geeps20

BU should have been an acceptance

DrGoogle

I think you are fortunate to be accepted to RPI. But please check out the guaranteed transfer community colleges to UCLA.
http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prosp...dm_cco/tap.htm

detoidi

Oh Mai Gee.
OP, I'm a recent immigrant from Vietnam and recently I have been admitted to UPenn, Emory, and waitlisted at Harvard.
I don't know if you're crazy, or what, but RPI is a very good school. I don't know why you are trying to go to Community College over it. If you are not able to pay for it, I understand. But try to negotiate with RPI. Otherwise, I think you're only fishing for compliments. Look, college decision is very random, and you're not well informed, so I understand. Your strategy of applying to 27 colleges is admirable, but, had you concentrated to fewer, the result might have been better.
College decisions are very random. I have been rejected/ waitlisted everywhere besides 2 schools (not counting safety): U of Texas, Rice, Ivies (except for Cornell and Dartmouth, where I didn't apply) and Stanford. Waitlisted at Harvard and Oxford college at Emory.

If you want, do well at wherever you choose to go and transfer next year/

Faline2

RPI is an excellent school!!

You are very mixed up if you don't realize it's excellent reputation particularly in all sciences and engineering. RPI commands respect for those who survive the level of difficulty in the curriculum. Many great people are alum. You would be part of a great story in education if you go to RPI.

I know you must have known your FAFSA Estimated Cost of Attendance before the results came in. And the Ivy applications just didn't make any sense. The odds are terrible for candidates with perfect everything. No one is criticizing your verbal scores. Few of us could accomplish what you have accomplished.

Getting into RPI is a huge blessing and gift.

Winter coats didn't sell all over the East coast this year because Winter never arrived. Buy a great winter coat on sale now, and add in warm boots and show up at RPI....go over your FAFSA again very carefully with a staff person at RPI. If your father is disabled, get more documentation. They already gave you an additional 3 grand reduction.

Why don't you at least go and get a year done and keep pursuing avenues for surviving financially once you get there. There are summer jobs, part time jobs, some people apply to be Resident Assistants and get free rent/board. There could be ways to make RPI work that you are not generating in your mind. It might be possible to underload, work for money a goodly number of hours a week and graduate in five years for instance.

In my high school, one of my best friend's went to RPI, then he taught at the Naval Academy and then he became a high executive in a major corporation which I will not name in DC.

He says he got a wonderful education but it was very very hard work along the lines of its peer colleges...Georgia Tech type colleges and also cold and snowy. He didn't have "fun" all the time because in his day there were fewer women and frankly engineering schools are just harder. But you have the talent to do well in engineering and physics and sciences.

Please don't tell me that you are going to get a fabulous opportunity and then not accept it. Just Show UP. Get started. If you have to finish somewhere less expensive, OK...but go out there and get started. that is one woman's advice.

You are not the first person from China admitted who had deep financial worries. You should move there and then figure out how other immigrants made this work out.

The door is open. Walk through it. You can't take care of your family, help your father etc until you focus for a while on reaching your personal potential

MYOMOO

I know why so many UCs rejected me. I just provide my three-year HS academic record while they require four year. Although I had told UCAP to help me update my Grade 9 courses and grade, now in my Davis account (waitlisted), I found my Grade 9 course still missing. Maybe UCs do not include my update, or think I did not follow their rules so they rejected me. Do you guys think I can still appeal?

DrGoogle

Yes, that is why there is an appeal process. But serious, do think about the offer from RPI, it's an excellent school better than some of the UCs, IMO.

MYOMOO

I think I will probably end up with community college...

entomom

^Then work hard and transfer, that's what I did.

ArKhAiK

Listen to Faline2's advice.

GMTplus7

MYOMOO,
My guess is that your nationality was the problem. Colleges are aiming for demographic diversity, and Chinese nationals are an over-represented group. Being a Chinese citizen AND needing financial aid is probably a deal killer

Faline2

Myomoo, I recognize your financial limitations. You are not the only person applying to colleges you cannot afford and then complaining that you can't pay your EFC. Tons of American students are doing the same thing. We couldn't afford our EFC either and ended up taking out a second mortgage which wasn't very smart in this economy with housing values dropping.

The question I have is more personal and I don't even want an answer on this board which is not a good place for sharing too much in my opinion. But think about this. Are you afraid to move to New York State and to face the worry about taking out loans? This is a lot for any young man to take on with concerns about how to pay such loans back in a tough job market.

But you have an invitation to a top university with a reputation for excellence in a job market that values technology and engineers and physics majors. You have the proven ability to do well in this arena.

You have been brave enough to cross cultures, master a second language. Please be sure that you have also not come to the end of your rope on taking chances.

I think you should be considering taking the risk of going to RPI at least for one year. You might make allies, you might find work, you might find ways to cut costs. You might meet other international bilingual students there.

You don't have to decide to give them your first born son or all four years of debt and loans. Go for a year. You got into a top college...a better college for personal relationships with teachers than some of the UCs. Perhaps you could transferback into UCs the next year.

MYOMOO

Do you guys think I can appeal UCB, UCLA and UCSD sucessfully. I missed a year of academic record, which might be the reason. I will provide them my four-year transcript and a teacher recommendation. Also my father's medical documentation when necessary.

polarscribe

MYOMOO, my father is a California community college graduate, and he holds a Ph.D from UC Berkeley. I am a California community college graduate, and I'm now a graduate student at Indiana University.

Going to community college is a great opportunity, not a scarlet letter.

MYOMOO

@GMT plus 7

I think so. I am a Chinese citizen who did not attend HS in America and need aid

fall2016parent

MYOMOO - doesn't hurt to appeal. Looks like you are reluctant to attend RPI though I would have jumped at that opportunity (it might actually be better than a UC ) See post #56.