<p>Looking for some inspiring stories. Thanks.</p>
<p>I’m a first-gen college student, although a white male. Both of my parents dropped out of CC, and my dad started his own business. He does well now, but had to work really damn hard to get to this point.</p>
<p>I applied to 6 schools: Hamilton College, NYU Poly, Clarkson, Geneseo, Binghamton and Le Moyne. I got into all 6, with a $20,000 a year scholarship to Clarkson, $22,500 year to Le Moyne and $22,000 a year to Poly. I’ll be going to Geneseo next year. I’ll be the first in my family to graduate from any college, and a pretty prestigious one at that! I will also be the first in my family to go to and graduate from graduate school.</p>
<p>Successful first generation, minority and low-income college students …</p>
<p>… so a scholarship committee’s wet dream?</p>
<p>I’m a first-generation, low-income student and “culturally disadvantaged” to the extent that I am a recent immigrant, though I am not a racial minority. I was an undergraduate at Bryn Mawr College and I just accepted an admissions offer to a PhD program at Stanford yesterday. 
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<p>I have been successful academically but I will admit that I am having a hard time personally. Initially I felt alienated from my classmates at Bryn Mawr. (Most of them come from middle class families and I didn’t expect our experiences to be as different as they turned out to be.) The longer I’ve been in school, the more I connect with my classmates, but now I am feeling increasingly alienated from my family and family friends. It’s difficult to talk to them about my college experience because they have no reference frame, and after four years in college their perspective on life just looks so narrow-minded to me now.</p>
<p>Best of luck to you!</p>
<p>Not sure what you are looking for exactly but what about Michelle Obama? She grew up on the south side of Chicago in a low income area but through her hard work was able to go to some of the top schools and become a lawyer.</p>
<p>MissTi, that was my first thought. Or perhaps Sonia Sotomayor?</p>
<p>One of my friends is a first generation Hispanic from a low income family with neither parents receiving a degree from a school in the US. She finished her engineering degree and now has a pretty great job as an engineer, makes on the high end of the spectrum for engineers, and is working on her MS with night classes.</p>
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<p>Fantastic post lol</p>
<p>My mom is a first-generation American (and college student) and she got her degree and had a pretty decent career at a publisher before she stopped working to raise my sister and me. My dad was a first-generation college student and low-income as well. He got his degree and does very well in business.</p>
<p>First generation, low income, coming from a single-parent family. I got into Carnegie Mel’s superselective SCS (school of compsci) and CIT-ECE (carn institute of tech- electrical and comp engineering) which I consider my greatest accomplishment from admissions apps, though I got into several other gems. I chose NYU-Poly, partly because it was less expensive, and partly because it’s awesome…especially the Honors program <3 haha. I visited both the same week and felt at home in Brooklyn Heights.</p>
<p>My college acceptances were temporarily a major source of pride, though I felt bad when I realized I was poor. I knew I was wasn’t swimming in money whatsoever, but the kids at my high school were applying to high-caliber colleges, so I simply followed suit. My high school was a blue ribbon magnet high school with students selected personally from throughout the county… this county includes Alpine and Upper Saddle River and some of the most expensive cities in the country let alone the county! I was from the poorest side. I had all my application fees waived, and only spent money on FAFSA (I believe). My dad still encouraged me to go to CMU, because he discovered US News Rankings right after we visited. In fairness, they offered half tuition…but CC (and this is why I adore CC) informed me that the grants turn into loans your sophomore year…the grants are just to fish you in =(</p>
<p>I think what I’m hoping to convey is, all the highly ranked schools are ridiculously expensive, such that it isn’t even worth it–mostly. We’ve become quite brainwashed into thinking a $200k price tag on education (over just 4 years!) is acceptable, because it came upon very slowly and gradually; tuition wasn’t always so impossible.</p>
<p>Also, just because you get in does not mean that you can afford it, and if you can, think about what you could use that money on instead! And if you decide to drown in loans, it’s your choice, and don’t you <em>dare</em> be offended when people from so-called “Tier 3” universities whoop your… ;)</p>
<p>^
“the grants turn into loans your sophomore year…the grants are just to fish you in =(”</p>
<p>Wait what…? Is this even true for FAFSA?</p>
<p>I’m not that special, but I consider my parents the inspirational ones. Parents = dirt poor (like a Dickens scene with one rice bowl between 9 children type). Came to America with nothing, except my dad had 30 dollars on him. Now low-income, but definitely not as poor as then.</p>
<p>Hopefully I’ll make them proud and be successful at and after UC Berkeley.</p>
<p>I’m technically a low-income college student from a single-parent household, and I’m aight. I got everything for free this year with money to burn from my school so I never had any problems.</p>
<p>ummmm im first gen but not really the stereotypical “poor first gen whose parents are working 3 jobs and i never get to see them.” both parents never got to finish high school in korea, they married i was born, moved to america. my dad starts his own business in selling car parts and we apparently our family is living the american dream with my dad having a six figure job. then fafsa comes and im like FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU </p>
<p>but in college on scholarship haha</p>
<p>I don’t remember if FAFSA costs money, or CSS Profile, or something else (Common App?). But yeah, first year of CMU is nice grants. Second year, most of those grants become loans. It said so on CC :(</p>
<p>^ FAFSA doesn’t cost anything to file or send to schools, the CSS profile costs $7 or $11 per school I think.</p>
<p>I know my grants didn’t turn into loans for my later years. Maybe whoever had that happen had an older sibling graduate from college their second year?</p>
<p>My sisters are both Black, first-generation students who are doing well for themselves.</p>
<p>My second to oldest sister graduated from Gallaudet University with a Bachelors in Psychology back in the early 2000’s. I’m extremely proud her because we (my family) grew up in housing projects. Because of the fact that she had my neice while in college (who is going to the top high school in Baltimore City, Western High in the fall) she had to put her post-graduate education on hold but she is now studying for the GRE exam and she is now a teacher for deaf & hard of hearing students for Baltimore County Public Schools</p>
<p>My middle aged sister graduated from Towson University in 2001 with a Bachelor’s in Nursing. She is now an R.N at Johns Hopkins Hospital and she is now in graduate school. She hopes to open up her own mental health practice after receiving her Master’s degree. </p>
<p>They inspire me each and everyday as a college student and as an African American woman. Our parents didn’t have the chance to attend college but I am so glad that they raised up well.</p>