that I founded. We suture, dissect, bring in people in the medical field, and do research. We have a curriculum that I created based on the votes of students, and we do something different every week. We are planning on dissecting a feral pig, frog, cow eye, heart, brain and a shark. We bought suturing kits so that we can practice that technique. It’s the club that I do love the most, but I started it this year and will definitely continue next year. On Tuesdays, I have RedCross in which we fundraise and make things to sell for fundraising for disaster relief. I have this until from 3:37 (since I don’t have to go to my 10th period since I have ECs and have an excuse to be absent) until 4:5-5ish. Then I take the train and go to my SAT prep program, which ends at 8:30. I get home at 10 and do my homework. On Wednesdays, I have National Honor Society once a month, but when I don’t, I volunteer as a classroom assistant for 3 hours. I do this on Thursdays from 4:45 until 7:45. On Fridays, I have SKILLSUSA which I am also the president for. We basically just discuss fundraisers in the school, and leadership techniques, and prepare and go to completions for this club with other schools in Syracuse and we go to the conferences and meetings. On Saturdays, I am a kitchen assistant in which I help prepare food for the community and wash dishes and help maintain the workspace of the chef clean. I would love to do anything medical related, but I feel like all of my clubs have a purpose that will get me there, for example SKILLSUSA may seem unecessar, but I did learn how to speak in front of an audience and I learned to out myself out there more. The kitchen assistant, may seem redundant, but it helps me at home since I have to cook for myself at times and because i will soon have a little baby brother and one day I will have to cook for him too. I wish I showed that I have a passion for medicine, but I feel like my resume doesn’t showcase that. Also, I used to love dancing, I was naturally good at it and was team captain of my ballroom dancing team in elementary, but that all stopped because I was always bullied in middle school which led to me being insecure and introverted as well. </p>
<p>@YoHoYoHo thank you :). I speak both Spanish and English at home, depending on who I am speaking with.</p>
<p>@NCmom14 as of now, my average is a little over a 93. My school doesn’t provide weighted averages. I am currently in the 11th grade. Thank you, seeking advice on here sometimes seems like the wrong decision, but it does sometimes really help.</p>
<p>@sciencer, thank you for understanding. It is harder for us, I had to beg my mom to let me do the SAT prep. Thankfully she was convinced because it is worth $2,600 and I am getting it for free. I wish that I could do internships, but I am only allowed to do ECs that are near my school or in my school. And yeah, it’s frustrating explaining all of this to my mom because she sees it as foreign. My mom is happy with what she hears from my teachers, but I’m not because I’m only “exceptional” to them because the average student in my school is failing all of their classes, doing drugs in school, having sex in my schools elevator, or in a gang. Yeah, opportunities are limited since everything that requires money is off bounds to me. Hope life gets better for you 
</p>
<p>@menefrega , you’re right, but my mom was that immigrant who did all that she could for her child to have a better life. However, financially supporting me and supporting me with advice on colleges and all of that are very different. She just simply can’t provide me guidance with colleges and therefore it did have a huge toll on my life since my options seem so limited. Plus, she dropped out of community college because she had me and now she works in a factory. It hurts me because physically, her body can’t take it anymore and because she’s always too tired to do anything. Plus, she’s miserable so sometimes I feel like she regrets me or something because she’s suffering. </p>
<p>@IWantStanford16 You seem to have a lot of really good and involved extracurriculars. I think if you keep going at the pace you currently are, you will have a great chance at Stanford. Make sure you keep those grades up and knock the SATs out of the park. I’m sorry I haven’t finished reading over your essays yet, I’ve been really busy with school and don’t want to just half-ass it.</p>