Hello everyone.

Hello,
I just wanted to say that I am very glad that i found this website. For the past couple of years, i had been looking for something just like this, I even thought about starting a website on my own. I am glad that I found it since i think sometimes when we are in such tough situations, the support we get from others makes all the difference. I, like many of you, have felt helpless and conflicted about my situation and the constraints that it puts on my life and my future. I have always found it unfair when a good moral character and hard work are not recognized. I think this is where a lot of our frustrations come from, we work hard but we can't help but wonder if we will ever be able to be rewarded for it. Personally, I did very well in high school, I managed to keep a very high GPA, 4.2 weighed. I never though about my "situation" and what that would mean for college and I never really mentioned it to anyone since I did not want to change the way they looked and thought about me. In all honesty, maybe I should of had something maybe that way I would of had meet someone who would of had given me proper guidance as to what I should do about college. I wish someone had told me that it doesn't really matter where you go for your Undergraduate education, and that it really matters more how well you do.
To put it in a few words, my experience in college has been painful. I have worked full time and gone to school full time, and borrowed money from relatives that I did not even know I had. If I could give one piece of advice to anyone in the same situation, looking forward to graduating from high school this year, it would be to go to a community college, or to apply to a private school as an international student, along with applying to the schools international scholarships. I really hope that none one does what I did, and choose to go to a school that is expensive just because of the prestige. It is not worth it. In my four years in college what i have learned is that your GPA and test scores(either GMAT, MCAT, LSAT, etc.) are what matter the most if you want to go to graduate school for medicine, law, or something else, and which college you went to is more of an afterthought. I am saying this because I know a lot of us in this situation have dreams of becoming doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc and I wouldn't want anyone to jeopardize that opportunity. I know that sometimes that opportunity seems far off and maybe non existent, but this is only the case when we loose hope in our dreams.
I really hope that no one in this situation gives up on their dreams. Loosing the hope in your dreams i think is one of the worst things that can happen to us. It might be hard, but it can be done, and we must remember that at the end we are the only ones who end up owning our lives. So make your dreams happen, and never loose hope.

Thanks for sharing and welcome!

Thats actually quite true. Prestige matters, but not as much as your GPA.

Welcome!

hullo! you make a good point that we should all keep in mind. what "expensive & prestigious" school did u go to?

sup

hey thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it. I have a 4.2 right now in high school and I'm stressing about college, I've been planning to go to UC Berkeley here in CA where I live, mainly to prove that I can get in, I know it sounds dumb, but I work hard and want to make it big, not just go to a community college like everyone else who gets by so easily in school. By the way what university did u go to? and if u have any other advice to give I would truly appreciate it.

There have been other people from this site that went to UC Berkeley. Let me know if you want their info maybe they can help you out a bit.

Yes hooper, I would appreciate that a lot.

Hello everyone,
Thank you very much for responding to my post and I would be more than happy to help by answering some of the questions that were posted.

TO Latina~Hispana
I know exactly what you mean by wanting to prove that you can get in. Getting in is an awesome feeling, but believe me its worth it to go to any school if you can't afford it. I would say if you already got in, maybe you should consider deferring for at least one year. In my humble opinion I would say to go to a community college, or a cal state and then transfer. Lower division classes are not worth paying more than you have to for them. I am not sure about your plans for the future, but if they involve graduate school, like medical school, i know they don't really care where you take your lower division classes. I have asked several deans of admissions commities at several top medical schools, and they have all said they really don't care, you just need to get all A's in them.
[ As a side note, if any one is planning on going to medical school, please know that it is not necessary to major in a biology related field. Major in something that you are interested in and show that you care about it by getting a really high GPA and getting excellent letters of recs from your professors. I am saying this because at first I was a Bioengineering major because I was told that this is the kind of major that medical schools look for, but I hated it, and you can only guess how disastrous that was on my GPA. Also some medical schools prefer people from non science majors, such as English or Philosophy.] I know it would be great to tell all your friends that you will be going to Berkeley, but believe you don't want to tell them the year after that you have dropped out because you couldn't concentrate on school work because of financial problems. Go to where you can afford to go and be the top student, and transfer to Berkeley or maybe even something better. The opportunities are endless, you just need to figure out how to get there. Make the most of your journey, and don't let anything stop you from achieving your goals.

thanks for the advice!

i'm actually attending ucla this fall, which is my dream school, and i want to attend med school after too.. to become a doctor. i've received about 5,000 in private scholarships but that's short 20,000 needed for ucla.
however, i can't help but think about the financial strain it will put on me and my parents.. it costs too much

should i go to my community college instead? =/

because i'm salutatorian i feel like i have to go to a "prestigous" college. who's heard of a salutatorian going to a community college? =/... my friend, who's the valedictorian, is going to ucla also. i can't help wonder what she'll think about me going to a community college.

also,

is that really true that you can major in fields not related to biology, even if you want to attend med school?