<p>I have lived and gone to school in the US for 12 years. However, my family does not have a green card. We're just now starting our application process (really really really late to do so, but...)
I'm a high school senior. I have University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and UT Austin on my list of schools to apply to but I've been having second thoughts...</p>
<p>Bottom line: Should I even apply to these public universities, since I can't get financial aid?
(I have 4.0 GPA unweighted and 2390 SAT score. Maybe I can get scholarships...?)</p>
<p>Is it worth it for international students to apply to public universities?</p>
<p>You are only eligible for merit based scholarships. Both schools cost about $40,000(tuition and room&board) for international students so at best you should expect to pay at least $20,000 after merit scholarships (based on academic achievement). </p>
<p>Search online for schools that offer need based aid to international students, only a few do. All the best!</p>
<p>You know your situation better than us. We don’t know what you can afford, if you would qualify for in-state tuition or in-state scholarships, etc. </p>
<p>If you do require significant merit aid, you should be prepared to consider universities “below your league.” UT Austin won’t offer you a full scholarship (not as an out-of-state student anyway) but Clemson or Villanova might.</p>
<p>With those stats, you could get into very good private universities which meet the full demonstrated need of international applicants. Don’t just run after public universities if you can’t pay the sum listed above. It will be really difficult to get scholarships covering the full cost of attendance at a public university(actually impossible). </p>
<p>If you have lived in the same state for more than 2 years, the public universities you are applying to might waive your out-of-state tuition fee. That leaves you with very few amount of money to be paid as compared to the out-of-state fees! There are a lot of state universities that follow this principal but you should talk once to the people at those colleges.</p>
<p>Thank you all very much! I think I will drop UIUC and UT. I will talk to my counselor tomorrow about it.
I live in North Carolina, but I moved here just before junior year. I’m not sure that I will get a waive. I’m right next door to NCSU though, which has a fairly good engineering school.</p>
<p>International students with F-1 status are not eligible for instate regardless on how long you have lived in the state.
I think you should try MIT and Stanford because they are need blind. I know its almost impossible to get in, but it never hurts to try.</p>
<p>Here are some small schools that have great engineering programs and offered aid to international students in the past.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Harvey Mudd College - My brother(International student) went here with a full scholarship. UsNews ranks them #2 in engineering of schools that don’t offer a doctorate degree. Based on the recent PayScale College Salary Report, Harvey Mudd Graduates earn the highest salaries among graduates of any college in the United States. Princeton is #2 followed by Dartmouth, then Harvard.
The link is right here:
[Top</a> US Colleges ? Graduate Salary Statistics](<a href=“http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/top-us-colleges-graduate-salary-statistics.asp]Top”>http://www.payscale.com/best-colleges/top-us-colleges-graduate-salary-statistics.asp)</p></li>
<li><p>Bucknell University - UsNews ranks Bucknell #9 in engineering of schools that don’t offer a doctorate degree. The estimated total cost of attendance at Bucknell in 2010 is $53,500. For need-based aid, Their website says that “In the first-year class that enrolled of 2010, an average financial aid award for international applicants with demonstrated need was $37,280.” They also offer merit aid and I think based on your stats, you will be very competitive.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>3.Lehigh University - This is another good engineering school. It is ranked #37 in the country by UsNews. They also offer limited financial aid and merit aid to international students. </p>
<p>Those are some of the schools I can think of right now that offer financial assistance to international students.</p>
<p>Like confidential2015 said, look for private universities that are good in engineering and offer need based aid to internationals. </p>
<p>My serious advice to you is to just focus onthe top liberal arts colleges and even the top tier schools.With your stats you have solid chances of being admitted with full need based aid.have you considered amherst,swathmore,reed,oberlin and tufts?I think these could be viable for you,tufts especially.</p>
<p>I agree that with your stats you would be a match at many private schools that don’t consider “green card” status; you might get nearly full funding from some.</p>
<p>yes they are few eng schools.but tufts and penn have schools have engineering,and I think Oberlin has a 3-2 engineering program in conjunction with columbia and case western reserve.</p>
<p>3-2 engineering programs are problematic because most of the engineering schools don’t have funding for internationals. Columbia warns international 3-2 applicants that they may be admitted without financial aid and Caltech does not offer aid at all. Penn is super selective and decidedly not need-blind for internationals.</p>
<p>Please don’t understand me wrong. I am not saying that the OP should not apply to these schools. What I am saying is that they are quite a gamble compared to universities that award full merit-based scholarships to students like the OP.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the suggestions and help.
I’ve decided not to apply to any public schools at all. However, now my list is all top schools.</p>
<p>Brown
Columbia
Cornell
Duke
MIT
Princeton
Stanford</p>
<p>I chose all of these because they award quite a few (around 200) internationals with financial aid. The rub is that they are also so much more competitive. Should I drop a one or two and put in a lower school (like Northwestern, which only gives about 35 int’ls aid?) I’m definitely keeping MIT, Princeton and Cornell because they are need-blind for int’ls.</p>
<p>Duke gives 25, Northwestern around the same amount. MIT, Princeton and Cornell might be needblind but that they are really not. They are not “need aware” but the admissions officer can clearly see on your application that you are requesting financial aid. He just does not know how much. Cornell would accept you, then do financial aid applications later. So you could be admitted into Cornell without any financial aid. Only two schools perform this crap- Georgetown and Cornell. Usually schools politely reject you if they cannot fund you.</p>
<p>When I got into Cornell, and then they placed me on a financial aid waitlist. They also placed like two of my friends there too. One actually got financial aid later but he was studying engineering which offers more aid so you are in good shape.</p>
<p>You look like a very strong candidate but I would advise you to apply to a lot more schools. Have you heard of Harvey Mudd???</p>
<p>Also include safeties like lafayette, and try maybe yale or dartmouth engineering? Not very strong but they are on a drive to expand their engineering programs. Think of the benefits.</p>
<p>Hie,youve made a good decision to apply to private schools,but your list is very tight.I would suggest you throw in 2 safeties,like TUFTS(they have a great engineering school).write some good essays and you will be well on your way to one of these top schools,goodluck!</p>
<p>If you would rather take time off than go to a lower-ranked school, your list is fine. Otherwise I am with everyone else that you need a few safeties on your list.</p>