Hello! I’m currently a HIGH SCHOOL student in Latin America and I’m looking forward to going to the states to study finance. I’m on my senior year with a 4.5 GPA so far (I take 12 classes and the gpa is out of a scale of 5, in my country we do bachilleres which means that my curriculum of classes is excusively business oriented. I’ve taken accounting, marketing, advertising, economics, etc during all of my high school years) My extracurriculars are mostly just very on the media side? I’m on the debate club, did modeling and tv presenting, ecology club, english club, interned at a startup dedicated to events for a while, staffed concerts and my school sends seniors to intern at banks on october and the internship lasts 3 months so I guess that’d be the only business focused extracurricular I’d have? and I’d be a first gen student, my parents are immigrants in my country(they’re from china) and i speak 3 languages
Would this affect me in any way? or help me?
So far I’m thinking of applying to the following schools
Dream
Harvard(SUPER SUPER DREAM), UPenn, Columbia, Cornell. Notre Dame
Target
Duke, Darthmouth,
Safety
Villanova, FSU (mostly since it’s cheaper for me to study 2 years here and 2 years in the US since they have a scholarship that works like that since they have a branch of their school here), UWO.
I was wondering if there were any other schools I should look into or take into consideration for my list? I’ve chosen most of this schools due to the financial aid help for international students I saw on their websites and I’d like to live in the north (experience winter and also because it’s closer to NYC). I’d really like to know about more schools with a strong alumni network, great academics and that also offer good aid packages or at least scholarships?
Also I’ll be taking the SAT on Oct 2 and the subject tests on Nov 4 but I haven’t chosen which ones to take, so far i’ve been thinking on
World History
US History
Biology
Math 1
Literature
and I wasn’t sure which one would be better for my application?
Do Harvard, Columbia, Duke and Dartmouth offer business/finance as majors to their undergraduates? If not, what draws you academically to these schools?
Harvard offers economics, duke offers economics with a concentration in finance, columbia offers financial economics and darthmouth offers economics too. I’m attracted to them mostly due to the strong academics, the prestige and the financial aid they offer to international students and also, they have a good alumni network. I’ve also thought about double majoring and if I wanted to do this I’d like to be in a school that’s good at mostly everything they teach (I’m passionate about learning as much as I can about anything I want)
The four schools I mentioned in post #1 tend to offer liberal arts curricula. They normally would expect applicants to enter prepared with four years of sciences, math (essential for advanced economics), social studies and literature/writing. The key for you might depend on how well your educational background would articulate with schools of this type.
As an international student needing financial aid, you have NO safeties.
There is simply not that much aid available, and the competition is enormous, especially for schools in the Northeastern US. To increase your chances, target schools in the southern, central (often called mid-west) and western (but not west coast) parts of the country. These areas aren’t as well known by international students, and they receive fewer applications.
It’s very important you do well on the SATs. You will need high scores to be competitive for financial aid. Once you have your SAT results, target schools where your stats put you well in the top 25th percentile. But right now, without knowing your scores, it’s hard to advise. The SATs are key to deciding which schools are worth applying to.
You need to let us know how much you can afford first before there is any meaningful answers.It will make a huge difference for international students.
I took all the sicence and humanities classes during 7th,8th and 9th grade (bachillerato starts at 10th). My school is a private prep and is highly known in the country, but I’m afraid that internationally this won’t matter. I know that colleges in the US look from 9th grade onwards but HS starts from 7th over here so I wasn’t sure if what I learned those years would matter, but I took the classes during those years (We would use advanced books)
What are some schools in the southern, central and western area that you’d recommend? I thought about applying to USC (It’s in California so I guess it enters on the west coast area). I’m very interested on big cities with lots of diversity and politics (I love politics and debate!) and just a place where I could immerse myself in the culture and get to know every thing and every one better.
Which SAT subject tests are the best ones to take in the options I have narrowed so far? I want to skip math, but considering the fact that I want to study business, I chose not to.
I was thinking of taking out a loan (a government institution in my country offers the option of up to 80k in loans for college education abroad, but I think that I need to show a letter of acceptance before they even consider talking to me) and my parents offered to help. This is the reason why I’m looking for financial aid friendly schools or schools that offer scholarships or work-study programs, since I don’t want to take out that much in loans or ask my parents to spend that much on me.
$80k usd will only last you one year for USC if there is no aid.
For international students how much money you can pay is important. Meaning how much your parents can pay before loans.
Most schools, USC included will not give an internationals a free ride. If you can afford $20k a year there are low cost schools you can go. They will not be well known schools.
Without knowing your SATs or your budget it’s very hard to say, and you should use a search engine (this site, collegeboard, princetonreview) to start narrowing down options. Google is your friend!
Below is a list of some public schools in the targeted areas (mid west, south, west) with good business programs – Georgia State, University of South Carolina, University of Alabama, Michigan State, Indiana University, University of Minnesota, Ohio State, Texas A & M, Purdue University – that’s just for a start. Note none of these will offer you significant financial aid since they’re public universities.
Trinity University in Texas, Loyola University Chicago, Gonzaga University in Washington, University of Denver are some of the private schools you could look into. They’re not as well known among international students, so the competition for financial aid may be easier.
I’m not asking for a free ride, I’m well aware that I’ll incur in some amount of debt if I am to leave my country and study in the states. However, i’d be great if I could receive some sort of aid to make it possible for me to ask less money from both the government and my parents. The reason why I chose the colleges above to apply to was due to the financial aid they offer to international students and alsotheir academics.
I was looking for smaller schools, for my safeties. I was looking for schools with prestige and a strong alumni network since I want to work in investment banking or S&T and for those jobs I’d need to network a lot.I don’t want to just have a degree for the sake of having it, I’d like to also have the brand attached to that degree and the experience of attending such school
Thank you so much for your suggestions!
I saw the University of South Carolina and I was reminded that a while back I had checked out The University of North Carolina - Chapel Hills website and liked it. However, they have a 26% acceptance rate and this, along with what you had mentioned about public schools not offering much aid, worried me.
Would it be better if I only applied to private schools since aid might be easier to get?
I had looked into Drexel! The boss at the startup I internet at had graduated from there, but I’m still not very convinced of whether it’d be a good fit for me. I looked into Northeastern and UVA too and I liked them!
As a transfer student, Drexel, Bryant, and Seattle University all offered me great MERIT aid packages. I don’t know what their policies are for international freshman applicants but I think it’s worth looking into.
Would you mind me asking what were your stats to receive the merit aid packages? I’ve heard a lot about those but they seem be quite hard to get? I really love the idea of studying in Seattle (personally, I love the city and I’m in love with the thought of spending time there) but apparently it isn’t a finance city? Thank you so much!
It’s not a finance city like Chicago, SF, or NYC but it is up and coming like Atlanta or Houston. I had a 3.756, member of Phi Theta Kappa honor society.
You need to understand who is “need aware” and who is “need blind” for international students, off the top of my head I believe that Harvard is the only one on your list who is need blind for international students so you could apply there with financial aid (FA) without hurting your chances. Any other school that is need aware, it will hurt your chances to apply for FA with your application. Something to consider when applying to US schools.