Match-me: MA resident thru parent's work visa. 3.6/1330, Computer Eng or Computer Science

Your parents are here on a work visa, and you are here as their dependent. As such, I believe that you would be considered an international student, despite the fact that you are being graduated from a Mass public high school. That would disqualify you for fin aid (which you don’t appear to need), but also does put you in a separate pile for admission consideration. On the other hand, since they know that you’re a full pay student, that might help for less selective schools.

I don’t think that Northeastern, BU, and NYU are at all within reach for you (even if you were not int’l), probably not UMass Amherst either if you’re applying for Comp Sci. WPI would likely take you. NJIT maybe, Rutgers maybe. I think your safest bet is your closest UMass that has your major.

You might want to keep in mind that unless your parents are able to obtain green cards for you all before you are 21, you would probably have to leave the country and go back home upon turning 21. For this reason, it might make more sense for you to dash through college as fast as you can, so you can get your degree before you turn 21, and maybe even get your own job with your own work visa, so that you can stay here. Your quickest way to do that is to go to a community college near you, taking a very heavy load this coming summer, and through the school year, with the goal of getting your associates degree and transferring in one year. You might then be able to transfer to UMass Amherst for Comp Sci, to start there in Sept '25 as a junior, especially if your community college has a transfer agreement with UMass Amherst. You should CLEP out of every class that they’ll take (take a look at modernstates.org) , get your associates after at most two summers and a fall and spring semester (preferably even by the end of the spring semester), and then be done with your BS after 2 more years at UMass Amherst. The idea is to get done with college in three years, before you turn 21, and during your senior year nail down a job, any comp sci job, that will get you a work visa of your own that would kick in for you so that you wouldn’t have to leave the country.

Your parents, if they’re earning enough that they can afford that much for college, must have an employer that uses an immigration lawyer for the employees’ work visas. Ask your parents to ask the employer for a consultation with the immigration atty that the company uses, so that you can find out what your options are, and whether this is feasible.

It is truly ironic that the children of people who are here illegally would qualify for in-state tuition and even special fin aid in MA, but children of those who are here legally on legal work visas, paying employment taxes in MA, playing by all the rules, I’m pretty sure do not.

3 Likes