ESSAY BY NAHID RACHLIN, FROM IMMIGRANT STORY OF HOPE AND HARDSHIP
It’s been almost 30 years since I graduated high school. My parents, first generation Chinese immigrants to Canada, were clueless about how the university application process worked. I was on my own. I don’t remember if I even had to write a personal essay. I did know that my parents didn’t have the money to fund fancy, private universities. So I took a pragmatic approach and only applied to Canadian schools. Ultimately, I chose the most practical route which was to attend the University of British Columbia in my hometown on a full scholarship so that I could live at home and save money.
The third in our series of college essays by the Class of 2021, this essay by Cecilia Cortez calls attention to the cause of justice for immigrants and reveals the writer’s personal connection to the issue. This fall, Cecilia, who is graduating from Phoenix STEM Military Academy,plans to attend St. Olaf College and is exploring careers including design and medicine. Congratulations, Cecilia!
BUT people often forget that winning lots of small scholarship applications can be life-changing too. The scholarship essay examples (and our strategy) below can take you from planning your college plans and career goals to living them.
College Essay: My Parents Sacrifice Makes Me Strong
Author’s note: my son challenged me to write a 650-word essay about our college essay writing process, so I’m proud to say that this post is under the word limit (not including the title and this note)
Being a daughter of immigrants and a first-generation college graduate both bring distinctive challenges. Additionally, growing up in a low-socioeconomic community and being the first in my family to pursue a postgraduate degree and medical career led to more barriers.
Except… I didn’t adapt. As a matter of fact, I got a 41% on my first-ever exam at Harvard. From the first day, I struggled with social anxiety, panic attacks, and depression. I would walk into my math class and stare blankly at the exercise on the paper, hearing the other students chatter and breeze through it together while I held back the fiery tears threatening to escape. Often, I would have to leave class as I felt the wave of a panic attack approaching because I didn’t understand the concepts, hard as I tried. It was such a different experience from high school, where I enjoyed learning, did well academically, and was able to handle over six classes each quarter as well as multiple extracurriculars. In college, I felt like a failure: How was I supposed to make my parents proud when I couldn’t even get through one class without crying?
As we detailed before, an issue with most immigration college essays is that they focus on worn topics such as adjusting to a new place, learning new languages and cultures, and so on. If you’re going to write this essay, you’ll be better off focusing on something like a single specific moment (like what you did the first time you encountered racism or xenophobia) or a much less conventional challenge you faced (for example, asking someone out on a date when you are still struggling with a new language).
Is Writing an Immigrant Parents College Essay a Good Topic Idea?
For example, if you decide to do a “resume” style essay, don’t try to dazzle them with all of your different accomplishments. Instead, zero in on one very specific accomplishment, and dive into layers of reflection and meaning. This gives you much more room to detail how the experience shaped you into the kind of person who will to the college. The same wisdom holds true for writing about your mission trip: if you must write about it, try to focus on that we’re not expecting. Like, did it teach you about healthy boundaries and autonomy and balance, instead of the cliche version. .
College essay about immigrating to the US. Answered - CollegeVine
Writing a successful college essay about the immigrant experience can be a challenge. Reflecting upon the lives of your parents and grandparents can be a productive way of developing the perfect essay topic.
College Admissions Essay: My Immigrants To The United States
Everyone has a unique family history and story, and often that can make for a strong central theme of a personal statement. In this essay, the student does a great job of sharing aspects of his family's culture by using specific Spanish words like "yunta" and by describing their unique immigration story. Regardless of your background, sharing your culture and what it means to you can be a powerful tool for reflection.
How to Write a Standout College Essay about Immigrant Parents
But we can at least share this insight about the college essays: the students who have had the most success have been the ones whose parents have been involved the least. Almost without fail, the students who have been accepted into their top choice colleges have been the ones whose parents have trusted their student to write great essays, helped their student only when asked, and otherwise stayed out of the process entirely. Â And of course, these are the same families that seem to most enjoy the last year of their child living at home.
daughter of two immigrant parents - why i want to go to college
This presents a unique opportunity for first-, second-, and even third-generation Americans willing to dig deep and understand how their family histories contribute to their sense of identity and attitudes toward education. Many of the finest essays produced by Seneca’s clients address the immigrant experience in a fundamental way. A significant number of our clients have roots in the Global South, Mexico, and the Caribbean. For these students, talking about family adds a fresh perspective for the reader, especially when the characters are animated by such traditional activities as preparing an Ayurvedic home remedy or tending a coconut vayal in Kerala.