Financial Aid Essay

I came to U.S at 15 to improve English and experience study abroad. I attended U.S. high school for 4 years; first year in Texas, second year in Wisconsin, and the last two years back in Texas. In my senior year in high school, I learned about the opportunity to pay in state tuition if I went to state universities in Texas, but it turned out that it won’t work out for my case since I went to Wisconsin and failed to comply with three consecutive years in TX upon graduation. It was with great frustration and sadness that led me to go to community college instead of UT-Austin in my first couple years in order to save as much tuition as possible in college. International students studying in the U.S tend to come from wealthy families. However, I’m not from a wealthy family by no means. My dad is a salaried worker at a steel works factory who has to support my yet unemployed sister on top of his living and my mom’s. Despite of lack of my family’s financial condition, my parents have been willing to sacrifice their lives so I could finish my college degree in U.S. Unfortunately, there are not many financial aids easily available to international students like there are for U.S students, and therefore I have never received any kind of scholarships or financial aids for all 8 years in U.S so far. Plus, with no personal income due to lack of opportunities to work in U.S, I’ve been supported for every costs purely by my parents. I’m greatly thankful for my parents, but I feel awful that the rest of my family is sacrificing their finances for my own academic career. I have about a year left till I graduate, and I would highly appreciate my university’s financial help for the remaining couple of semesters.