<p>Hello everyone,
My name is Dana, I'm almost 19 and live in Israel.
My whole life I wanted to go to college in America, I guess I can officially say it's been my life long dream.
Here, people don't take education too seriously, everyone gets out of the army at the age of 21-22, and starts to worry about school probably like a year or two later. I always thought I should finish the army and then consider it again and see if it's possible. But, last winter, before I was drafted, I visited some family in the states and this whole college thing really got to me, again. It took me maybe two days to realize what I really want to do in the next four years, and it wasn't to control air-traffic in the Israeli Air-Force.
I can go on and on with way too many unnecessary details, but I don't want to over do it. Main point- I decided I can not persue in this millatery service any longer, my heart is just not in it and I feel like I'm letting go of my dream.
I don't wanna go to college when I'm 21, and by sophmore year be the oldest one on-campus (I know people wait, drop, being held back, but the general feeling, you get my point)!
Now, here's where all the trouble begins, my parents don't have money to afford college in America, ANY college, sadly. They can't even afford buying me the plane ticket or my SAT's registration. Not to mention that they are not supporting this idea at all and would do anything to fail me.</p>
<p>I decided to go on with it anyway, left the army, even though there's no college acceptance guaranteed here for me, I have neither my parents' support nor their money, am not a U.S. citizen and kinda messed everything up with the army, which is a bad thing if my future will be here after all.
Now, that's all the stuff I have been ignoring for like 8 months now, basically reality.</p>
<p>My stats are pretty good. I haven't taken the SAT's yet, I will be taking them in Oct. 9th. So it's pretty hard to tell what my shots are at any school. My GPA is pretty good, but here we weight it differently, so it's hard to tell.
Schools here don't rank. I have some really great EC's, I have many of them and I did them all with great passion, I really didn't know in high school that I'll be applying to schools in America lol... Here schools only count SAT's (the Hebrew version) and high school grades. Again, I have some pretty intresting EC's, for example, I have founded a theatre group that brings together Israelis and Palestinians, I was a medic and a first aid instuctor at Isreal's national first aid orgenization, took acting classes for 9 years, have held several jobs, took part in the Gaza pull-out, also known as the "Disengagement" this summer, as a solider which most soliders didn't, and there's a few more... </p>
<p>I really want to study film and theatre, and my two top choises are USC and Boston College. I'm optimistic, what can I say...</p>
<p>Now now I'm working 3 jobs to afford airfare and the few obligatory expenses, and I'll be coming to the states next month, hoping to get some interviews.
Bottom line is, if I don't get a full scholarship anywhere, I will sadly have to leave the states after 6 months.
No one here is even slightly knowledgeable about the admission process to schools in the states, so I'm all alone trying to figure it out, and it's getting so close and I'm finding myself compelety clueless about certain things.
Is there anyone here that other then tell me this idea is most likey to go down the drain is willing to coach me through this process some how? I seem to be losing tract on things I don't know much about and that scares me a little. Any other tips and advice will be VERY VERY VERT MUCH appreciated Thank you!</p>
<p>Dana</p>