Scholarships and Financial Aid for Undocumented Students

Scholarships and fianancial aid to illegal imgrants and students who are undocument is a big topic of discusison today.   The supporters say that most of these students came here with their undocumented parents when they were young and do not know of any other country.  Instead of leaving them uneducated to become a burden society, why not offer them scholarships and financial aid to integrate them into this society.  Most of the undocumented students are of hispanic origin and living in the states of California and Texas.  They are alos known as illegal aliens or undocumented residents,  The opponents of these programs argue that  US Citizens and Permanent Residents are are struggling to get enough scholarships and financial aid to fund their education. In such scenarios illegal immigrants shall not be given scholarships or financial aid.

Scholarships Available to Illegal Immigrants

Regardless of the debate, there are some potential scholarships which are available to students  who are undocumented.

ASU Scholarship for Illegal Aliens

This privately funded scholarship is available to students of Arizona State University.  Several hundered students have graduated with this scholarship.  Students shall contact ASU's financial aid department to learn more about this.

Core First Annual Que Llueva Café Scholarship
This $500- $1,000 scholarship is offered by Chicano Organizing & Research in Education and avialble to students in California.  The student must be an undocumented student of Chicano / Latino descent graduating senior who will enroll in an accredited college or university in the U.S. or Puerto Rico.  Student must demonstrate academic promise and must demonstrate their academic potential whether by GPA, college acceptance, recommendations, or essay. Student must demonstrate a financial need.  Interested students can write to  P.O. Box 160144, Sacramento, CA 95816 or email to information@ca-core.org

 SALEF's Fulfilling Our Dreams Scholarship

This scholarship is available to undocumented students who are of Central American and Latino students from San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles Area (Specifically South Central Los Angeles, Pico Union, East Los Angeles) and San Fernando Valley.  Students must have a minimum of 2.5 GPA and community involvement.  Students can study in the fields of health care, technology, religion, philosophy and other areas.  Interested students can go to Salef to get additional information.

Financial Aid for Illegal Immigrants

Undocumented students are not eligible for federal financial aid.  Students who are the children of undocumented parents but are US citizens themselves are eligible for financial aid provided they have a valid social security number.  If they do not have a valid social security number they can use 000-00-0000 as to apply for financial aid.  The financial aid will seek for additional documetns before approving the aid.

Tution Aid for Illegal Immigrants

While  the Federal law prohibits it, several states allows in-state tution as a form of financial aid to students.   , California, Illinois,Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Washington are few if the handful states who allow in-state tution for illegal immigrants.  Nevada and Texas also offer state scholarsips to illegal immigrants.  Several other states including Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia are working on similar policies for illegal immigrants.