All I can say after reading this post is…WOW, congratulations on Princeton and overcoming all adversity. You have truly accomplished something great and kudos to you.
Congratulations!
"Like oldfort said, the reality check comes when you realize that you are disadvantaged compared to the other students, but it may not be in an academic sense – it may come in a social sense. "
I disagree. The reality check will come when you realize how advantaged you are compared to other students. You have the advantage of being independent, hard working, self motivated, and resourceful far above what’s the norm for even schools like Princeton, and certainly for the rest of society. The advantages that you have will help you successfully rise above any challenges you face due to your not coming from as strong an educational background a do most of your classmates. Those advantages are what caused so many excellent schools to accept you.
The most important lesson that you provided was the importance of doing everything one can – including working as much as 40 hours a week – to reach one’s goal of going to college.
Even though the teacher who mentored you has retired, I hope you’ll write or call that teacher to let them know about your success and how much their support meant to them. I know you’ll make that teacher’s year to hear your good news. If you can’t find the teacher’s contact info in the phone book, ask the school principal or secretary to obtain their address for you (They can call the teacher and ask for this) or to forward a thank-you note from you to the teacher.
Please keep posting on CC about your college experiences. CC can be a nice support for you. People here --particularly on Parents Forum – will cheer for your successes, and will offer good advice when you encounter the inevitable challenges that face all college students. You also will inspire many others whose backgrounds are similar to yours.
Cool. Sometimes I wish I was a hard worker…
eh, nah.
FortunaHope – Congratulations. An inspiring story, not only your unique situation, but the manner in which you wrote your account. It moved me!<br>
Keep up the great work and I pray that your parents recognize the gem that they have raised.
Congratulations! I feel like such a slacker now.
My sister’s friend was doing the college-on-a-budget thing. I think she applied to just 2 schools, OSU (Ohio) and Harvard, to cut application costs, but there might have been a third match school I forgot about. She got into Harvard and goes there for around the same amount of money you’ll go to Princeton for.
I’m incredibly inspired, humbled, and thoroughly amazed…
You are an incredible person who will succeed wherever you go. Good luck.
Wow…this was such an inspiration to me. I honestly must say that, though your parents don’t see your ENORMOUS potential, look at all the CCers you have affected…you certainly motivated me because my dream school is Cornell and I definitely do not have perfect grades. I admire your motivation, you are truly an inspiration. Thank you so much for posting this. Once again, don’t let your parents get to you, you have achieved so much and have inspired so many. Good luck, you will go far.
This is one of the best stories I have read in my life. I am left speechless. CONGRATS!
Are you a minority? I don’t mean to be cynical, but that might answer your question of why Princeton/Cornell/etc. accepted you.
I honestly don’t mean to discredit your accomplishments, but you admitted that your statistics weren’t quite up to par. . .
You’re awesome. Don’t let anyone stop you! =)
If you’re a guy… will you marry me?
Awesome story. It just goes to show that hard work truly does pay off, and that heartwarming stories count for so much more than artificially high stats.
So, congratulations! Best of luck at Princeton, and in your later career. I wouldn’t be surprised if your name ends up in the history books someday for your life’s accomplishments. All the best!
Congrats! Go for everything you can, take advantage (in the best possible sense of the word) of every opportunity that comes your way, and love Princeton. I am thrilled for you. Remember that college takes some adjusting to, and you’ll no doubt be with very affluent, smart kids too…don’t let that deter you. I know you’ll succeed.
Wow, simply… wow! I’m soooo excited to be going to Princeton together with you next year!
You seem to be a person I’d like to know well. Message me your name or facebook me please? haha
Congratulations! I will say though that reading through your post I began to wonder did you make any statements like “During this summer I took classes at the Community College, they were incredibly easy” to your parents? Since they both attended community college, maybe they are just upset. I think they should be proud of you and I think they will once they see that Princeton doesn’t change the person you are. I know you think they treated you like trash by their statement but maybe they felt the same way if you mentioned community college as easy to them. Or if they took your excitement as arrogance or something. I am not a member of your family so I do not know exactly what happened but it just sounds to me like something you need to talk with your parents about. Some parents have a hard time expressing their feelings, and they may have thought you would go to a local community college and stay close to home. I don’t know where you live but Princeton is probably further away then they thought you would be. I mean all I can do is speculate but I would hate for you and your parents to continue down this road, just talk to them about it.
All of that Dr. Phil stuff behind…CONGRATULATIONS once again. I think you give hope to many people. I am also saddened that you did not know about fee waivers that is one thing I always try to speak about because I know there are so many intelligent individuals like yourself who do not apply to college because they cannot afford the application fees. Hopefully your success will change the way your school approaches the entire college process. Maybe now they will stop being satisfied with some students going onto college and having to apply based on little knowledge. I think you inspire many people who come on CC with dreams like yours and leave with “I shouldn’t even bother applying to my dream school.” I am very glad that there are colleges out there that look at the entire package.
Congratulations. Your story truly made my day.
Your parents may not notice how much work and time youre putting into your education. Even though I love my parents with my whole heart, sometimes they werent much support. For two years (my junior and my senior year), I would get into huge fights with my mom over how much I studied. “Stop studying! You study too much; help me cook or do something useful.” Every time I got a competition she would get upset at me when she had to pick me up. My senior year I was exhausted because of so much work (I would sleep 4 hours a night). To make matters worse I spent three months without weekends because of competitions and community service. My sisters would get upset because I was in competitions while they went to the beach. Because of work, lack of sleep, and no cooperation from my family I fell into deep depression. Then I got into Brown and then I noticed all that work did pay off. Thats when I noticed that I had no one to thank by myself. Remind yourself of that (to the OP), you got this; no one else helped you; this is your reward and now that youre going to live in school no one will be there to drag you down and depress you. You will only get support and praises.
Ohhh and to add one more thing to everyone else. I have noticed alot of parents come here to help their kids get into college by getting advice from their kids. Everytime I see a parent asking for help for their kid I want to pm them and thank them for being such awesome parents. Imagine, there are alot of parents who dont care at all about their kid’s education and sometimes they even drag them down. Thank you parents for being such good and supporting parents.
The american dream…it lives!!!
Congratulations! I’ve never heard of anyone who deserves this more than you. Yale, you made the wrong decision 
Thank you very much for sharing that story. Best of luck at Princeton.
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If you’re a girl, will you marry my son?
Your story is amazing, so inspirational. I hope you the best in college!