<p>Artloversplus - Unfortunately you’re math is a little off. There are 812,313 people TOTAL in the state of South Dakota and in 2007-2008, the last year projections were available, there were 8,210 high school seniors in the state (Source: DOE NCES Digest). Certainly not “hundreds of thousands of high schoolers.” :D</p>
<p>I also think the commenters getting hostile about whether this young woman is “truly first-gen” are missing the point. Firstly, she doesn’t even know with any certainty whether these paternal grandparents, whom she has never met, did indeed earn college degrees. Secondly, the whole concept of benefiting first-generation college students is to give a helping hand/leg-up to young people who do not come from families, environments, or communities with college-going cultures. That certainly seems to describe this young woman. In this scenario it would be akin to penalizing an adopted student whose biological parents “may have” been college-educated, though his/her adoptive family did not.</p>
<p>To the original poster – both North and South Dakota (and I’ve been to both several times!) have tuition reciprocity agreements with other schools including, but not limited to, the University of Minnesota. UM-TC is an excellent place with lots of opportunities for research in the sciences. </p>
<p>Additionally, in exchange for 2-4 years of service with the National Health Service Corps working in rural areas, you can receive tuition, fees, other reasonable educational costs and living stipend paid by the federal government for medical, dental, or nursing school. I’ve often wondered why young people don’t pursue the NHSC option more often - albeit there are some limitations (primary care and related fields like pediatrics are the only eligible specialties for MDs) and it requires a commitment that make necessitate deep lifestyle changes, but you sound like a PERFECT candidate. Think about it for med school. Of course you have some time before then ;)</p>