<p>Good evening CC.</p>
<p>I'm an international student who got rejected at 15 colleges for asking for a lot of financial aid. Yeah, I know it's very pathetic and embarrasing...</p>
<p>However, I applied to a public university and got offerred a full-ride (Troy University).
I wanted to ask you people what do you know about Troy. Is it good? Is it conservative? Good academics?</p>
<p>My dream has always been to study in a good school in the USA. I'm happy that Troy offered me a full-ride, but if it's a very bad school (which I don't know), then I might not accept it.</p>
<p>What do you people think? </p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Guille19 -</p>
<p>If you don’t attend Troy, what will you do? Will you start college in your home country, or will you try a new list of places in the US next year?</p>
<p>If you do decide to attend Troy, what do you think your major might be? Have you read through the part of the Troy website that outlines the graduation requirements for that major.</p>
<p>Visit Troy’s website. Find the links to various student organizations and the student paper. See what people are up to there. </p>
<p>Find the local newspaper’s online edition and read that too. Read some information about the state that Troy is in, and about the city where it is located.</p>
<p>But frankly, a year at Troy would be very inexpensive for you. If you don’t like it there, you can go home and complete your education in your home country. If you get excellent grades at Troy, a transfer “up” might be possible (not easy, but possible), and certainly grad school at a place with a more well-recognized name would be possible. It may be worth it to you to just take that chance.</p>
<p>If I don’t attend Troy I will end up studying in my home country. I can’t apply anymore to the US since this was the second time I applied to US schools. I also applied on 2012 but I had no luck at all…</p>
<p>I will study Computer Science and yeah I read the requirements. I kind of don’t like them because I need to take classes like Quemistry 1 and 2, Physics 1 and 2, a physical education course… Courses that I don’t think will contribute that much to my major.
Besides that, if I attend Troy I MUST enter the Honors Program and take Honors classes if I want to have good graduate and job opportunities… Troy isn’t recognized that much on the US, I think? So I need to challange myself all I can if I want to have a nice future. </p>
<p>If I don’t like the first semester, I would like to transfer to a better place like Colgate University or Colorado College. However, there’s a problem: I’m would be an international transfer, and as far as my knowledge goes, not a single school offers financial aid to transfer internationals… Money again is a factor I will have to consider and even if I work and save for a year at Troy, I doubt I’ll save about $200k.</p>
<p>I still don’t know what to do haha…</p>
<p>In the US it is normal for students to be required to complete a physical education course to graduate from college. Any where you study here you would probably have to do that. It looks like you can choose between Chem 1 & 2 or Physics 1 & 2 for the Comp Sci major. Physics is often a requirement for Comp Sci.</p>
<p>From the catalogue, it looks like Troy is a perfectly fine state university. Sometimes it is good to be the big fish in the small pond. Happykid’s pal just graduated from a university very much like Troy. She was near the top of her class in everything there, and all of her professors loved her. She got to do lots of interesting research in her field, worked as a lab assistant and teaching assistant, and has been admitted to one of the best grad programs in her field for this coming fall.</p>
<p>Spend some time at the Troy website, and see where the professors in your department completed their educations, and what kind of research they are up to right now. That will help you determine whether they are likely to be able to get you to the next step in your education.</p>
<p>Really, the issue is whether or not you want to study in the US so badly that you can be happy at Troy. If you prefer to study in your home country instead, that is OK too. </p>
<p>Hi!</p>
<p>Thanks for your help! Yeah I decided to attend to Troy and see how things work in my first year. It looks like Troy is one of the best Computer Science schools in Alabama, so maybe that’s a plus! </p>
<p>However, I want to ask something that you guys may know better than me. </p>
<p>Is it possible to transfer from a state university and get accepted into good LAC and universities?
Becuase my plan right now is to give my best in this first year, and aim for a 3.8+ GPA, join clubs, do community service, and positive things that will help me. Then, I want to apply as a transfer student to good schools that give financial aid to international transfer applicants. I was thinking of re-applying to the schools I applied for undergraduate so they can see my continued interest. Among those are Grinnell, Brandeis, Lafayette, Oberlin, Colgate, and others. </p>
<p>Do you think this is a good idea? Or better yet, do you think it might even be possible to achieve it?</p>
<p>Because on of the cons of attending a state schools is that teachers don’t get to know you so well and hence I don’t know if I’ll be able to ask for college-teacher recommendations, and also I don’t know how private schools see state schools (if they see them as easy and non challenging, or the other way around).</p>
<p>I would check the website of each college you’re interested in to make sure they give financial aid to international transfer students. If they do, find out what their requirements are for acceptance. Good luck.</p>
<p>“Because on of the cons of attending a state schools is that teachers don’t get to know you so well and hence I don’t know if I’ll be able to ask for college-teacher recommendations”</p>
<p>It is not true that the instructors at state universities won’t get to know you. However, you need to make more of an effort if you are in a class of 100 students than you would if you were in a class of 20.</p>
<p>Read the textbooks before going to class - stay ahead of the reading assignments.
Be prepared so that you can participate in discussions, and ask questions if you don’t understand something.
Go to your professors’ office hours and get help with things that you are stuck on.
Look for opportunities to get to know the people in your department - the professors, teaching assistants, other students in your major.
Become the hard-working, focused, attentive student that all professors in the world want to have in their classes, and chances are that your professors will notice that, and you will be able to get good letters of recommendation for transfer or grad school or what ever other purpose you might need them for.</p>
<p>Have a great time at Troy!</p>
<p>Thanks both of you! I will follow your advices!</p>
<p>Indeed, before applying as a transfer, I’ll need to check which schools do offer FA to intl students.</p>
<p>Also, I have another question. I would like to apply to a need-blind school, which most of them, as you may know, are Ivy Leagues. I would like to apply to schools like MIT or Amherst. </p>
<p>I KNOW that chances for an international transfer are not even 1%, I know, but applying to them will not hurt anyone.
Of course, I only plan on applying to Ivy Leagues as a transfer if I end up getting an amazing GPA and I’m able to do a lot of activities related to my major.</p>
<p>However, my question is this: ALL top schools who offer full aid to intl students require the SAT II. The problem is, I didn’t do any SAT II. I only did the SAT I because I didn’t have the money at the time to afford the SAT II nor reinforcement classes and books. I read through many college websites and it appears they still require the test scores you used as undergraduate, hence I will need to do the SAT II.
My question is: will it look bad that I did the SAT II’s when I was already enrolled in college? I mean, if I get a perfect 800, it won’t weight too much because I am already in college, and if I get less than 800 it will hurt me too much because it will mean I suck at college. Should I contact each college and ask them their opinion?
What should I do?</p>
<p>^If you’re in the Honors program, you’ll be in small classes so your professors will know you.</p>
<p>Yes, Troy is very conservative and rather religious.</p>
<p>A few (very few) colleges admit international transfers who need financial aid (it may just be one though), like Gettysburg and Dickinson. UAlabama has merit scholarships for transfers which are open to internationals too. They’re not as generous as the freshman scholarships but they’re still worth trying for.</p>
<p>I agree that at worst, if you’re unhappy at Troy, you can go back home and resume your education there, after a year of cultural experience and becoming bilingual. You can also try to “transfer up”. Your best bet is likely to be UAlabama, but if you can maintain straight-As or near straight-A’s at Troy, it’s worth applying to the colleges you named in your June 14 message, provided you check with International Admissions whether one lucky international transfer might be awarded financial aid AND if you apply at the beginning of your second semester (well before the transfer deadline)</p>
<p>Wrt to SAT II’s: if you apply during your first year, freshman admission guidelines typically apply. So, if the college required SAT Subjects, you’ll still have to take SAT Subjects. Note, however, that many colleges accept the ACT in lieu of SAT + SAT Subjects, so that may be a way around that issue. Since you’re an international, they wouldn’t expect a perfect SAT score, but you definitely would be expected to score 700+ to have a shot.</p>
<p>Thanks Myoss! Thanks everyone! I hope everything goes as planned. </p>
<p>Any advice of what I should do while on Troy University so I can boost my chances as an international transfer student?</p>
<p>Get involved in the Honors College - work on the newsletter (if there isn’t one, ask to be co-editor of one, then work with a faculty adviser), work on Honors College government, participate in every activity, suggest activities.</p>
<p>Go to office hours regularly. Office hours aren’t there to chat but to discuss what you’ve learned, what you wish to learn, check what you understood and didn’t understand… They’re like a private session with the professor.
While you read, write questions in the margins; during the lectures, do the same. The questions could be about something you’re not sure about or about something that sounds interesting.Then go to office hours to ask these questions. Ask for books on a specific topic (your professors will likely provide you with 2-3 right off the top of their heads.) Make sure you go to office hours (both TA and professor if relevant) for EVERY class you have, during the first week or the first two weeks (if you can’t fit them all during the first week). Introduce yourself. Say where you come from, what you’ve studied already, what you hope to gain from the class, whether the professor has any advice to give you for a good start.</p>