<p>Whatup–</p>
<p>Assuming the parent you don’t live with is not wealthy, with a single mom and a family income of 30K, you are going to receive financial aid. Interestingly, with the financial predicament of Cali’s public universities, you might find yourself receiving more aid at private colleges than public ones – hard to know until you apply and have your financial aid packages in front of you, and can compare them when you’re making your decision.</p>
<p>Given the fact that you’re going to need FA, and won’t want to saddle yourself with lots of loans, you might want to consider widening your search and applying to more schools. It is very likely that your family income will allow you to get fee waivers so you won’t have to pay application fees when you apply. Ask your high school’s GC about this, and if he or she doesn’t know, look on each college’s website to see what you have to do to qualify.</p>
<p>Also wanted to add that is it completely fine if you are “just working” and earning money as opposed to doing some sort of special EC or internship over the summer. Particularly with low income students, colleges appreciate the maturity and discipline connected with getting a job and working responsibly. I’ve been on CC for a while through a couple of kids’ college processes, and every year, we see students who’ve worked summers helping their parents sell vegetables they grow on their farm or who work at Walmart over the summer getting into great colleges with solid FA packages.</p>
<p>Please consider going on the college confidential parents’ board, talking a little bit about what you want in a college, your family background, the need for FA, and your stats. I am willing to bet that you will get a lot of help and support there throughout the application process. (You might want to indicate, in the heading, that you are a first gen IB student needing college and FA advice.)</p>
<p>I’m not suggesting any of this because I think you won’t get into USC. Not at all. It’s just that you need not only to be accepted at a wonderful university, but to receive an excellent FA package. And I think that a lot of schools would be very happy to have you.</p>