<p>thumper1, I live in Massachusetts and so does this family.</p>
<p>Massachusetts does provide free tuition to UMass to those who do well on our NCLB tests (MCAS) - again, one needs to be a US Citizen or permanent resident (ie, have a green card).</p>
<p>So that will be one avenue to explore.</p>
<p>I spoke to the father to make sure he wanted his daughter to go to college. Since his English is minimal, I hope he didn’t think I was offering to pay her way… will clarify when I see them!</p>
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<p>The key word there is free tuition. Because of the way the MA state schools are funded tuition ends up being a small percentage of the COA. In many cases mandatory fees are larger than the tuition.</p>
<p>@calimami – Actually forced immigration is still immigration. Africans that were brought to the US as slaves composed a wave of forced immigration, and therefore African Americans descending from slave families would be considered children of immigrants. Not to mention that many African American families carry genes from white slaveowners, who were voluntary immigrants to the US. Also some African Americans carry genes from Native Americans who long long ago were immigrants to this country as well and sometimes sheltered slaves.</p>
<p>hi smithie: i think that our language needs another term for what took place during the middle passage with respect to africans who arrived here and their descendants. native and white genes aside, the word ‘immigration’ commonly connotes ‘voluntary’. black americans represent a special case, and the use of the word ‘immigrants’ sort of softens the reality of how the first africans arrived here. english needs a different word for that, similar to how jewish people have (i think) two separate words for migration…aaliyah and something else…?</p>
<p>I agree with calimami. Calling Africans “immigrants” who were forcibly brought to the U.S. in slaveships is like calling Native Americans who walked the Trail of Tears “pioneers.”</p>
<p>Well, I think it’s interesting to note how right away people assumed at the start of this thread that immigrant parents = illegal immigrant parents or at least parents without a legal residency permts. Notice how you immediately associate immigration with a particular kind of immigration and disassociate it with another kind of immigration. </p>
<p>The word doesn’t need to change, we just have to be more sensitive to the fact that context is important no matter what language we’re using. The immigration of early 20th century Italians through Ellis Island is immigration. The importation of black slaves is forced immigration. The contexts could not be more different, but they can both claim the title of immigration. Similarly, the migration northward of African Americans during the “Great Migration” or the migration Westward of pioneers or the forced migration of Cherokees on the Trail of Tears are all migration. But they’re not all migration in the same context. </p>
<p>All of the people in the United States, if you go back far enough, are the descendants of immigrants. We did not however all immigrate under the same circumstances or in the same context. And when we’re discussing how to help children of immigrants go to college, we need to be aware of the context under which their families immigration occured, and sensitive to the fact that the term “immigrant” does not represent a homogenous experience.</p>
<p>My dictionary says:</p>
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<p>This is exactly what I meant in my OP.</p>
<p>And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming…</p>
<p>i never once made an assumption one way or the other about the ‘legality’ of the people fendrock is trying to help. so your sensitivity lecture isn’t needed.</p>
<p>as to financial aid (as has been pointed out already), there are different challenges for a student depending on the legal status of the ‘immigrant’. this isn’t news. it’s simply a common sense fact and has absolutely nothing to do with how any one person may feel about the current ‘immigration’ debate.</p>
<p>I didn’t make any assumption about their illegality/legality either. I assumed they lacked green cards since the OP says they are recent immigrants, and green cards take years to get. I remember that one of my college students was a rising college senior before he got his even though he had been in the U.S. at least since he was 12-years-old. Until he got his green card, he didn’t qualify for any financial aid.</p>
<p>In certain cases green cards are issued before landing in the U.S.</p>
<p>Well, the bottom line is that to help the student, the OP needs to learn the student’s immigration status, and the OP plans to do that.</p>
<p>In my experience with a $0EFC you will see, at a state flagship:</p>
<p>A full Pell grant (about $5-6k now?)
Possibly other small federal grants to the tune of a few hundred dollars
Whatever your state grant is</p>
<p>A private may add:
University grants</p>
<p>Also, merit grants</p>
<p>But immigration status will determine whether a student will get the aid that somemom refers to.</p>
<p>And for many private colleges, and even for virtually all state universities, often to get good financial aid, you need to be at the top of the admission pool in terms of stats. Most colleges aren’t able to meet the full financial need of their students. It’s only a very small number of colleges – all of which are highly competitive – that can do this. Very few of those promise to meet the full need of international applicants.</p>
<p>I spoke briefly with the student in question and the good news is that she is an American citizen (she was born here, although I know she spent most of her childhood in her parents’ home country).</p>
<p>She said that her GPA is not that great (don’t know the details), but that she is indeed the first generation to go to college.</p>
<p>Her being a U.S. citizen will make things easier. Where are her parents from?</p>
<p>@calimami and Northstarmom, I certainly wasn’t saying that YOU made assumptions about legality/illegality. But others did (maybe those posts have been deleted?). You made your own points about where the word immigration applies and doesn’t, which I don’t think were at all in valid, but simply indicative of the fact that immigration is a word that applies to a wide variety of contexts. I was simply making an academic observation about the word immigrant and its usage in society over history, and the importance of maintaining good context when discussing the problems that immigrants face (which are different for each heterogenous wave of immigration). Sorry if my comments were misconstrued. And yes, back to the actual point of this thread now.</p>
<p>“what can you expect to pay”, I believe was the question and unless that GPA is over 3.5 in top classes you can expect to pay a lot of money at anything beyond a CC.</p>
<p>I don’t remember if the OP has said where the student is planning to live, but if she is planning to come to live in the state of Virginia (east coast United States, mid-Atlantic/Southern region) she can do 2 years in the community college system and if she does well enough she can get guaranteed enrollment at the University of Virginia or any of the other participating state universities.</p>
<p>I am guessing that the student will want to stay in Massachusetts, but we shall see.</p>
<p>I am not having a lot of luck finding a list, but see if you can find college that has a federal TRIO program (Student Support Services). They have expertise in working with low income and first generation students. </p>
<p>I will link to a couple of programs here in the midwest to give you an idea of what services are offered.
[Frequently</a> Asked Questions](<a href=“http://www.simpson.edu/support/faq.html]Frequently”>http://www.simpson.edu/support/faq.html) Simpson College
[St</a>. Olaf College | Northfield, Minnesota, USA](<a href=“http://www.stolaf.edu/services/sss/SSSservices.html]St”>http://www.stolaf.edu/services/sss/SSSservices.html)</p>