Gandalf

Hi everyone. It's very encouraging to go through these forums, and see so many peers that have fought against the odds as undocumented youths like myself. I stumbled onto this site after searching to see if anyone else's DACA application has been taking too long to get approved. I'm glad that I'm not alone in this, though it's a little disheartening to learn that some people have been waiting far longer than me and still haven't heard anything. Anyway, my name is Armando; I'm 24 years old. An uncle carried me across the Mex/U.S. border and into Phoenix, AZ when I was 4 years old. I'd always been aware of my status as an undocumented immigrant, but it hit me hardest when I was in high school. Between the student exchange programs, summer trips to Germany, and university offers that I could never take advantage of, I was crushed. It felt like I was up against the entire world. At the least, I was determined to get attend college like any native student might do. After getting fake work credentials, I worked throughout my high school years, saving as much as I could. Even so, I had to spend 2 years at a community college before I attended the University of Illinois at Chicago for my last 3 years of study. I relied on a few private scholarships, and practically obliterated my life savings, but I obtained my B.S. in computer science in May 2012. It's kind of ironic, I was the valedictorian for my graduating class, and I gave a speech about engineers' responsibility to better society. Yet, I'm the only one who's life has remained stagnant since graduating. All of my friends have careers and fuller lives. Luckily, my siblings were all born in the U.S. (I'm the oldest), so they don't have to face these difficulties. Still, I can't help but feel a little jealous to see them get their driver's licenses, receive FAFSA support and go off to study in New York. I'm glad to have found a place to vent, and share these things. And I'm overjoyed at the opportunity presented by DACA, though I wish things would move along. My one regret as a DREAMer, is that I was silent while so many others, much braver than me, raised their voices through non-violent protest. DACA is still a far cry from allowing us to fully realize ourselves as Americans, but it's a hard won step along the way, possible thanks to the courage of youths like the ones on these forums.

I usually don't put much stock in entertainment industry awards for that reason. I can't really make a judgement on zero dark thirty, since I haven't seen it.

Yeah, I've known a few people with mint. My first distro was Ubuntu, which I kept using until they moved toward their Unity user interface (not that I like Gnome 3 that much either). BTW, I saw Cloud Atlas on your desktop. What an ambitious movie that was.

I mostly use fedora with a tiling window manager. It's annoying when you update versions, though, a lot of your settings and drivers can get messed up. I probably should make the switch to something on a rolling release, like arch.

Nice! There's a few gnu/linux users. @splif and @socrules, what are your distros of choice?

What a horribly prejudiced and falsely grounded opinion piece. On what basis could anyone call a DREAM act would be "arrogant" or "unconstitutional"? These are just loaded terms meant to alarm people and have them react emotionally, instead of thinking things through. I also hate how conveniently certain truths are misrepresented. The University of Denver isn't giving undocumented students a lower tuition rate than American students. They're giving an opportunity only to undocumented youths who attended (for at least 3 years) and graduated from a Colorado high school, or obtained a GED in Colorado. They pay a reduced out of state tuition rate of $3,358.30, whereas the full tuition rate is $7,992. The writer forgot to mention that in state tuition for American students is only $2,152 per semester. It's up for debate whether these students, who no doubt have worked and contributed to the tax revenue of Colorado, deserve a reduced rate from out of state students who haven't contributed a cent to Colorado public schools. That's very different from saying that undocumented immigrants have a tuition advantage over U.S. born or naturalized Americans. Even the $6.2 Billion figure isn't the complete picture. What about the billions such youths have already contributed through revenue taxes, and would continue to do so if given legal status? Honestly, the entire article reads like the barely-concealed frustrations of an actual out-of-college American who couldn't get a job. I agree we're seeing tough times for students, but it's dishonest to push the blame on undocumented students, or say the problem will become worst if we're given a legal status. Honestly, in many cases people fail to think about their employment prospects when they choose a major. Times have changed greatly. In the past someone could major in French or Italian and still get a decent job because many positions didn't require a particular degree; they only cared that you attended university. This is hardly true anymore. As it happens, there are many opportunities right now. Most science and engineering based fields are seeing fantastic growth in job openings right now as the baby boomer generation begins to retire. Computer science is near the top of the curve too. Also, more than half of engineering/science PhD students in the United States are immigrants that came here through an H1B visa. They're only here because the native population isn't producing enough people interested in research. It's these graduate students who keep America competitive and give rise to new industries with their breakthroughs. I know I'm sort of preaching to the choir with this comment, but these sort of opinion pieces really bother me.

Hey John89. I'm from Estado de Mexico, Mx. Though I haven't been there in about 15 years now. My actual home town is about an hour and a half south of Toluca and about 2 hours southwest of Mexico City.

@erika020: That's great! We could use more Latino's in computer science. At my school, there were a good number of us in just about every engineering field except CS. Best of luck with your studies! @Lonewolf8951: Thanks for the welcome. And congratulations on being approved last week. It's encouraging to see things are in fact moving along, if a little slowly.

Before DACA, I intended to apply to grad school in Sweeden or Germany, both of which have great schools. After Secretary Napolitano's announcement, though, I started looking at schools here. I actually sent out applications to six grad schools in early December. I'm going for a PhD in computer science. I told each school my situation, and almost all were glad to have me apply. Only one school made the claim that DACA wasn't the same as having legal status because it's not a VISA or permanent resident status. I'll be hearing decisions from most schools in the next month or two, so it's likely I'll find out about grad school before I get a decision on my DACA application. Guess, I'll have to take the greyhound bus when I go on campus visits. I'm not surprised about government jobs being out of consideration. A friend of mine got a job at Northrup-Grumman ( a defense contractor that makes missile guidance systems and stuff), and he faced a U.S. citizenship requirement, and a six-month background check before he got the job. It's sad to see that other professions like the medical and aviation fields have stiff barriers, though. Best of luck to you guys!

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone