A completely clueless international senior needs help! :(

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi everyone,
I'm an International student in the senior year. I want to do my undergrad in the US. Problem is, deadlines are inching closer, I still have couple of standardized tests left, there's a lot on my plate with regard to schoolwork and... I've still not shortlisted any colleges. I'm finding it really REALLY difficult because I have only websites, online rankings and reputations to judge colleges by. Can you guys please suggest colleges, or at least suggest how I should go about shortlisting them and where I should start?</p>

<p>I want to major in English Lit and/or one of the social sciences maybe Political Science. I'm still not sure, but I obviously want a good liberal arts college strong in these departments. I'm into writing and debating, so I'm looking for a college with varied extracurricular activities in these fields.</p>

<p>I'm not done with all my tests and stuff, so I can't post my complete stats right now, but I got 2300 on the SAT I and I have held the first rank in my batch for the past 3 years of high school. </p>

<p>Any help will be really appreciated!</p>

2

<p>Well, how much will your family pay each year?</p>

<p>Aid for int’l students is very limited. A few of the top schools give full aid to int’ls, but some are “need aware”. Admittance to these “full aid” top schools is VERY difficult for int’ls especially if you’re from a country with lots of applicants.</p>

<p>With your stats there are some schools that would give you merit scholarships, but your family would still have to pay $15k-20k per year.</p>

3

<p>Start here: [EducationUSA</a> | Study Abroad, Student Visa, University Fairs, College Applications and Study in the U.S. / America](<a href=“http://www.educationusa.state.gov%5DEducationUSA”>http://www.educationusa.state.gov) Then pay a visit to the advising center closest to where you live: [EducationUSA</a> | Find an Advising Center](<a href=“http://educationusa.state.gov/find-a-center.cfm]EducationUSA”>http://educationusa.state.gov/find-a-center.cfm) The counselors there are expert at helping students from your country get through this whole process.</p>

4

<p>Even apart from looking at financial issues, you need to figure out some basic preferences before anyone can advise you–e.g., what part of the US you’d like to live in, what kind of climate you’d be comfortable in, whether you’d prefer an urban, rural or suburban environment, what size student body appeals to you (even among LAC’S, there are differences). </p>

<p>BTW, it’s not “obvious” you want an LAC just because you want to study English or social sciences. All colleges and universities offer those majors, and many have exceptional departments in these areas.</p>

5

<p>Dartmouth - need blind for internationals</p>

6

<p>idle, clarify the money first. Private colleges/universities in the US will cost around $50,000 per year, not including transportation and miscellaneous expenses. If your family can afford that, great, you can make a wide list of colleges. </p>

<p>If, on the other hand, you need financial aid, the first step is to determine if your family is eligible for need based aid. Ask your parents to use an on-line calculator to get an estimate of their expected family contribution. If that works, then you look at colleges that are generous with need based aid to internationals. </p>

<p>Lastly, if you still need more, you look at colleges that offer merit aid. This is a much smaller list than the first two options.</p>

<p>As noted, there are hundreds of colleges and universities in America. The top (most internationally prestigious and most selective) schools will not only look at your scores, but will also consider your grades, extracurricular activities and personal profile. </p>

<p>Get yourself a college guidebook and formulate a wishlist of your “ideal” environment. Then find others with the same general attributes (size, location, atmosphere, personality) but with different levels of selectivity. That’s the reach/match/safety approach.</p>

<p>Almost all US universities offer the liberal arts along with varying choices in technical and professional degrees. In America there are also a subset of colleges that are called Liberal Arts Colleges (or LACs). These are generally small – around 2000 students – and focused on undergraduate degrees.</p>

<p>I note from your other postings that you are from India. My tip to you would be to search out colleges that don’t attract a lot of South Asians or non-Whites in general. These colleges often use internationals to balance their diversity percentages. I would look at small LACs in rural locations, in the Midwest or in the South and all women’s colleges if you are female. Many have excellent academics, good financial aid (both need and merit) and good access to graduate school.</p>

7

<p>With respect to financial aid, I am quite sure that I will not be eligible for full aid on the basis of my family income. I would <em>like</em> some partial aid (merit based if possible, I have a sizeable number of extracurricular activities, awards and certificates to my credit + good grades that I hope will make for a good CV); however, my family is ready to pay the entire fees, especially if asking for aid will affect my chances (as in the case of need-aware colleges). So expense is not the most important factor for me in choosing colleges to apply to.
As of now, I think I would want a residential college in an suburban area (urban would also be fine, I guess), a more academics-intensive environment, a lot of literary activities and opportunities. A large student body would be preferable, but not a must. Also, I I’d prefer a co-ed institution over a women’s college. </p>

<p>@happymomof1 - Thank you! Can you suggest any other resources?</p>

<p>@MommaJ - You are correct. Pardon my ignorance, but actually I am still a bit unsure of exactly what type of college an ‘LAC’ is in the US…? </p>

<p>@momrath - Can you suggest a good college guidebook? I borrowed one from a friend, but it wasn’t too helpful. It had views ‘from the students themselves’ about their colleges, but they all seemed to say the same thing.</p>

<p>Moreover, I’m eager to apply to at least a few highly selective colleges (Ivies) who seem to have really good English and Social Science departments. Is it worth it? </p>

<p>Thank you everyone! :D</p>

8

<p>Hey guys! I’ve posted my stats in other forums, and if anyone can check them out and suggest reach/match/safety options for me, I’ll be really grateful. Need all the help I can get!</p>

9

<p>With respect to financial aid, I am quite sure that I will not be eligible for full aid on the basis of my family income. I would <em>like</em> some partial aid (merit based if possible, I have a sizeable number of extracurricular activities, awards and certificates to my credit + good grades that I hope will make for a good CV); however, my family is ready to pay the entire fees, especially if asking for aid will affect my chances (as in the case of need-aware colleges). So expense is not the most important factor for me in choosing colleges to apply to.</p>

<p>Many of the top schools don’t give merit scholarships. A few give some to a few students, but you can’t count on those. </p>

<p>Since your parents are prepared to pay $200k+ for your education, then feel free to apply to the top schools and see what happens. </p>

<p>But, also apply to some matches and safeties (espeically some that will give an int’l merit) so that you don’t have to pay full freight for those schools.</p>

10

<p>Based on your stats, I would suggest the following (and by the way, unless you don’t ask for aid, very few schools would be safeties for an international applicant)</p>

<p>High Reach</p>

<p>Princeton (great writing, english, poly sci and suburban location)
Dartmouth (great academics and undergraduate teaching)
Columbia (in major city, Core Curriculum might be a draw)</p>

<p>Reach</p>

<p>U Penn (great creative writing, strong academic programs, in major city)
Johns Hopkins (same as above)
Northwestern (strong school with great spirit located in a Chicago suburb)
Rice (beautiful school, small for a university with great programs)
Pomona (part of amazing consortium, located about 45 mins. to 1 hour from LA)
Bowdoin (lovely New England school, about 1/2 hour from Portland, ME)</p>

<p>Match/Safer Schools</p>

<p>Brandeis (outside of Boston, serious school with good academics)
University of Rochester (located in nice area of Rochester, great academic flexibility)
Tufts (outside of Boston, all-around strong school)
Emory(located in beautiful area of Atlanta, nice school)
Barnard (strong academics, can take many courses at Columbia)
Scripps (part of same consortium as Pomona, good school)</p>

<p>Safety (if you don’t need aid)</p>

<p>Bryn Mawr (linked with Haverford and U Penn, outside of Philadelphia)
Connecticut College (nice school, good english programs)
University of Michigan (with 2300 boards and being one of the top students in your school, if you apply EA, then I believe you would get in)</p>

<p>Safeties (if you want want significant merit aid)</p>

<p>University of Alabama
Macauley Honors Program at CUNY (probably not a safety, but I think you’d get in)</p>

<p>Obviously, this is probably too many schools to apply to, so if I were you I would look at them and pick some from each category. In addition, as mom2collegekids has pointed out, since you might not need aid, you could apply to even more reaches if you wanted–additional schools to consider would be Brown, Wash U, Yale, and U Chicago.</p>

11

<p>There are no Safeties for international applicants UNLESS that applicant is able to cover the full Cost of Attendance. Even then, it is best to consider that an institution that would be a Safety for a full-pay US applicant with your grades and test scores, would be a Match for you. Find out exactly how much your parents are willing to pay each year, then make your list accordingly.</p>