Hello,
I am from Tunisia (a little country at the top of Africa)
I have a GPA of 4 (17/20 in the french system)
New SAT score : 1320/1600 (taking the test again next week)
Extracurricular activities : Debate/speech group(founder), tennis player, programming club, charity
Here is my list :
REACH
-Brown
-UPENN
-Cornell
FIT
-UC Berkeley
-UCLA
-New York University
-Boston University
-Georgia Institute of Technology
SAFETY
-Rhodes
-Penn State University Park
-UC San Diego
Is it too ambitious ?
And as an international student what kind of financial aid can I get ?
Thank you
UC San Diego is no safety and UCLA/UCB are not Match/Fit schools as an International applicant. Your GPA looks competitive but your SAT score is on the low side for all the UC’s on your list. Aim for a 1450+ to be competitive.
UC’s also do no offer little to no financial aid to International students so expect to pay close to full price at $55K/year.
the most important thing you can do would be to go to all of these school’s websites and see if they offer financial aid to international students. i would cross off all of the California state schools. another thing to do is go to google and put in " universities that give a lot of financial aid to international students". Good luck.
Your match schools can partly be determined by your SAT scores. As an international student seeking financial assistance, they may need to fall above a school’s 75th percentile:
Union could work well for you, particularly if your SAT score increases.
Clarkson would offer you the programs you are seeking, and you are well qualified for admission there, but you would have to depend on their offering you a substantial merit scholarship, which, depending on your finances, might or might not make the school affordable.
I don’t mean to discourage you, because your stats are good, but I think your list is a little ambitious.
UCSD is definitely not a safety, and you would have to count UCLA and Cal (Berkeley) as reaches, especially because engineering is harder to get into than regular admission.
GTech is pretty competitive as well, especially in engineering.
Financial aid from public schools is more scarce, so it would be good to also apply to some privates which are more expensive but can give more aid. For example, WPI, Lehigh, RPI, Union, Clarkson, Northeastern.
Some public schools with good engineering programs that would be easier to get into than UCLA or GTech: U.Colorado-Boulder, Pittsburgh, U.Mass-Amherst, Texas A&M, V-Tech, U.Wisconsin, U.Minnesota, Purdue, NCSU, Arizona State, Ohio State. I don’t know what the financial aid situation would be for internationals applying to those though.
I’d drop NYU from your list for engineering (plus expensive!).
“Are my chances of admission lower or greater than a us applicant?”
“I don’t think it matters. As an international student, you’ll be in a different pool.”
It is true that as an international student you will be in a different pool, but since schools try to maintain a certain ratio for their int students and since they get a huge amount of int applications, it is much harder to be accepted as an int applicant. Of course, here I am assuming that the domestic students pools and int students pools are more or less at a similar competitiveness level.
Let me give you an example from one of the schools on your list. http://www.upenn.edu/about/facts
Penn’s numbers for the class of 2020:
total # of applications = 38,918 (and 3,674 are accepted, → %9.4),
of domestic applicants = 31,753 (and 3199 are accepted, → %10.1),
of international applicants = 7,165 (and 475 are accepted, → %6.6),
For the most selective universities, getting the acceptance as an int student is approximately twice harder wrt dom students. For some it is even harder (for Stanford and MIT it is app. 2.5 times harder).
By comparing data from previous years, I can say that this situation gets worse each year for int applicants since the number of int applicants increases faster than that of dom applicants. Not sure if things will change after Trump.
Asking financial aid will make your chance even smaller since only a handful of schools are really need-blind for internationals. On the other hand, it is possible that you can get a small amount of merit aid from the other schools (here I mean schools other than need-blind ones). You should check out the schools’ websites. I know an int student with a similar GPA to yours (but with a bit higher SAT) who got merit aid (full tuition) from WPI (it may also be RPI, I don’t quiet remember). @insanedreamer gave you a good list of schools to work on.
As others point out, many public universities do not offer financial aid to international students.
Berkeley, Penn State, and Georgia Tech do not. UCLA and UCSD do. However, for 2015-16, UCSD granted financial aid to only 28 internationals, averaging ~$3933 each. Number and amounts at UCLA were larger (116 students averaging $22,145 each, which is still a little low considering the cost). Aid at some of the others on your list may be more generous for those who get it, but it’s still likely to be very competitive. They are all “need aware” for internationals (meaning high need may impact the admission decisions). NYU is notoriously stingy with financial aid even for domestic students.
Rhodes probably won’t work for engineering. Like most other LACs, it does not have its own engineering majors. It does have 3+2 engineering programs in cooperation with other colleges, but that would add time (and cost).
In my opinion, Boston University is the most suitable school on your list. It seems to have well-regarded engineering programs and relatively generous aid to internationals. It is selective but not out-of-reach. Look for more schools like that. Maybe Case Western, George Washington, Northeastern, or Drexel. Also check out tech schools like Rensselaer, Rochester Institute of Technology, Illinois Institute of Technology, Stevens Institute of Technology, Worcester Polytechnic. Or alternatives in Europe and Canada (maybe in France or Quebec if you speak French.)
39% of responding institutions reported a decline in international applications, 35% reported an increase, and 26% reported no change in applicant numbers (highest declines in applications from the Middle East.).
Thank you all for your advices !! I actually already applied.
I only received georgia tech’s decision for the moment and I got in !
Still waiting for the other decisions.
Congrats. Gtech is very good in engineering. Especially its industrial eng department is one of the best in the US.
Good luck with the rest of your applications…
