questions to grad-school dreamers :)

I have a question about post-grad life as a dreamer...

I'm a Senior at a 4-year university and planning to apply to graduate schools this year... (dental schools).
Did you guys ever had to mention about your legal status in your application? In my application there is a section where you can write about your disadvantaged status and I was wondering if it is 'safe' to talk about my difficulties due to my legal status here. The question is something like "Have you faced hardships that interfered with your educational pursuits? Do you consider yourself academically, socially,
and/or economically disadvantaged?"
I had to turn down many good opportunities because they required legal residence (SSN, etc.) I feel like my application would have been a lot stronger if I was able to take those opportunities :/

Anyways, should I stay AWAY from anything that may hint about my legal status??

Thank you so much for your comments in advance! )

Well most likely the graduate school or dentist school will eventually know about your lack of legal status, so it would be safe to write about it. Then it comes down to if you are comfortable enough to write about your situation or not.

Actually, writing down about your situation might work in your favor. There are schools with programs geared to helping out those that face certain disadvantages. The program might also help you find scholarships that do not require you to have proof of legal status. Good luck...

several years ago I would agree with you, but now... not so sure. There are some obvious disadvantages that our status generates which makes it impossible to really compete with someone that has documents, however we may try. Letting them know might allow them to see, that yes, you are undocumented, but you have been undocumented and completed 4 years of college, and you overcame those hardships. In this case, you might be able to gear in such a manner that it would seem like achieved a great accomplishment and therefore stand out against other applicants that maybe got a little further just because of opportunities they had with their status. (that is basically what I did for my college applications, and I got accepted to all the schools except for 2 (MIT and Cooper Union), out of maybe 10-12 places, and most places ranked in the top 100 {don't make them pity you, worst idea when you are hoping to get accepted somewhere}).

A lot of places are probably not going to invest on someone that they think will have no future, or at least not get somewhere because of their lack of status. Give it a twist where you write about your aspirations in the field, and what you will be able to accomplish after you overcome the obstacle (you know, hinting the possibility of attaining status without actually saying it). This will probably work best for the hardships faced portion.
You do not want to make them pity you, it will not work in your favor if they think that you are going to be a weak candidate like that.

In high school it was easier to compete with people, they where more in my league without the apparent disadvantages. I did not attain the high GPA they got because they were able to take advantages of programs that boosted their weighted GPA, but I accomplished some great stuff on my own without having to worry about where the money came from, or what resources I was taking up (and trust me, I did some pretty expensive projects, lol).