Hispanic Student Working Full Time and High School

Student Lounge Hispanic Students
1

<p>I previously posted this thread on another forum but I want to get some insight from the experts on this forum since you probably have more experience with Hispanic students. I basically want to know how admission officers will view my situation and if I have a good chance of getting in to the top schools despite my abnormal circumstances. Thank you in advance.</p>

<p>I have a few questions regarding my current situation. I'm currently a high school junior and I started working full time 7 days a week this year because my mother was laid off at work. I have been working since freshmen year in order to save money for college and to help my family with paying the bills. I only worked part time the first two years of high school since my mom was also working part time and I was able to maintain straight A's in the Pre-IB program during those two years. I also scored a decent 780 and 750 in my Spanish and U.S History subject tests respectively and a 5 on my AP U.S. History exam during my first two years of high school. </p>

<p>I volunteered and have continued to volunteer by teaching guitar and English as a second language in my house. I am also the one in charge of taking care of my grandparents (although I do receive help) who live with us since they can no longer live by themselves which is why I do my volunteering at home. Finally, I live around 1.5 hours from school since I go to a magnet school because I felt my neighborhood school would prevent me from reaching my full academic potential due to its horrible academic record. </p>

<p>I was able to deal with all of this when I was working part time but now that I'm working full time and in the IB program my grades have dropped to A's and B's. I have reduced the hours I volunteer but I feel like I can't stop volunteering completely because both of the classes I teach have become too important in my Hispanic community. I know the A's and B's are not the end of the world but I just want to know if admission officers would put a drop in my grades in context with my situation. Also, is working full time looked down upon by admission officers? Thank you and sorry for the questions but I'm new to the college admission process since I'm the first person in my family that is going to attend college.</p>

<p>Quick Update:</p>

<p>I was able to bring up my grades and ended up with all A's at the end of last semester. I'm currently ranked 9th out of around 500-550 (I do not remember the exact number of how many students attend my school). My unweighted GPA is 4.0 while my weighted GPA is around 4.9. I don't think I'm going to be able to pull off straight A's for this semester so I would still like to know how college's would look at a drop in my grades to A's and B's.</p>

2

<p>Wow, you sounds amazing! I think any college would be happy to have you! I can’t imagine how a student can work 40 hours a week and go to school from 8-3 every day, let alone volunteer. When do you work? Sleep? Do homework? I’m very curious about this. Even when I was in college full time and I worked 30-40 hours a week, I had no other activities and my grades were definitely subpar. You are my hero!</p>

<p>I am sure most/all colleges would completely understand your situation. If you can last without breaking down due to the stress of being financially responsible for your family, I’m sure you’ll get into any college you want. Really! On all applications, there’s a place to explain unusual circumstances and yours certainly is unusual.</p>

3

<p>Sbjdorlo, thank you for all of the compliments and advice! Well the great thing about my job is that half of the time I can do my work from home so that definitely helps. I get around 1 hour of sleep during weekdays which is not great for my health but I have to keep up with my grades during the week and my volunteering during the weekends. The IB program at my school is very rigorous without having to work full time so I have to work twice as hard in order to maintain my grades or to at least end up having a mix of A’s and B’s.</p>

<p>I’m just tired everyday but I don’t think I’ll have a mental breakdown because I have learned to control my emotions under pressure ever since I began working part time Freshmen year. However, I am human and there are moments when it does become difficult to keep up with everything but I have been able to push forward. I was not aware that there was a place on college applications to explain unusual circumstances. I thought that the only way to explain unusual circumstances was through the required essays, so thank you for pointing that out sbjdorlo.</p>

<p>Does anyone else have any advice or comments? I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.</p>

4

<p>Agree that you are making a heroic effort and should be recognized for your maturity and thoughtfulness, and I think that will come through in your applications. </p>

<p>One comment on unusual/special circumstances, in addition to your essays and the Additional Info section, your HS GC would be an ideal person to address the fact that you both carry a heavy load of rigorous courses and work full time to help your family. It really helps to have an outside person substantiate your situation, and they could easily do this in the Secondary School Report.</p>

<p>Between the volunteer work you do, your paid work and coursework, I think that a few Bs are going to be more than understandable as yours is a very unique situation. Your SAT II and AP scores look great, have you taken the SAT yet?</p>

5

<p>I will definitely tell my guidance counselor. At this moment, I have not told anyone about my circumstances because I did not want special treatment but I will let my guidance counselor know about my circumstances when I start applying to colleges. Do you think it would be a good idea to wait until I start applying to colleges to let my teachers and guidance counselor know of my special circumstances or should I let them know right now?</p>

<p>I have not taken the SAT but I will be taking the ACT in April and probably the SAT in June. I know there isn’t a required ACT/SAT score for top schools but around what range would I have to be in so I have a good chance of getting in to top colleges? </p>

<p>Thank you for the words of encouragement entomom!</p>

6

<p>Being Hispanic with your special circumstances will give you some flex room with your SAT scores at highly selective schools. I would think anything over 2100 would be good, though I am guessing you will get more than that based on your SAT II scores.</p>

<p>Question: Do you parents understand the stress you are under? Aren’t you eligible for assistance from the state based on your circumstances? </p>

<p>I do think sleeping one hour a night will take its toll. I hope and pray you can find another solution to your family’s situation. </p>

<p>Oh, have you heard of Questbridge? You <em>must</em> find out about it and apply! This is a program that will match up low income kids with highly selective schools. Apply!!</p>

7

<p>Hopefully I can work some magic and come up with something around the 2100 range or better!</p>

<p>We do receive help, however my grandparents are in and out of the hospital at this point in their lives and the help we receive is not enough at times with my father being the only person working. </p>

<p>I was the one who decided to start working, my parents beg me every single day to stop working because they see how tired I am but I know that I will be going to college soon which means more expenses. I also have a younger sibling who will also be going to college soon, so I know that when we both go to college it will mean twice the expenses. I basically want to minimize their monetary expenses as much as possible before I go to college which is why I’m also trying to save some money for college.</p>

<p>Thank you for your prayers =)</p>

<p>I actually discovered Questbridge through CC and I will definitely apply once I start applying to colleges. </p>

<p>Thank you for your words of encouragement sbjdorlo. You give me hope that all of this work will pay off one day.</p>

8

<p>Yes, 2100 would be a good target. The lowest I usually recommend for a first gen, disadvantaged, low income, etc. student is about 600 per section for selective schools; this would require the school give the student a bump based their background. 700 per section makes you a generally competitive candidate at any school and 750+ is excellent.</p>

<p>Be sure to ask your GC for fee waivers for both taking the tests and sending scores. If you want help with self studying, look at the xiggi and/or silverturtle threads on the SAT Prep forum. A summary of the xiggi method is here:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/68210-xiggis-sat-prep-advice-39.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/68210-xiggis-sat-prep-advice-39.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Help on the essay is here:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/68210-xiggis-sat-prep-advice-49.html#post1061498705[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/68210-xiggis-sat-prep-advice-49.html#post1061498705&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I think you should tell your GC and teachers whenever you feel comfortable.</p>

9

<p>Thank you for the SAT advice and all of the help entomom! </p>

<p>I will definitely look at the xiggi and silverturtle threads.</p>

<p>Entomom, do you think that I have a good chance of getting into a school that might offer me a full ride? This is my main concern at the moment.</p>

10

<p>fighter,
I think you will do well as long as you develop a realistic list that includes IS options, schools with guaranteed and ‘good shot’ merit aid, as well as colleges with strong need based FA for low income students. </p>

<p>You should also check out your eligibility for Questbridge and the large outside need based scholarships like the Gates; check out both of these on the subforums of the FA & Scholarship forum. Finally, the Resources sticky thread on this forum has listings for outside scholarships for Hispanic students.</p>

<p>One concern I do have is how your income (and savings) from working may affect your need based FA since students are assessed at a higher rate than are parents. You should definitely start running some FA estimators. </p>

<p>How did you do on the PSAT? If you qualified, see the NHRP scholarship thread on this forum and post #453 on this NM thread:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation-31.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/national-merit-scholarships/649276-nmf-scholarships-updated-compilation-31.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

11

<p>Fighter:</p>

<p>First you deserve a gold star for all that you have accomplished so far. I would be very proud to have you as my child. Your wanting to work full-time to help your family out really signifies your maturity. Like other I hope you do not “burn out” or ruin your health so please be careful. Also remember you are “just a kid” so try to enjoy some of the “fun” of high school too.</p>

<p>I would start looking at questbridge now. I don’t know if it is too late but I believe that in a student’s junior year questbridge will help with sat review and college visits. </p>

<p>A couple of other things:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>In terms of money issues your main focus should be at looking at colleges which give big merit award or no loans for financial aid. I don’t know what your overall income is but as entomom suggest run your efc calculator now so that you have a good idea of the schools that you should be looking at. </p></li>
<li><p>Review the list of schools that offer paid college visits (its in a link by kelliealexander) and write to those schools and explain your circumstances and see if you can garner an invitation for their paid vists program. It might be a little on the early side but it couldn’t hurt.</p></li>
<li><p>Although private scholarships are difficult to come by at least look at those that give some big aid like the coco cola scholarship; nordstroms dept store; national hispanic scholar; gates; horatio alger; mcdonald’s hacer program to name a few. I previously posted a listig put out by the national hispanic congressional caucus and congresswoman Lucy Roybal’s office.</p></li>
<li><p>Talk to your college counselor now about your situation. Ask her if she can keep you in mind for any waivers that you might receive the SAT and colleges. Every little bit helps these days. Also talk to her about your home situation but be careful because in our school district some counselors might alert “child protective services” about the fact that you are only sleeping one hour a night. </p></li>
<li><p>Colleges will definitely take into consideration the fact that you work full-time. Each college has a local rep assigned to your school or region. try to make a list of schools and contact that rep to tell them about your situation and ask them if they would take your working history into consideration with your application and where on the application you could put such information. It is commendable that you want to help out your family and it could not hurt you to let the local rep know about it. It has been my experience that making contact with the college local rep has always been helpful. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>Good luck. I’ll be praying for you and sending any extra sleep hours your way.
itsv</p>

12

<p>Yes, the junior program for Questbridge has a deadline of March 29th. Please apply, fighter! Ask your GC for help or ask a favorite teacher for help.</p>

13

<p>Entomom ,
thank you for the list of scholarships, there are many that I was not aware even existed. Is it possible to make an appeal for FA due to my special circumstances?</p>

<p>I scored a 188 on the PSAT. I didn’t do that well but I believe that I can definitely get a higher score if I’m well rested and if I do some preparation.</p>

<p>Itsv,
thank you for all of your kind words. With the all of the advice I have received from all of you here at CC I think I can finally narrow down my choices as you suggested. I will also look into the paid college visits since it sounds like a great opportunity.</p>

<p>In addition to entomom’s suggestions, I will also look into the scholarships you have listed and the list that you mentioned. I was not aware of all of the scholarships available, it’s great to find out about them before it is too late, so thank you for informing me.</p>

<p>I was planning on talking to my guidance counselor about my situation at home but without any of the specifics like the fact that I sleep one hour because I do not want this to become bigger than what it already is by her contacting “child protective services”, as you have mentioned. </p>

<p>When is the best time to contact my local rep? The year I’m applying or the year before I am applying.</p>

<p>I forgot to mention this but I am taking a gap year before applying to college for many reasons. I have contacted Questbridge about my plans to take a gap year and they said that it is best for me to apply next year as a senior for summer college prep scholarship. They said that it is possible to apply as a senior if I’m applying due to special circumstances and I guess my situation qualifies as one.</p>

<p>I applied for a paid summer internship and I was accepted, so that is what I will be doing this summer which I feel is great since it will be a great experience and I will be getting paid which is of great help considering my situation.</p>

<p>Do you feel that taking a gap year before applying may have a negative effect when it comes to college admissions even if I have something planned for the gap year and considering my situation? This question is for anyone who may have some insight on this topic not just for itsv. Thank you once again for all of the help. You don’t know how helpful all of your advice is for a first generation student like myself.</p>

14

<p>Your jr year PSAT is the only one that counts for NM & NHRP. A 188 won’t make NM, but may qualify for NHRP depending on what part of the country you live in, see post #19 for last year’s cut offs, they change relatively little from year to year:</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/915179-nhrp-state-cutoff-scores-class-2011-a-2.html?highlight=cutoffs[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/hispanic-students/915179-nhrp-state-cutoff-scores-class-2011-a-2.html?highlight=cutoffs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>FA appeals are possible, but not something that you should count on. And whether or not a college will give you more FA due to your situation can depend on both the size of the endowment of the college, and how much they want you to attend.</p>

<p>I’m not sure I understand, are you planning to apply to schools next fall and when you’ve been accepted, delay your start and take a gap year, or are you planning to delay applying to colleges until a year from next fall? While both can work, I tend to like the former because it can easier to apply when you’re in HS along with everyone else in your class, and because you know where you’ll be attending after your gap year.</p>

15

<p>Thank you for that useful link!</p>

<p>Do state schools ever give full merit aid or are private schools with big endowments the only schools that give full rides?</p>

<p>I was talking about applying to colleges a year from next fall but you do bring up a good point. I just felt that I would have more time to focus on applications if I waited a year to apply since I would not have to worry about keeping up with school grades in addition to everything else I do outside of school. That is not the only reason that I want to take the gap year but I will take your opinion into consideration and I will talk to my guidance counselor as well and I guess I will decide after that.</p>

<p>How is the gap year I plan on taking seen by colleges? I’m sorry for all of the questions but the college admission process is still something new for me. Thank you for all of your help so far.</p>

16

<p>Don’t worry about asking lots of questions, the process is complicated, particularly the financial end of it. And as a student doing it on their own, no one expects you to understand all of the details, ask away!</p>

<p>About gap years, what colleges want to see is that you’re doing something relevant. This could mean doing an internship, working, volunteering, etc. </p>

<p>I understand your concern about keeping up your grades, working and applying at the same time, I think it’s a valid point. And one thought I had about applying next year and then deferring for a year, there may be a problem with this approach when it comes to a large merit scholarship. While deferring attendance is usually not a problem, I’m not sure about merit, so it is definitely something you would want to ask a college at the onset, and colleges may vary on whether they find this acceptable or not. Just a thought.</p>

<p>Most private schools with large endowments DON’T give merit aid. However, many of these schools will give generous FA, particularly for low income students. </p>

<p>There are some wealthy privates that do give substantial merit aid. These schools may give you a large merit scholarship, though not full ride (which I generally define as tuition, fees, R&B), and then fill in with need based FA. For instance (my info is dated, so you have to check websites for the most recent information): </p>

<p>WUSTL: Danforth and Rodriguez - full tuition at the most
Rice: Several substantial but not full ride scholarships
Swarthmore: McCabe for amount of full FA
JHU: Hodson success for amount of full FA
Duke: Jefferson Scholar (not directly through the college)
Villianova: Presidential</p>

<p>And there are several small LACs that offer full rides or other large merit scholarships. And many of these are particularly interested in URM candidates as they have difficulty with recruitment and retention, often because of rural locations. For instance:</p>

<p>Davidson: Belk & Baker (both full rides)
Centre: Brown fellows - full ride</p>

<p>There are some public schools that will give full rides to OOS students (again check the websites):</p>

<p>Emory: Emory Scholar
UVA: Jefferson Scholar (not directly through the college)
UNC-CH: Robertson; Moorhead; Pogue (for URMs), perhaps others
Ohio State U: Morrill Distinction
Pitt: Chancellor’s
Indiana U-Bloomington: Wells
U Delaware: DuPont</p>

<p>These are just examples, my knowledge is particularly weak for LACs, colleges in the South and techy schools because they weren’t on my kids radar. Also, depending on what state you live in, there may be IS options that afford you a large merit scholarship.</p>

17

<p>Wow! Thank you for the plethora of scholarship information. I’m going to start looking into these schools and some in state schools that might offer substantial merit aid in order to see if any of them fit my criteria.</p>

<p>Would it be easier to defer need based financial aid since it is not technically a scholarship? What are the differences between merit aid and need based financial aid other than that the latter is given based on income?</p>

<p>I also wanted to know, how important is the rigor of my classes when it comes to college admissions? Basically, is doing the IB program worth it when it comes to college admissions? My high school’s IB program is ranked number 1 in the state which is the only reason why I travel around 1.5 hrs walking and taking public transportation in order to get to school. I don’t want to drop out of the program now but if it is not worth it, I’m not sure if I see the point of killing myself one more year in IB instead of doing AP classes which in my school are definitely easier than IB due to the rigor of the IB program at our school.</p>

18

<p>Here is a site that I’ve found very useful as a primer on merit scholarships and need based FA:</p>

<p>[FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>http://www.finaid.org/)</p>

<p>In general, merit aid is based on factors outside of financial need (eg. academics, test scores, ECs, ethnicity/race, etc.) However there are hybrid merit scholarships that do take financial need into consideration (QuestBridge is an example). Within merit aid, there are two main types, outside and Institutional. One important point to remember is that for both outside and Institutional scholarships, the bigger ones are generally for fr applicants, there are relatively few merit awards for transfer students and they are usually of less value. </p>

<p>Outside merit scholarships are given through various organizations which are separate from colleges; these can range from very large (eg. Gates, Toyota) to a couple hundred dollars (eg. many scholarships through local organizations). Some are renewable for all four years, others are for 1 year only. Like most things in life, the big scholarships are highly competitive and very difficult to get, while students have a better chance at the local scholarships for small amounts. Outside scholarships can be found through scholarship websites (beware, they should never charge a fee), your HS, in the Resources sticky thread on this forum, and on other threads on the FA & Scholarship and Parent forums.</p>

<p>Institutional scholarships are those offered by a college. How you apply for these scholarships varies widely: completed admissions application by a specific date; separate scholarship application with essays; interview; etc. These scholarships will be listed on the college website, some may be university wide, while others are through the various colleges (eg. College of Liberal Arts or College of Engineering). Some schools are very good at describing the requirements for their scholarships, others are vague and may take follow-up via phone or email. And here there are also a few hybrids, such as the Jefferson scholarship which is administered by an organization but only support students at Duke & UNC-CH.</p>

<p>I would really emphasize that before applying to any outside or Institutional scholarships, you should call the organization/college and ask about deferring to take a gap year. Need based FA must be applied for each year using the FAFSA and/or CSS Profile forms, so you do not defer FA from one year to the next, rather you just fill out the forms for the year you attend. Be aware, need based FA is always based on the tax year previous to when you attend college (for example, for my D2 who will attend next fall for the 2011/12 school year, our FA will be based on our 2010 taxes.</p>

<p>Finally, yes, rigor of classes is important. If you look at the CA, on the Secondary School Report, your HS GC will mark one of the categories: most demanding, very demanding, demanding, average, below average. Your gpa will be taken into consideration along with the rigor of your coursework. One fallacy that many students here on CC have is thinking that they need to take a certain number of AP classes to be a competitive candidate, but it is relative to what your HS offers that you will be assessed. That said, how much difference ‘most demanding’ and ‘very demanding’ makes will vary depending on the strength of the rest of the application.</p>

19

<p>I’m sorry I took so long to respond but I have been busy with work and state orchestra competitions.
Thank you entomom!
I was searching through the website that you posted and it is amazing! There is so much useful information on there.</p>

<p>I have another question.
I was accepted into a program where I can take a college course at a Top 20 ranked local university for free. I also applied for a paid internship and I was also accepted. I’m not sure which one would be the most beneficial when it comes to college admissions in my situation. I could always use more money in my situation but I’m also very interested in taking the college course. Which summer activity would be the best option for me?</p>

<p>Thank you in advance.</p>

20

<p>Not a problem, congrats for making State and I hope it went well!</p>