<p>Is it bad if I talk about my parents for my essays? I do not want to sound like I am milking it but their life has had a big impact on me.</p>
<p>My mother works full time, she did not get a hs degree until last year. Every day I see her work hard to support our family.</p>
<p>My father had to drop out of highschool because his family in mexico was too poor. He came to the U.S. when he was only 17. He got his GED here and still managed to focus on his studies even after he was diagnosed with an incurable auto-immune neuromuscular disease,</p>
<p>I wanted to write about how they have motivated me to always persevere and overcome their challenge.</p>
<p>I think that topic is fine. The person you have become is a direct result of your parents experiences which in turn help to mold the person you are. Just make sure the essay focuses on you.</p>
<p>Agree w/sg. Just be sure that the major impact of your essay is about you, how you think, view the world, act, etc. as a result of their example. And if you can, try to do this creatively, in the context of a specific situation, rather than a general straightforward essay about “how my parents overcame adversity and how that impacted me”. For instance, my D2 wrote about how she began to deal with the death of her father in the context of a trip to visit his relatives in Argentina and how a relatively mundane occurrence had special meaning to her.</p>
<p>Good advice from the other posters. I really enjoy essays that start with a story or use a story to illustrate the theme. So…if there is an incident that demonstrates their fine qualities and how the incident/watching your parent’s response impacted you and how you see the world, this can be really memorable for a reader. Try this out as an approach for the essay.<br>
Your essay may be helpful for scholarship applications related to your family circumstances so please make sure that you are signed up on fastweb and indicate your minority status, first gen college student, chicano, etc. I think it is important to invest some time in an essay that can be tweaked for multiple applications. I know that Ohio State’s application for the Morrel (spelling) scholarship would have required this type of an essay. Perhaps other posters can refer the OP to other scholarships or programs that are relevant for this student.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for all the great advice! It really means a lot. High school has been especially tough for me since practically no one in my family(extended as well) knows anything about four year colleges/universities. </p>
<p>I really want to get accepted to a good UC to make my family proud since I have comparable statistics to the average but I am afraid I won’t be able to afford it Hopefully I can get some scholarships…</p>
<p>My advice would be to cast a wide net. I’m assuming you’re from CA, but with the fiscal situation there, FA could include a lot of loans even for IS students. I know they have the Regents and other scholarships, however, unfortunately they can’t consider race/ethnicity in admissions.</p>
<p>You should be looking at schools that offer good Institutional FA and/or merit scholarships. And if you are low income, there are many outside scholarships to consider, such as the ones given by sg above. </p>
<p>I see in your posting history that you have a 32 ACT which is very good, particularly if you are a first gen college student. If you are willing to give more information (gpa, rigor of coursework, if you’re NHS, type of school you’re interested in, etc.) I’m sure there are many here who would be willing to help suggest possible schools. Also, what schools are you already planning on applying to?</p>
<p>I am indeed from cali. While the 32 was decent I am going to actually study for more than a day for the Dec ACT and hope on getting around a 34/35. </p>
<p>What is “low income”? My family is making around 50k this year for a family of four…</p>
<p>I do not have my exact numbers for GPA but I would say my scores are decent since I have only had A’s and B’s. I did poorly my freshmen year when I had the least rigorous course load ever, but every Year my gpa improved.</p>
<p>Last year I took Three AP’s, stat, bio, spanish and obtained 5’s on all of them. This year I am taking 5 AP’s and Honors English. I am fairly certain that I will be able to get Straight A’s this semester. I consider my course load to be rigorous, especially since the school I attend was recently ranked around the 60s for the best high schools in the nation, and its public.</p>
<p>I plan on applying to the main UC’s, UCLA, UCB, UCSD, Irvine, Davis,</p>
<p>For privates I am applying to
Stanford, Rice, Wash U, USC, and Santa Clara University</p>
<p>I am doubtful I will get into the first three since I do not have a perfect GPA =</p>
<p>Chicano, check out [QuestBridge</a> Home Page](<a href=“http://www.questbridge.org%5DQuestBridge”>http://www.questbridge.org). This organization is meant to help students who are exactly in your situation.</p>
<p>Chicano … I advise applying to schools outside of CA! It may seem that CA schools are more afordable, but schools outside of CA will want you and will give you good merit scholarships. I don’t know much about need baised aid yet, but I think you will get plenty of need baised aid, that in combination with merit schoalrships, should make schools outside of CA a very good choice for you. We live in CA, my daughter with test scores less than yours, has not applied to any UCs or CSUs. And is being offered merit scholarships (she is a National Scholar, but some scholarships are just academic/merit).</p>
<p>Other states want students from outside of their states, large public schools, and small private LACS. Just one example: University of Alabama with your ACT, they would give you a full tuition scholarship. Deadline was Dec 1, if really interested you may be able to contact them. Other big state schools may have simlar offers. </p>
<p>Do some reasearch, just google search, and find schools that offer a lot of merit scholarships. Many private schools will have free applications on the Common Application.</p>
<p>I believe Questbridge matches came out on Dec 1, I’m not that familiar with the program, but unfortunately it is likely too late to for the OP.</p>
<p>I assume you’re applying for merit at USC, Rice, WUSTL and SCU (not familiar with them). With your family income level, I’d suggest both schools with great, no loan FA and merit for URMs. With your PSAT scores, you should have qualified for NHS if not NMSF, so those would open up a lot of possibilities.</p>
<p>Whether or not your courseload is rigorous or not doesn’t depend on the rigor of your school compared to other schools, but rather on the courses you took relative to what is offered at your school. If you look at the CA, you will see on the SSR that there’s a place for the GC to mark: most demanding, very demanding, demanding, etc., that’s what determines how rigorous your classes were.</p>
<p>As a low income, first gen Hispanic, you will likely be given some leeway on gpa and test scores. Here is a website that lists schools with free applications, and you should be able to get a waiver for test scores:</p>
<p>Some you might consider are Carleton, Denison (they have several large merit scholarships for URMs), Smith and Tulane. There are many more, you need to search to see which ones fit your financial, academic, geographic and social needs.</p>
<p>Chicano - check this thread here on College Confidential, where people have posted ‘Guaranteed’ merit scholarships based on test scores and/or GPA. Some of these may work for you. But deadlines may be fast approaching, or past.</p>
<p>OP, even at the UCs, you should qualify for grants/free tuition given the family income. Room and board if you are wanting to live at school will be what costs more. The Claremont Colleges tend to give good financial aid, with some of the schools being full need. It partly depends on how far away you want to go, since that also does add travel cost. Don’t sell yourself short. I agree with others who are saying that you should cast a wide net. Some of the schools that seem most expensive, if they also provide great financial aid, become quite affordable. Similarly, schools that provide merit aid, sometimes schools you have never heard of, can make it possible at times for you to have a completely free education. Wishing you the best!</p>
Hopefully I can get some scholarships…</p>