Grad School Question - Page 2

Originally Posted by Youguysareawesome

For those of you looking to attend graduate school and ways of funding it there is a really helpful discussion from IDEAS involving DREAMers in grad school talking about which schools accepted them and how they paid for it. Here is summary of the ~hour long discussion/podcast combined with some experiences shared by DAPers. If you have experiences you want to anonymously share to add to this discussion, PM me.

List of Graduate Schools that have taken DREAMers and how helpful they were in funding but take the financial info with a grain of salt because it often depends on the department. When I talk about how easy it was to get in, I'm not speaking academically, lol, I'm talking about how easy it was to convince them to take you with your status.

ASU - Hard to get in but once in, the guy got a lot of help financially
Brown University - Has had DREAMers before and is very helpful in funding
Cal Poly Pomona - Easy to get into and did not give them a hard time, if you're applying here you can speak to Marcos
Columbia - Gave a large scholarship for a masters program
CSU-NorthRidge -1/2 the cost of UCLA
Drexel - Person withdrew application and chose another school but they were still giving them a hard time about not having a visa.*
Hunter College -no real scholarships
NYU - easy to get in but no real funding
Penn State - Has had DREAMers before
Rutgers - no luck with funding
Stanford - Has given DREAMers full rides before
UC-Berekley -can be helpful in funding but it all depends on your department
UCLA -can be helpful at times in funding
University of Michigan -easy to get in but don't know how helpful they are in providing help financailly
Yale -Has had DREAMers before and is very helpful in funding



*If a school (especially a private school) is giving you a hard time in even accepting you with your status have your pro-dream congressman contact them if they give you trouble. It has worked for a few people in the past. There is no reason why they can't accept you other than out of meanspiritness and a lot of these schools preach social justice and responsibility, so make them practice what they preach. Most are coming around though and once they see you face to face, they will usually work with you.

I think it also depends on the department and requires a lot of work on our end in explaining why we can't get a visa.
Networking is really important and even if a school says that international students must have a visa, they make exceptions.
Also someone told LatinaHispana that Stanford won't help us out financially, there are undocumented immigrants that have graduated from Stanford with full rides. So even if a school says they won't, keep trying. Face to face contact is more effective than emails or even phone calls. If they have anything resembling a heart, they will try to work with you.

There's a DAPer in Dental School right now (Bruinman) and at least one in Law School ( rocksteady), PM them if you want to know more. Those of you applying to Medical School, I found one DREAMer who was able to attend and there are plenty of former undocumented immigrants who went to medical school after they got their green cards. If anyone is interested in speaking with anyone of these people PM me and I'll send you their info but just to warn you I'm sure they get a lot of requests for info.

Originally Posted by nevfo

Yo I just finished my 4th semester of college. I'm just about finished with my junior requirements (need something like 6 units) and 40% of my schedule is going to be senior classes next semester. At this pace I'll have 12 units my last year of college, 6 of which are senior design classes (a lot of volume in terms of work, easy on the brain).

The plan is to stay as an undergrad my last year of school and take 5 grad courses within 2 semesters, along with those last 12 senior units. That's a savings of about $4000 in terms of tuition. My aspiration is to go to grad school at Berkeley, UCLA, or USC for earthquake and structural mechanics. I know I won't be able to ace my grad classes at CSUN if I work those last two semesters, like I'm doing now. I push through my classes without books, even now I stress a lot, worrying about tuition with an unstable (independent) job you know?

Marcos I know it depends largely on the department, but what was your GPA and GRE scores if you don't mind me asking? What department did you apply for?

If anyone else could advise me it would be greatly appreciated as well :]