<p>Does your high school have an office that helps students with the college process? It’s a difficult one to navigate WITH help, let alone on one’s own. If there is no official help at your school, maybe you can ask a teacher with whom you have a good relationship for help. What do the other students at your school do? You should be able to get into many, many schools and get good financial aid as well. There are so many ways to live the American dream. Most of them, however, do involve getting a good education and going to college. Not all, it’s true, but if that’s YOUR American dream, then you should pursue it. Find out what others in your area and your school are doing and have done in the past. Surely you are not the only one in your class to be thinking about going to college, especially since your location indicates New York.</p>