<p>
[QUOTE=Northstarmom]
You could start off by going to your local community college. If you live at home and work, you should be able to afford it. After getting your AA, transfer to a 4-year college and go part time while working.</p>
<p>…</p>
<p>There are many domestic, international, low income students. Your situation isn’t that unusual.
[/quote]
I am thinking that you did not have the opportunity to read my third post in this thread, most likely because we were writing our posts at the same time. Nevertheless, thank you very much for taking the time to examine my situation and my questions.</p>
<p>Because I am in the United States without a Social Security Number, I am ineligible to work in any official capacity here. My parents have Social Security Numbers, but I do not believe that they would be able to pay for any substantial portion of my higher education. I am also hesitant to enroll at a community college because I believe that I could better spend the years elsewhere.</p>
<p>In regards to the lack of uniqueness in terms of my situation, I will somewhat repeat what I have stated in my third post (the one that you could not have read because we were posting at the same time). As an impoverished, domestic international student with English-deficient parents (yes, this is the ‘typical’ part), it was difficult for me to balance extracurriculars, academics, and relationships with my homeschooling disputes with the local public school when I attended that school during the first semester of the last school year. Having transferred schools eleven times in addition to the factors listed above, I find it very fortunate that I have reached a level of academic success that not many can attest to.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE=Northstarmom]
Places like Princeton and Yale look for more than high test scores. Your 11 transfers are unfortunate, but aren’t likely to open admission doors. Colleges are looking for students who’ll add to their campus, not students who’ve had sad stories. The very top colleges get plenty of applicants who have high scores. What makes students stand out in their pools of students with excellent scores are things indicating that the students will contribute to creating an active, diverse campus.
[/quote]
Yes, I completely agree. Students are not only their scores – in fact, that is one of the main philosophies of my homeschool. In an attempt to help me learn for the sake of learning (I love learning and enlightening myself to the world around me), my homeschool does not assign any grades, and therefore, no GPAs as well. In fact, my homeschool transcript does not even have the grades that I earned while enrolled in public schools; many A+s, admittedly along with a very small handful of Bs, have been turned into Pass/Fail grades. Now I realize that I’ve gone a bit off-topic, but I hope that you, and others, will be able to see the very strong drive to learn that exists inside me. I believe that I would be a strong applicant to top-tier schools partially because of the immense perseverance that I’ve developed over the years.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE=Northstarmom]
What job, EC, community service experience do you have that could make you stand out?
[/quote]
Although I am somewhat limited now as to extracurricular activities now that I am a homeschool student, while I was enrolled in public school, I had an extracurricular for just about every day of the week, each one unique and enlightening in its own respect. I will not list the long list of extracurriculars I have been involved with (the list is lengthened somewhat due to the fact that my two previous public high schools had some different extracurriculars), but I believe that my extracurriculars over the past few years have been strong. With not much in terms of resources at home, I found extracurriculars to be a “home away from home,” places where I could meet new people and explore new ideas while revisiting some old ones. Even as a homeschooling student, I still have an extracurricular that I am extremely passionate about along with a few extracurriculars that I very much enjoy spending time at.</p>
<p>Without a Social Security Number, I have not been able to work or drive, meaning that I was not able to take up a tax-paying job. While I was enrolled at the local public school, community service had also been difficult to obtain due to my extracurricular/academics-packed schedule, although I was able to pick up some enlightening service hours along the way. As an impoverished student volunteering to help other impoverished individuals (impoverished does not only apply to financial poverty here), I truly learned a lot about the problems that others face, which helped me to learn more about myself and my own condition. I regret the fact that it was not possible for me to serve the community in a larger capacity without severely straining myself. </p>
<p>
[QUOTE=hmom5]
Flammy, I’ve read your posts for some time now and the theme is always the same: poor, poor, disadvantaged you. You have gone as far as to say that you are more disadvantaged than other ambitious kids.
[/quote]
Thanks again for your quick response. I am not sure what you mean when you say that you have “read my posts for some time now and the theme is always the same” - out of the last 21 posts (the entirety of the posts that I have made so far), only a little less than half had anything to do with my disadvantaged situation. Despite this, I do not see anything wrong with me posting about this very topic, considering that my situation has had a very deep impact on my life in a way that has severely impacted my college applications.</p>
<p>You are correct in saying that I “have gone as far as to say that [I am] more disadvantaged than other ambitious kids.” Is not this statement most likely true? I can see what you might have been thinking, that even supposedly advantaged students shooting for the top-tier of colleges (students who are financially well-off, those who seemingly do not have any problems) have their own set of problems (perhaps relationships, morality conflicts, etc.), but are these disadvantages really that much more serious than mine? I am sure that many people would agree with me in saying that I am more disadvantaged than the majority of academically-ambitious students.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE=hmom5]
All this makes me wonder where all the places you have lived are, because here in NYC and where I grew up in CA there are many, many kids who read just like you. I know kids who miss school a couple of days per week because they need the work hours to help their families. They are undocumented but find many ways to make money.
[/quote]
I have had my fair share of earning money to support my family. Now, I am not undocumented as you might have assumed, and in that respect, perhaps I am somewhat advantaged, but unless those students are in a situation at least somewhat similar to mine and are planning to apply to top-tier universities, I do not see any reason to bring up the plight of these unfortunate individuals’ conditions.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE=hmom5]
If you try to make colleges feel sorry for you they probably will, they will feel sorry that they chose not to offer you a place. They want lemonade, not lemons from their students with personal challenges.
[/quote]
Perhaps you misunderstood the intention of my posts. I am definitely not trying to make anybody feel sorry for me; I am simply explaining my situation and asking for advice. I am not completely sure what you mean with the lemonade comment, but I will say that I have been able to overcome my personal challenges with strong perseverance.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE=hmom5]
And where you ever got the 500 number for junior AP scholars…there are schools that produce hundreds of junior AP scholars.
[/quote]
The number 500 was a rough estimate of the number of junior-year National AP Scholars in the United States (and perhaps around the world). I am not counting junior-year AP Scholars, AP Scholars with Honor, AP Scholars with Distinction, etc. I will take the initiative to point you to this Microsoft Excel spreadsheet:</p>
<p><a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/2008_AP_Scholar_Counts.xls[/url]”>Higher Education Professionals | College Board;
<p>
[QUOTE=hmom5]
But you keep coming back to how different your situation is despite several very knowledgeable adults telling you there is nothing uncommon here. That you continue to think this is worrisome because that thinking is probably built into your essays and application.</p>
<p>You have not done your research if you think only top colleges give aid to internationals.
[/quote]
I must say that I still believe that my situation is very different, definitely not “nothing uncommon,” despite the two adults that have explained to the contrary, one of which was not able to read my third post explaining a little more about myself.</p>
<p>I will concede to you that before Savs and frankchn pointed me to the possibility of a full-ride from my state flagship, I had forgotten that such a thing was possible. However, again, I would consider the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to be a top school. I believe that you have erroneously assumed that I thought that “only top colleges give aid to internationals;” while I knew that many other schools give financial aid to international students, it has been my understanding that the vast majority of these colleges would not be able to give out near-full-rides to internationals looking for an education.</p>
<p>
[QUOTE=hmom5]
That you even considered asking colleges to make an exception for you and offer you admission early tells me you’re not getting your hands firmly around reality here. I fear you will end up with few choices at best if you don’t gain some insight that is reflected in your application. The Questbridge non match should serve as a wake up call.
[/quote]
Yes, the QuestBridge non-match has served as a wake-up call; in fact, it is the main reason why I decided to post this thread in the first place. I am sure that many, if not all, students have at least once “considered asking colleges to make an exception for you and offer you admission early,” although these individuals may not have had the initiative to publicly ask. As for myself, I am open to possibilities and have been told that no question is a bad question, and therefore, I thought it wouldn’t hurt if I merely asked this simple question instead of pondering about it on my own.</p>
<p>Anyway, thanks again for the opportunity to respond to your posts. I look forward to the chance to respond to more soon.</p>