Hello peers
I’m an Iraqi female that arrived to the US as an asylee with my mother and sister, i’ve been in the united states for less than a year now, i’m a junior and i might barely have a 3.3 gpa by the end of the year, i’m only taking AP art studio and self studying AP psychology, the reason why i have a low gpa is that a student stalked me the first two months of starting school, but everything is alright now, will a strong statement and good senior year load make up for bad gpa? I want to get into a UC.
Have a blessed day
Welcome to America!
Yes definitely! According to FAFSA, you are eligible for federal financial aid under the status of an asylee just like any other citizen/PR. That I am sure of. However, I doubt you’d be considered as a domestic applicant to colleges themselves, which would hurt your chances of admission quite a bit. What are you planning on majoring in? Have you taken the SAT/ACT yet?
Do you live in California? If so, then a high school record that fails to qualify for frosh admission to UC or CSU won’t stop you if you are willing to follow the well-used pathway of starting at a community college and then transferring to a UC or CSU as a junior. High school records are not required for junior transfers to UC or CSU. Of course, your performance in college courses counts. See http://www.assist.org to plan community college course work for transfer.
You may, however, be eligible for frosh admission to UC or CSU if you have enough high school records (perhaps including from high school in Iraq) to satisfy the a-g requirements – see http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/csu-uc-a-g-comparison-matrix.pdf (note that you can probably satisfy foreign language in various ways based on your actual fluency or school records from Iraq). But a 3.3 GPA may be difficult to gain admission to a UC other than Merced, although many of the CSUs will admit (though often needing a high enough SAT or ACT score).
@AnEpicIndian thank you! I’m planning on majoring in dentistry. I’m taking regular SAT and SAT phyiscs in june.
@ucbalumnus yes i do, i talked with the principal at my school and he told me that i’m on graduation track, as for foregin language i took french for 4 year back home, i think i need to take SAT french on october senior year to prove i can comprehend well.
Thank you for your replies 
Note that there are other possible ways, if you know Arabic or Kurdish from growing up in Iraq. See the bottom of
http://www.ucop.edu/agguide/a-g-requirements/e-language/index.html
You may want to see if you can sign up for the French SAT subject test in May or June this year, so that you have it out of the way during college application season.
@ucbalumnus i’m fluent in Arabic, if i sign up for the SAT French this year i might not get +750 on the test, i decided to study it in summer break so i could make sure i ace it. Thanks for the information 
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/freshman/minimum-requirements/subject-requirement/index.html#lang indicates you can use a 540 on the French SAT subject test to fulfill the foreign language admission requirement for UC. If you think that you can get >750, then you have plenty of room for error.
Here are some practice questions: https://sat.collegeboard.org/practice/sat-subject-test-preparation/french
Yes, a strong statement/essay and a rigorous courseload will help you. Welcome to the United States and I wish you the best of luck as you proceed through your junior year here!
I also highly recommend you get your SAT’s out of the way before college application season rolls around.
@ucbalumnus i tried the SAT practice tests just now, i really need to mold those skills lol
@TheDidactic thank you so much for the advice! Will do !
Try the ACT as well. You might like it better than the SAT.
Note that some other a-g requirements can be fulfilled or partially fulfilled by SAT subject or AP test scores:
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/freshman/minimum-requirements/subject-requirement/index.html
If there are any where you cannot complete the high school course work for (or get high school records from your previous high school in Iraq for) and cannot take college courses for, you may want to see if SAT subject or AP tests in those areas can help you fulfill them.
If you wish to pursue dentistry, know that in the US, it is not a college program. American dentistry schools are post graduate schools. This means you get your Bachelors degree first and then apply to a dental school afterward. What you choose as your major (concentration) at college is not absolute although many major in one of the sciences since Dental school requires very good science skills, as you can imagine.
Do some more research on what that track entails. There’s also a pre-dentistry forum here too
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-dentistry-dental-school/
@happymomof1 i don’t think i’ll be doing the act because my critical reading skills are still not on par with those of a native speaker. Thanks for the mention!
@ucbalumnus i checked them out, thank you so much
@T26E4 i started looking into that, i think UOP predent program might work with me since it’s near home, i might be able to get in if i’m lucky in the 3+4 program. I’ll check out it out in further detail, thank you !
Did you graduate from a CA high school?
@MYOS1634 i’m sorry for the late reply, no i’m not, i’m still a junior.
Are you in a CA HS (because it may change your status wrt university classification and costs).
@MYOS1634 yes i am
As you know, American universities are very, very expensive. Higher education is not treated as a right earned by academic excellence, but as a luxury good which can come in its low-cost/discounted/pared-down version. It is, however, open to basically anyone provided they find the money to pay.
There are 3,700 universities in the US. Only about 60 to 80 promise to meet 100% need for all students they admit*. Those universities are the best in the country. Even that if often a lot of money. Other universities don’t care what you can afford - they give you a quote and it’s your problem if you can or can’t pay. Living in California, you’re lucky, because there are State grants to supplement the universities’ and federal offers, and UCLA even has a special fund for the brightest lower-income students. All UCs are good, and many CSUs are quite good too. Colleges such as Pomona, Occidental, Harvey Mudd, are elite and meet full need, being very generous in their estimations. In short, CA residents have a lot of good choices if they can complete the most rigorous coursework and get excellent SAT or ACT scores.
That’s why your status is super important. As a refugee who’s going to be a CA HS graduate, you will be considered a permanent resident for federal financial aid purpose, you’ll be in the “domestic” application and financial pools, and you’ll be considered in-state for UCs and CSUs. That’s the best possible status for you.
I would recommend you dedicate one more year before you think of tackling college admissions. In the US, your application would require a variety of classes that you may not have and to be competitive those classes need to be taken at the highest level (AP or Honors) in as many classes as you can. Your teachers need to know you well so they can write meaningful recommendations. You need to be at the highest ELL/ESL class level, then be able to switch into AP/honors classes for those subjects. In addition, for the best options financially, you need to work on standardized testing methodically, in order to get the highest possible scores.
Doing this would allow you to compete for Questbridge, a national selection system that guarantees a 4-year scholarship to lower income students (since you’re a refugee, I assume you’re lower income.)
This is a website for first gen students, lots of useful links. Below, the list of colleges that meet 100% need.
http://blog.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/blog/colleges-that-meet-100-of-student-financial-need/
Ask for a meeting with the ESL coordinator at your school, and find out when you are likely to finish your graduation requirements. If you have had disruptions in your education or if not all of your previous high school credits transferred or if you need more time to master English so you can’t carry a full load of courses that apply to graduation, federal law allows you to remain in high school until you do fully complete the state graduation requirements or until you are 21. If you turn 21 after the school year starts, you can remain until the end of the school year. An extra semester or year of high school may make a difference in your GPA, your SAT/ACT scores, and in eligibility for state-based aid for your college education.