Chance for Trustee Scholarship - or any scholarship

Colleges & Universities A-Z Northeastern University
1

<p>I'm a Canadian citizen currently studying in Hong Kong which would obviously make me an international student as I don't hold an American passport. International fees for any school in the US is pretty much near insane, but for NU, $55k is way over what my family can afford and even so, we're doing pretty okay in terms of our own finances and we can't qualify for something like need-based financial aid.</p>

<p>I'm fairly certain I should be okay with getting into Northeastern (especially as an international student who has had exposure to both the East and West; I grew up on the West Coast), but the thing that's going to be the major deciding factor for me to actually attend the school - which I so desperately want to do - would be the price of tuition. I know a lot of people here have gotten Dean's scholarships which apparently max out at $17k/year the most, but the remaining amount of money is still too much. The thing that would really get me there is the Trustee Scholarship, which I understand is beyond difficult to get, but here are my stats - my school doesn't do rankings or GPA as we're on a different system:</p>

<p>Female, Chinese-Canadian
IBDP Student: predicted 34 (applying EA, should be applying with those scores)
English HL, History HL, Business Mgmt. HL
Mandarin SL (final score: 7), Biology SL, Math Studies SL
+ TOK, English EE</p>

<p>SAT (not required for int'l students but still): 1670</p>

<p>Honor Roll: Grades 10, 11, predicted for 12</p>

<p>ECAs:
Part-time job at a performing arts company (gr. 11, 12)
Summer intern at a local music showcase (two summers)
TEDx PR Team Leader (11, 12)
Part-time online music magazine writer (summer, 12)
Film Group location scout, props manager, on-set assistant (with IMDb page if that gives me credibility...haha - 11, 12)
English Reading Program volunteer for local disadvantaged children (10)
School representative for EARCOS GIN Conference in Jakarta (11)
Southeast Asia Conference Student Activities Conference MUN: Press Corps journalist (11)
The IB Program also requires 150 CAS hours for the diploma programme, so on top of all of this another extra 100+ community service hours with clubs at school (11, 12)</p>

<p>I'm really hoping that my ECAs would make up for the lack of good grades in academic achievement, especially in grade 9 as that was my adjusting period (I made the move from Canada to HK then). Would it be possible at all for me to get a Trustee Scholarship?</p>

2

<p>I hate to say it, but I don’t think the chances are spectacular. I was also a full IB student, with tons of extracurriculars, 4.0 GPA, and a high SAT/ACT. I got the National Merit, not Trustee. The only person I know of who got the Trustee is a certified genius, spent his last two years of high school at a state magnet boarding high school, and had a perfect score on at least the math section of the SAT.
In other words, the competition is ridiculous.
Your best shot is to play up your culture and experiences and how this has shaped you. I’m not going to sugar coat it and say your chances are spectacular, but good luck!</p>

3

<p>Don’t submit your SAT score - just a recommendation. Your SAT is only slightly above average and you want to be extraordinary sounding if you are hoping for the Trustee. For your remaining CAS hours, try to concentrate your hours into two or three activities that you’ve already participated in and really enjoy doing.</p>

<p>Northeastern has a lot of international students so I feel that they are used to students who are on different grading systems, but they are still going to compare you against plenty of other IB Diploma kids and boarding school kids and AP Scholar kids from all around the world. There are wayyy less than 100 Trustee Scholarships, because there are 100 Trustee or National Merit Scholarships given out each year - and something like 43,000 applicants (more than any other private school). So statistically, the chances aren’t on your side sadly, but that doesn’t mean you should give up hope! Make sure your Common App (if that’s what International students use) essay is amazing and see how things go! Good luck!</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the suggestions! I took off my SAT scores (I’m really only planning on applying to Northeastern anyway in terms of US schools) so I guess it didn’t really matter whether they were on my app or not. </p>

<p>I haven’t written my Common App essay yet, but I’ll be sure to base it off my exposure to eastern and western cultures. I talked about applying EA with one of my counsellors and she told me to apply RD, just because it gives me more time to boost up the fall term of my grades before they get submitted, as well as sending in my second round of predicted scores after my mocks (which are in February). </p>

<p>Again, thanks!</p>