Illegal Immigrant at UCLA

[ucsd_ucla_dad]

<p>

“Our results indicate how important it is for California to find ways to enhance
higher education outcomes for its biggest and fastest growing ethnic group – Hispanics. The economic future of California rises or falls depending on whether the State succeeds in improving college completion rates amongst Hispanics.”
…

But that’s talking about ‘Hispanics’ - not illegals - two different things usually. And it doesn’t say they all need to be educated at UCB/UCLA. California has many different public colleges appropriate for many different levels of preparation and one could become a success having attended any of them.</p>

[ucsd_ucla_dad]

<p>

I’m sorry UCLA did not help this person by admitting her into UCLA.

But so far it appears maybe they did. She has a B- GPA right now - it’s not the end of the world!</p>

<p>As for the commute - she chose it even though she had closer options. And she’s not the only one in the world saddled with a long commute. I’ll bet plenty of parents on CC do one themselves.</p>

[Columbia_Student]

<p>

Why not? you’ll have your degree…

</p>

<p>My previous admin has a degree from UCLA too, her undergraduate major was history. This was in the tech boom time frame. I’m sure a degree from CSLB would have been fine too.</p>

[Sailor51PegasiB]

<p>This is heartbreaking. I wish her the best.</p>

[ucsd_ucla_dad]

<p>^^ What’s heartbreaking about it? If you’re referring to her illegal situation her parents put her in, I agree. If you’re referring to her acceptance to UCLA where she currently has a B- average, it’s hardly heartbreaking. It’s actually a success story so far.</p>

[Columbia_Student]

<p>This story is not written as a success story so far.</p>

<p>

“This C stuff isn’t working,” she muttered.

</p>

[miktau]

<p>This girl really cant handle a third tier school let alone a top UC. By admitting her UCLA really screweed her over.</p>

[hmom5]

<p>Not sure how this became a debate on illegal immigration as opposed to what a college should do for a student who clearly needs help to succeed there.</p>

<p>Middsmith, Dartmouth is a place you would not like (bad, evil, though I have to give them high marks for choosing nice kids), but don’t blame me on them, I went to Penn.</p>

[ucsd_ucla_dad]

<p>

This story is not written as a success story so far.

No but it should be. Again, this reporter painted the story as negatively as possible but it’s actually a success so far. Some just see the glass half empty and some half full I guess.</p>

[ucsd_ucla_dad]

<p>

This girl really cant handle a third tier school let alone a top UC. By admitting her UCLA really screweed her over.

There’s no evidence of that unless you consider a B- to be an utter failure.</p>

[Bay]

<p>

It’s actually a success story so far

</p>

<p>It is the story of the total failure of our immigration laws, and taxpayer-funded educational resources being misdirected to the benefit of non-U.S. citizens.</p>

[goaliedad]

<p>

There’s no evidence of that unless you consider a B- to be an utter failure.

I don’t consider that a failure, but considering it sounds like she worked her rear off for a C in the only class related to her field of study, it doesn’t sound like she has a promising future at UCLA either.</p>

<p>I mentioned that I was from the area where the young lady is from. I too was selected as a “project” along with 4 other classmates. I was the only one with US educated parents with a college degree. One of the other 4 left for medical reasons (a tragedy indeed) and strangely enough finished his engineering degree (and followed up with a PHd) at CSLB. He was just keeping ahead of the game gradewise. The others struggled with C’s and low B’s in underclass years, but succumbed eventually as the coursework became more advanced, all dropping out or being kicked out. Our HS did a poor job of preparing us and all of us were in the top 10% of our graduating class. </p>

<p>And strangely enough, I was also the only one to get an initial rejection letter (which I have to this day). Fortunately, someone at my HS had the wits about them to tell the folks looking for candidates not to bother coming back if you didn’t take goaliedad. So they took me in, grudgingly. I was the only one who got his degree at our top UC Campus with a B+ average in one of the most competitive majors on campus (had less than a 1/3 acceptance rate at Junior year application).</p>

<p>Oh, and BTW I work in higher education today. Let’s just say I’m still not convinced that the admissions folks at many public colleges couldn’t do better at predicting success by using a dart board.</p>

<p>I’ll give the young lady credit for stretching for a goal, though. Unfortunately, based upon my experience in a very similar situation, I think neither she, nor any of the people who put her in her current situation knew what they were doing at the time. With all of the obstacles in front of her, she is very likely to fail. Her odds at CC or CSLB of success would be much greater.</p>

[keihanna]

<p>I came to this country as a legal immigrant and paid more than enough tax last two decades. Sent two sons to private Colleges without any financial help.
Spent all my saving for my two son’s education not knowing that I would lose job.</p>

<p>My D’s dream was going to UCLA. She had studied so hard and
got 4.3 GPA, 2250 SAT with lots of activities.
She couldn’t get in UCLA last year and cried for three days.
To make a matter worse, I lost my job and unemployed ever since. </p>

<p>Something’s wrong here that this girl got in UCLA .</p>

[Columbia_Student]

<p>

San Diego State University was her dream school; she applied to six others, mostly UC and Cal State campuses. She never thought she’d get into UCLA, especially after San Diego State rejected her in February.

Even San Diego State rejected her. She should have gone to CC, get her remedial English classes there then transfer to UCLA. Lots of immigrants did this and went on to become succesful in life.</p>

<p>

She was able to sign up for 12 units, three fewer than she wanted, and had to take two pass/fail electives to fill her schedule.
………
she had a C-plus in the class. She got an A-minus in art appreciation, earning a B-minus average. Still, she was crushed over her Life Science course.

</p>

<p>She took 2 courses and one she had C- and one she had A-. Plus the fact that she had to wait 2.5 hours each way is not productive.</p>

[Arsenal0328]

<p>… If you can’t deal with a simple word like that…</p>

[King818]

<p>This girl has no right to be here; anyone who wants to pay for her to go to UCLA on your tax dollar… well… quite frankly you’re the problem. LAUSD Is the worst school district in the country. They give the illegals 2 meals a day (breakfast and lunch) under the taxpayers tax dollars, and I don’t even get my free meals because my single mom "makes too much to qualify. " What a joke. Yeah, let’s accommodate those who didn’t even contribute to society! If anything, I should be the one getting the free lunches because my mom pays freakin taxes!</p>

<p>I feel no sympathy for this girl. Top 20% at a crappy public school? UCLA should not have admitted her. I’m going to be top 2% at my LAUSD school without exerting much effort, merely because the 700 kids do not make any effort to achieve success.</p>

[SlitheyTove]

<p>As I wrote before, the LA Times has done stories like this before, though usually about better prepared students. Some of these students are simply hard working. Others are exceptional. I’d rather pay for some of these students with my tax dollars than for some of the others posting to this thread. </p>

<p>

UC Berkeley’s Birgeneau said bilingual, bicultural, academically gifted immigrant students are precisely the kind of talent California needs to succeed in the global economy. Children of illegal immigrants who make it into California colleges are particularly impressive, he said, because they’ve had so many obstacles to overcome.</p>

<p>And many know only the United States as their home, having left their native countries at very young ages, he said.</p>

<p>“We live in an extremely competitive world internationally, and it’s simply wasteful of California not to take advantage of their talent,” Birgeneau said.

</p>

<p>[Dreams</a> put on hold for many illegal immigrant students - Los Angeles Times](<a href=“http://www.latimes.com/news/local/crime/la-me-dream26oct26,0,1178604.story]Dreams”>Dreams put on hold for many illegal immigrant students)</p>

<p>

He took 15 AP classes in high school, and kicks himself for passing up two others. Now, he is graduating from UCLA, with a double major in English and Chicano Studies and a B-plus grade point average.</p>

<p>But for all his success, Miguel does not share the full-bodied exuberance of the graduating seniors who marched last month five abreast into Pauley Pavilion, belting out the '60s hit “Build Me Up, Buttercup.” A native of Puebla, Mexico, he is an illegal immigrant.

</p>

<p>

Advocates argue that it’s inhumane and counterproductive to ostracize students who have come so far with so little.</p>

<p>“These students have been here since they were small children, and we’ve done everything to encourage them to stay in school and help them prepare for college,” said UCLA Asst. Vice Provost Alfred Herrera of the Center for Community College Partnerships. “The sad reality is most of these students are the best and the brightest.”</p>

<p>And if history is any guide, they aren’t leaving. Some, instead, remain in school.</p>

<p>Living off academic stipends, scholarships and a steady diet of ramen, these students play out an endless “Groundhog Day” script of school applications, research projects and degrees.</p>

<p>“They mostly hang around colleges, assistantships, getting paid to do surveys. It’s not employment, it’s catch-as-catch can,” said Michael Olivas, an expert on immigrants in higher education who teaches at the University of Houston Law Center.</p>

<p>“I think continuing your studies is the best option for us now,” said Tam Tran, 24, who heads to Brown University this fall for a five-year doctoral program in American Civilizations.</p>

<p>Born in Germany to Vietnamese parents, Tran has a complex immigration history: a U.S. immigration board in 2001 found that her family faced political persecution in Vietnam for past anti-Communist activities, but ordered them deported to Germany.</p>

<p>Germany, however, would not take them. The nation only recognized as citizens children born on its soil to German parents.</p>

<p>She said she would have liked to stay at UCLA, maybe go to film school. But the public university can’t give her aid, while both Brown and Yale universities offered generous packages.

</p>

<p>

Even the most prestigious academic posting has not shielded students from immigration authorities. Dan-el Padilla Peralta, a classics scholar, Princeton salutatorian and illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic, was able to pursue a masters at Oxford University without facing possible exclusion upon his return only through an intense legal and publicity campaign, his lawyer, Stephen Yale-Loehr said. Yale-Loehr is an immigration law professor at Cornell Law School.</p>

<p>As it is, Padilla was able to obtain only a temporary waiver and visa so he could travel to the U.S. during summer and vacations to work on a research project for Princeton.</p>

<p>“Naturally the uncertainty over my status has been a source of anxiety,” Padilla said in an e-mail from Oxford. “But I’ve tried to keep that anxiety quite separate from my academic and extracurricular pursuits. I feel enormously privileged to have studied first at Princeton and now at Oxford.”

</p>

<p>[Undocumented</a> students have a degree of anxiety - Los Angeles Times](<a href=“http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-me-ucla8-2008jul08,0,6025873.story]Undocumented”>Undocumented students have a degree of anxiety)</p>

[middsmith]

<p>

@hmom5

Middsmith, Dartmouth is a place you would not like (bad, evil, though I have to give them high marks for choosing nice kids), but don’t blame me on them, I went to Penn.

apparently subtlety is out.</p>

[Bay]

<p>

I’d rather pay for some of these students with my tax dollars than for some of the others posting to this thread.

</p>

<p>Then please, put your money where your mouth is.</p>

[cptofthehouse]

<p>There are many students who are accepted because of their success in overcoming adverse situation that are going to have a tough time at a rigorous school. Many do not make it. That is not the part that is bothersome about this situation for me. Giving those who have not had the chances to get a top education, but have shown the tenacity to do well despite challenges is fine with me.</p>

<p>What bothers me is our hypocritical stance on illegal immigrants. How the heck can we expect people to go through the legal passages when we so reward the line cutters? The law is so inconsistent in being enforced that it pays to take the risks to break it. I don’t blame the illegal immigrants. I blame the enforcement of our immigration laws.</p>