Demographics:
→ international student
→ East Asia
→ International School (full IB curriculum)
→ Female, South Korean
Intended Majors:
→ international relations
→ (maybe) political science
GPA:
→ approx 3.97 out of 4.0
(no weighted)
SAT: 1530
Coursework:
→ full IB DP courses
→ foreign language: Mandarin (can speak fluently)
→ Orchestra (violin) since 6th grade
Awards
→ High school’s merit scholarship recipient for all eligible years (10th, 11th grade)
→ School level: ‘Student of the Semester’, Achievement awards for different subjects
→ Head of School’s Honor Roll in school
→ Soccer All-Conference
Extracurriculars
→ Student Council co-president (member since 8th grade)
→ member of the National Honors Society
→ Co-President of Chinese Culture Club (member since 9th grade)
→ Captain of Quiz Team (member since 9th grade)
→ member of MUN, Solidarity club
→ Varsity Basketball and Soccer since 8th grade
→ JV volleyball for 9th and 10th grade
→ service trip to the Philippines
→ tutored online for a P2P program (2 years)
→ student ambassador for UCLG (United Cities and Local Governments) in 2022
→ certificates in 2 online courses taken during the summer on Coursera
→ Summer internship doing research at a hydrogen-power company
Essays/LORs/
→ not written yet, applying for fall 2024 admissions
Cost Constraints / Budget
→ will likely need all needs met, require all aid possible (applying to Pomona for need-blind)
Schools
→ Pomona College (ED, 1st choice)
→ Claremont McKenna College
→ Swarthmore College
→ Williams College
→ Georgetown University
→ Bowdoin College
You have a strong record and academically will be competitive anywhere. Internationals who need full financial aid are at a disadvantage at many US colleges…because the colleges are need aware and/or don’t meet full financial need for internationals.
Pomona is need aware for international students attending an international HS, so you might want to adjust your first choice. Seven US colleges are need blind and meet full need for internationals: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Bowdoin, Dartmouth, and Amherst.
Do you have affordable schools in your home country? Are you applying to schools in other countries as well?
All your schools are difficult. And needing full aid is a strike against.
The only schools in the US that meet need that are need blind are Amherst, Bowdoin, Dartmouth, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Yale.
So all you are applying to will put you in a negative light if they need to cover 100%. It doesn’t mean they won’t but it does make a difficult situation harder.
First thing to do - run the colleges net price calculator. You say you need full coverage. But do they agree ? What they say is what matters, not what you say.
I’d recommend schools like Franklin and Marshall as an easier school that meets need but it’s also need aware.
Western Carolina U for a public where your cost might be $20k a year. Similar to U of Alabama.
You face a difficult journey but best of luck to you.
Will schools in Singapore be affordable, and at least one of them will be highly likely admission for you? Why no schools in South Korea?
The US schools that meet full need and are need blind for internationals are reaches for all unhooked applicants, international acceptance rates are in the low single digits (which includes full pay applicants).
The next group of schools which meet full need, but are need aware for internationals tend to also be high reaches…Pomona, CMK, Swat, and Williams from your OP are in this group. Need aware means your level of need may impact the admissions decision, e.g., these schools decide which international applicants to invest in, if they choose to take any with financial need at all.
While things might work out, the most likely scenario is that it doesn’t, which is why you need to make sure you have at least one affordable safety elsewhere.
What can your family contribute to your college education each year?
@merc81 do these sites consider affordability for international students? If not, this isn’t going to help this applicant who appears to need full funding, and is an international student.
In addition to what others have posted, I would point out that these same 7 or 8 colleges that offer supposedly need-blind aid to internationals get so much hype because of their generous financial aid that even if your chances of getting aid are 100%, your chances of getting in are in the single digits. So (just to use one example), even though Amherst is need-blind, and Wesleyan is need-aware for everyone, an international’s chances of getting into either are about the same.
@thumper1: I’m confident the OP can search for colleges that may be academically suitable and colleges that may be affordable in appropriate stages. Regarding an emphasis on schools that state a need-blind policy in admission for international students, I don’t see any particular advantage to this at this time. On the contrary, such a strategy could counterproductively narrow the OP’s list (in contrast to researching all suitable colleges that meet the full, demonstrated financial need for all students, irrespective of national origin).
I do agree that this poster should look at all options that have the potential to meet full need for him as an international student. And I hope it works out for him.
He will need to read each website on the colleges links that you provided to make sure that the schools even offer aid to international students…if that is essential for him to attend…because some of those schools do not.
Unfortunately, admission to all schools on your list is very unlikely given financial aid requirements. Even need blind institutions severely restrict aid to international students. I’d really work on building up your list and would not waste your ED on Pomona.
Will your majors, of international relations and political science, work well in your country for you? Once you receive a US degree, you’re expected to return to your home country. The US schools will educate you, but they are under no obligation to employ you, or immigrate you. So, your safeties would be your universities in your country.
Also, just remember that “need blind” means that when they look at your application, they do NOT consider whether or not you can afford the costs to attend.
“Need blind” also does not mean that they will blindly give you whatever you need financially.
Most financial aid departments, in US colleges and universities are in completely different offices than the admissions office. At the smaller schools, my experience has been that the financial aid department may be on a different floor than admissions, but housed in the same building. At the larger universities, the admissions department sometimes has its own building.
You applied ED to Pomona which means that if they accept you, even without aid, that you’re agreeing to attend. The only way to get out of that contract is by not being able to pay.
The schools that you’ve listed are competitive and very selective. Their funding is limited for international students because you’re competing, for a very small pot of money, being divided amongst all the internationals outside of the US who want to be admitted to a US school.