Schools that are "Documentation Status Blind"

Parent Cafe
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<p>Let me preface this by politely requesting that we keep this thread from turning into a political debate on immigration politics.</p>

<p>I'm a recent grad college grad, now doing Teach for America. Around 15% of the students at my school are undocumented - usually because their families brought them across the border when the students were three or four years old.</p>

<p>These students tend to be discouraged about their future prospects -- "We can't go to college if we don't have papers!" or "We can't get financial aid or scholarships if we're not documented."</p>

<p>It would be incredibly helpful to me (and undocumented students who might peruse CC) if we could compile a list of ways to make college affordable for undocumented, low-income students.</p>

<p>One good resource I've found is: FinAid</a> | Other Types of Aid | Scholarships for Undocumented Students</p>

<p>Option 1: Live in or move to a state that offers in-state tuition to students without documentation
Offered by Texas, California, New York, Utah, Illinois, Washington, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas, usually only to students who graduate from high school in those states.</p>

<p>Option 2: Apply to a school that is "Documentation Status Blind" when it comes to financial aid
Undocumented students can't receive federal financial aid. My understanding is that some schools with strong financial aid programs (i.e. Harvard, Yale, Stanford) will make up for that missing aid with grants from the school. Are there schools beyond these that have similar policies?</p>

<p>Option 3: Scholarships
<a href="http://latinocollegedollars.org/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://latinocollegedollars.org/&lt;/a> allows you to search for scholarships that either require or don't require documentation</p>

<p>All ideas will be greatly appreciated!</p>

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<p>I’m pretty sure Earlham does.</p>

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<p>Isn’t the “Dream Act” trying to address this issue?</p>

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<p>I get the impression that policies on undocumented students aren’t mentioned frequently. When admissions officers visit my school, they are often asked this. Some are taken aback by the question and not all of them know the definite answer.</p>

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<p>Vassar considers undocumented students for need-based financial aid using the same policies they use for documented domestic students, according to their web site.</p>

<p>There are several approaches colleges can take:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Consider undocumented students for need-based aid in the international pool. Some colleges offer need-based aid to a small number of international students. But domestic students are at a disadvantage in this pool because they don’t bring an international perspective if they’ve grown up in the U.S. This domestic background is usually not what the school is looking for in its international students.</p></li>
<li><p>Consider undocumented students in their own pool. Some colleges have a very limited number of full scholarships for these students. Very limited, so it’s very competitive.</p></li>
<li><p>Consider undocumented students for merit aid. Some colleges allow undocumented students to compete for merit scholarships along with other domestic students. If they can combine a merit scholarship from the college with other scholarships from outside organizations, it can work.</p></li>
<li><p>A small number of Questbridge colleges will fund undocumented students. Talk to Questbridge about which ones are currently available.</p></li>
</ul>

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<p>The other option is to look for schools whose sticker price is extremely low to begin with. Not all undocumented students are poor. Many of them have parents who came here to make money and have had some success in doing so. </p>

<p>Just as an example, University of Minnesota-Morris costs about $19K per year including room, board and books. </p>

<p>The bigger problem IMHO is the inability of these students to legally work in the US. </p>

<p>I’ve always wondered why more undocumented immigrants don’t go into fields that are on the list of high demand skilled professions for which Canada is seeking immigrants. Once granted Canadian permanent residency, it doesn’t seem like it takes that long to get Canadian citizenship, at which point they have a legitimate Canadian passport and can enter the US to visit family, while living a good life in Canada. </p>

<p>Don’t get me wrong. I support the Dream Act. It’s a huge loss the US to put these kids in the horrible position they are in, but it seems like there are options, though they are not terrific.</p>

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<p>Hi–Sorry, not a very organized post as I’m in a hurry.</p>

<p>In addition to the suggestions you mention, look at greenNote.com as a way of using a personal network for donations. This would not necessarily cover the cost (probably not) of a 4-year college, but might help pick up the gap between scholarship aid and cost, or help defray the cost of a community college, or the cost of books.</p>

<p>As mentioned before, some private colleges will have designated scholarships, others will consider them as internationals, others are need blind including undocumented situations. It is really hard to get information on this, and student or someone on student’s behalf may have to call colleges individually, preferably talking to someone in the financial aid office.</p>

<p>Similarly, students (unless parents are documented–and sometimes this does happen) cannot file the fafsa. However, some schools want a paper version of the fafsa sent to them &/or the CSS profile. So, students may need to make sure their parents have their income information accessible and organized. Some may be filing taxes, but others may not be, especially if working on a cash-only basis. (And, many of the businesses affected by the oil spill – American-owned-- had a hard time getting compensation, due to operating on a cash, informal economy basis. All should be filing taxes, paying insurance etc. I don’t want to derail the thread and have it move in this direction. My point is, if schools or private scholarships are wanting something more than proof that the student was receiving reduced or free lunch, students need to be prepared to have that infor handy.)</p>

<p>Probably the most clearly written explanation of how to go about getting help is put out by Educators for fair Consideration [Educators</a> for Fair Consideration (E4FC)](<a href=“http://www.e4fc.org/]Educators”>http://www.e4fc.org/) which has great PDF for students (including how to broach the topic of their status and with whom) as well as many, many suggestions regarding the college application status. Also, the same group has a great pdf (under educator resources) for educators. </p>

<p>It seems to me that some of the tippy-top schools (need blind) have great scholarship options for those few undocumented students who also have great grades and SAT scores. What is trickier is getting the financial support for more average students. Luckily, we do have very nicely priced community colleges here, some with good reputations, so that is always an option. </p>

<p>One thing I would also recommend is pulling parents in early so that they understand, for instance, why kids need extracurriculars, or why they are applying for free SAT prep support and spending so much time on test prep, etc. Pulling parents in shows respect to the family unit , particularly parents, as college planning is a family process. </p>

<p>Also looking at the colleges that are in commuting distance, if any,is helpful. Even if many of the classmates are looking to reside in college, many if not most American students do commute. Internationally, in many countries living at home while attending university is the norm. So, students should not feel that this is a lesser option. sometimes, it is the only option. </p>

<p>Thanks for going the extra mile in helping your students.</p>

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<p>I’d remove New Mexico from this list. While this was true during Gov. Bill Richardson’s tenure, that policy has been changed. Our new governor, Susanna Martinez, ran on a platform that included a revocation of both in-state tuition for undocumented students and of issuing NM driver’s licenses to undocumented individuals. She has already ordered a stop to both practices.</p>

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<p>I wonder what their opportunities would be if they moved to the country the parents are from? Having gone to school in the USA may have afforded them opportunities that put them at a competetive advantage compared to students applying to college in that country. As an example, if a person whose parents are citizens of Mexico attended school here, did fairly well - perhaps a weighted 4.0+GPA with some APs, and is fluent in Spanish applied in Mexico, I wonder what the opportunities would be for that person in cost, positioning relative to other people in that country, and ability to perhaps help pull that country out of poverty and corruption if the person was willing to be employed there either in industry or government.</p>

<p>Why limit the search to just schools in this country?</p>

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<p>There are great schools in Monterrey that give the Mexican student excellent opportunities to get shot in the back of the head. </p>

<p>ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad are you serious?</p>

<p>Seriously, I don’t advocate so called dream act kids from leaving the US unless it’s to go to a Canadian or UK graduate school on full support, or to obtain permanent employment.</p>

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<p>I found a great thread on another board btw</p>

<p>[Accepted</a> At Canadian Institution - DREAM Act Portal Forum](<a href=“Accepted At Canadian Institution - DREAM Act Portal Forum”>Accepted At Canadian Institution - DREAM Act Portal Forum)</p>

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<p>And, if you read the thread in the other forum, you will find that it is in no way a slam dunk for undocumented students to apply for a student visa in Canada. Some of them were approved (grad student in field currently needed in Canada), others were denied. It is in no way straightforward. The fact that they were undocumented here did work against the students. However, for some, it may be a possibility.</p>

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<p>Thank you all for the very helpful suggestions! Here’s some information about the Federal Dream Act and in-state tuition [In-state</a> tuition | DREAM Act Portal](<a href=“http://dreamact.info/students/in-state]In-state”>In-state tuition | DREAM Act Portal) A statewide Dream act has been proposed (or passed) in many states to give undocumented students in-state tuition.</p>

<p>While some of the suggestions here might not work for my students ($19k may be a bargain, but that’s more than the annual household income for many of my kids!!), I truly appreciate that all who have replied have shown helpful intentions on a sensitive issue!</p>