DACA student struggling to pay for college?

Paying for College
1

Hi, I am an undocumented immigrant who is part of DACA and lives in CA.

The UC system offered me the Blue and Gold Opportunity Program which provides free tuition for families earning less than 80k but I was rejected into all of the UCs I applied to (B, LA, (waitlisted)SB, I, SD, D).

I was admitted into Cal Poly SLO, but as a DACA student, I only received around 5.4k in aid out of the ~25.5k annual cost of attendance even though my family’s EFC is calculated to be 0. I received no scholarship award out of all the ones I had applied to and have been denied private loans due to my step-father’s bad credit/income/idk.

However, my mother and I are currently in the process of applying for a green card from the step-father. I am unsure how long the process will be. This week we met with our immigration lawyer to prepare our documents for our upcoming interview. Can this affect my eligibility for financial aid?

I have recently been hired and will be working until the end of summer, but minimum wage will probably not cover the bill… what can I do at this point? Are there any private loans that forgive bad credit?

2

I think you’ll have to wait unless you get off the waitlist at SB. Did you apply to Merced?

Once you have a green card, you can apply for federal student aid, but until then there isn’t a lot you can do.