Senior here, looking to apply to colleges...

Hey everyone. I'm currently a Senior in High school who is looking at all his possible options for colleges and universities. However, I'm on the same boat as pretty much all of you... I'm undocumented. I came here over 10 years ago with my mom so that she could be closer to her family and we ended up staying. I've always done my best in school and that carried on to high school. I've taken my SATs and ACTs (1840, 29, respectively) and passed 6 AP exams, and I'm taking 6 more this year. I live in Florida, and when I learned about Bright Futures, I was ecstatic. All my friends were talking about getting the 75% or 100% scholarship, but unfortunately, I won't be able to as I'm not a Florida resident. I have a couple of friends who graduated last year and ended up going to Miami Dade College, but they are paying 3 times the tuition since they're international students.

I've been a prospective university applicant since my sophomore year, but I didn't realize that citizen was an obstacle until last year. Currently, my mom's status is "Deferred deportation", since she signed a voluntary deportation order, but not she is in limbo because her lawyer said she can't appeal until the state department escalates that or something. What about me? Well, my mom says I only have an expired I-94. Same with my dad, but he doesn't live with us. He is renewing my British passport, so if I apply anywhere, I suppose I'll apply with that. I get free lunch at school, so hopefully that will help me waive the application fees.

Now is the time everyone is getting around to college applications, and I really don't know what to do. I heard that some of the ivy leagues offer complete scholarships, even to undocumented immigrants, is this true? I know that there is a financial threshold where a student's tuition is covered 100%, but I'm not sure if that applies to undocumented immigrants. I'm going to be applying to Yale and MIT just for the heck of it. I also have University of Florida, Florida State University, NYU, Penn State, UCLA, and University of Chicago in mind, but I have no idea how the applications will go due to my citizenship status. I'm just wondering if anyone has gone through this process themselves and what they have done or if any of those schools offers aid for undocumented immigrants?

Thank you all for your support. It's nice to know that I'm not alone

you should also think about applying to USC and other schools like Swarthmore and maybe Loyola Marymount Unversity.
I know of someone with our status that is currently a freshman at USC and got a full ride, with the exception of room and board.

ahh a fellow student from the dade county public school system.

Yeah, at least you will have the applications paid for, that is pretty nice, you save a couple hundred bucks with that alone.
apply to as many places as you can, research the schools that you are planning to attend to see whether or not they might be immigrants friendly (i really did not do much of this, however, my counselor suggested one school for me, and guess what, it was the only school that offered me a scholarship and I am currently attending it right now). With that said, also ask your counselor, they will have lots of experience with students in your same situation and depending with what you want to study they might refer you to a school that they may think or actually know to have accepted undocumented students in the past, hopefully with some sort of scholarship.

6 APs this year, wow, how do you manage that crazy schedule?
Well, I wish you luck in your application process, if you have any other questions you can PM me.

USC and Swarthmore... thanks for the advice. Can you tell me more about that person you know? How was the app process for them and how did they get a full ride there? I'll look into those recommendations, thanks!

Yes! MDCPS since grade 1 and I've had a hell of a good education if I may say so myself. Hopefully my counselor won't be bugged by the fact that I'll be taking advantage of those waivers. I sent an e-mail to my counselor around the same time I made this post, so I should receive a response around tomorrow. Hopefully he'll guide me to the right direction and I won't be his first!

I don't know how I'll manage that schedule, but I guess I'll see as the year rolls out! It's not bad really. As long as you're committed and willing to sacrifice some sleep once in a while.

Thanks for the advice! It's nice to know that I'm not alone.

nah... I doubt he/she will be bothered, the only people that might be bothered are the teachers and people that will be filling out recommendation letters for all those places.

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