<p>hi all,</p>
<p>thanks for all the responses! I did not expect to get this many. </p>
<p>In response to an earlier post, no, sadly, i’m not yet a citizen, i am a permanent resident. this is frustrating to me because i’ve now lived most of my life here and i “feel” more American every day and i’m even forgetting my first language which is unfortunate, but i don’t want to ramble… anyway, what implications could this have on my ability to get financial aid? I had not thought about that 
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<p>i don’t know specifically how much money my parents make, and if i asked i would get beaten into the ground. however, i suspect that my dad does quite well with the auto shop and since we’ve live here (in New York) we haven’t really had any seriously tough economic times. </p>
<p>i can’t tell you my exact GPA but i’ve always been A student even though i go to a non-competitive school in not the best neighborhood. i also do not know my exact class rank but i really am sure i’m in the top 5 percent or so. </p>
<p>i also don’t want to portray my parents in a negative light, because they are good and strong people who have made many sacrifices for me and my siblings. i mean, they essentially dropped everything to come to the completely foreign country which i think is so amazing. they just have different values than American parents. </p>
<p>and also in response to an earlier post regarding my major choice, i find economics and physics equally fascinating so I would probably major in one of those or double major. This is another hangup with my parents - they just don’t <em>get</em> why i would choose to study those things because they see them as so impractical. </p>
<p>anyway, in the meantime i’m going to start researching colleges, because reading around this website, it seems that this process is already in full swing for other people my age. =/</p>
<p>thanks!</p>