<p>Texas helps them go through high school, gives them in state tuition as well as financial aid in college. After all that, they can’t get a real job because they are still illegal. </p>
<p>Makes zero sense.</p>
<p>Yep, less than zero, really. It’s the definition of counter productive, imho.</p>
<p>The other thing that I would recommend for this student is to take AP and CLEP exams in any subjects that she can get credit for. While CLEP may not be useful at the most competitive colleges, many state colleges take them for credit. These credits are like money that can be used for a degree. To the extent that she can get credits this way for a lot less than community college classes, it could put her on her way toward getting a degree in fewer semesters. Save the money for the education she can’t get for free.</p>
<p>You might also want to read the encouraging threads of this individual who has just been accepted as a transfer to Cornell, which meets full need. </p>
<p>[College</a> Confidential - Search Results](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/search.php?searchid=29651894]College”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/search.php?searchid=29651894)</p>
<p>Again, even more great information for me to research–I knew I could count on CC parents!</p>
<p>Our state does provide in state tuition for students who have completed 3 yrs of HS in state and graduated from that HS. The in-state cost for the school she was admitted to (all inclusive) is approximately 30,000 per year. There are no 4-yr colleges near us, so wherever she went she would have to move away from home.</p>
<p>Our local CC does have a contract with our HS that all students graduating with >3.5 gpa may attend for free. I know she will go if she must (she is very humble and completely understands the situation her mother put her in). The problem remains being able to work legally (she is not interested in following in mom’s path) so she can save up for future education costs. Looking for a school that does provide assistance for illegal’s sounds like the way to go. I will look into how she would go about applying as an international and getting a green card.</p>
<p>I have to admit that my first thought was also for her to get married ( all ethical issues aside) but she is a very quiet girl that has little experience in the boy department (spends her free time raising her siblings).</p>
<p>I’m with you Poet Girl on the whole inability to get a job if she is able to graduate from college. I hope that by being educated maybe she can go back to her home country and make a life for herself (and try to legally enter the country). If she follows the path of others like her at my HS, she will remain illegally in the country, purchase a fake SS#, and get the same type of minimum wage job her mother has. The illegals are used and abused where we live for cheap labor–everyone knows their SS#'s are fake but the businesses hire them anyway (the law only requires them to document a SS#-not verify if it is legitimate). We also have some (but not enough to permanently scare the illegals) cases of INS “catching” these parents and returning them to Mexico without their legally born children–what a mess! Many times the kids end up in foster care.</p>
<p>^^^ I imagine that’s the way it is in many western states, where there is significant Latino population that lacks papers. The system discourages many of the more ambitious/talented kids from pursuing higher education because even as college graduates their opportunities are hugely limited. Sigh again.</p>
<p>I imagine if she manages to gets degree in the US, she may be very likely to also fall in love and be able to marry a citizen. There is no ethical issue- many kids meet their future spouse in college. I guess I’d rather focus on best case, rather than worse case scenario about her future. This just seems a whole lot more likely than her returning to Mexico.</p>
<p>I’ll marry them, too, over an 800-line if needed. Done that before - I’m a Universal Life Church minister. (I can make her a saint, too, if she likes, or even Pope!)</p>