Chance me as an international student please!!

Okay so basically I’m from Morocco and I graduated High school in 2017 from a french school. I took a gap year after that and right now I’m very interested in applying to the U.S and i would like to know what are my chances to get accepted for next fall with a very good scholarship or financial aid based on my score, thanks in advance for your help!!!

So for my scores I got TOEFL: 112/120, SAT: 1460 (I may take an other one in December and try to get a better score), my grades in high school were average but I was among the first 10 students. Also I’m thinking about passing the SAT subject test in English if that can boost my application, I’m considering majoring in English with a journalism minor or majoring in journalism with a minor in communication or media.

My extracurricular activity: I was an intern for almost a year in a recruiting firm. I know it’s thin but extracurricular activities are not a thing at all in my country but I will try and find something more to do before applying!

I don’t have any university in mind yet so i would really like to get your opinion on what kind of university would accepte me with a good scholarship/financial aid !! A scholarship is very important to me, my family can’t afford a lot.

Thanks for taking the time to answer me, I really appreciate it, have a good day/night!

“…I’m very interested in applying to the U.S and i would like to know what are my chances to get accepted for next fall with a very good scholarship or financial aid…”.

@Erine 240 I am afraid this is too vague a question. You seek to be accepted by which US University/College with very good financial aid? The respective attractiveness of your profile differs, depending on the universities/colleges you are interested in. Please be as specific as possible to receive meaningful feedback and input. Best of luck!

I’ve done some research and here are the colleges I would like to apply to:

Barnard College
Bryn Mawr College
Berea College
Mount Holyoke College
Trinity College

@Erine240 Great - for Colleges on your list, the SAT 25th - 75th Percentiles for Admitted Students are as follows:

Barnard College 1260–1450
Bryn Mawr College 1310–1500
Berea College 970–1200
Mount Holyoke College 1270–1463
Trinity College 1230–1410.

With your current SAT of 1460, you are therefore generally in line with above SAT ranges. You have not provided any GPA information, please run a respective comparison.

The next step then is to visit the websites of every college on your list and to look up the information on Financial Aid for International Students, as respective rules and regulations for each college will differ. As an example, based on recent information Bryn Mawr College provided merit aid to 157 international students in the total amount of $6,179,834. This type of aid is highly competitive and you would always need to be at the very top of admitted international students in terms of quantitative and qualitative admission criteria, in order to have a realistic chance for this type of merit aid.

A brief overview on merit aid for international students in recent years (selected universities/colleges). Most of these schools will take your ability to pay into account in the admissions process but once accepted they offer highly qualified applicants generous aid packages ranging from partial tuition scholarships to full tuition grants:

Bard College – Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
196 students, $7,617,880 total
Bates College – Lewiston, Maine
84 students, $4,081,959 total
Beloit College – Beloit, Wisconsin
111 students, $2,143,021 total
Bennington College – Bennington, Vermont
46 students, $2,024,000 total
Brown University – Providence, Rhode Island
207 students, $8,400,000 total
Bryn Mawr College – Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
157 students, $6,179,834 total
California Institute of Technology – Pasadena, California
26 students, $1,124,845 total
Clark University – Worcester, Massachusetts
165 students, $3,993,130 total
Colby College – Waterville, Maine
82 students, $3,957,995 total
Colgate College – Hamilton, New York
114 students, $5,360,736 total
College of the Atlantic – Bar Harbor, Maine
52 students, $2,164,213 total
Colorado College – Colorado Springs, Colorado
70 students, $3,155,913 total
Connecticut College – New London, Connecticut
57 students, $2,747,848 total
Denison University – Granville, Ohio
153 students, $3,879,380 total
DePauw University – Greencastle, Indiana
$5,090,458 total
Dickinson College – Carlisle, Pennsylvania
133 students, $4,429,897 total
Franklin and Marshall College – Lancaster, Pennsylvania
159 students, $5,951,714 total
Grinnell College – Grinnell, Iowa
157 students, $5,655,157 total
Hamilton College – Clinton, New York
66 students, $2,975,464 total
Hampshire College – Amherst, Massachusetts
87 students, $1,924,573 total
Hendrix College – Conway, Arkansas
$1,687,347 total
Illinois Institute of Technology – Chicago, Illinois
592 students, $10,703,818 total
Kenyon College – Gambier, Ohio
58 students, $2,304,722 total
Knox College – Galesburg, Illinois
$2,976,508 total
Lafayette College – Easton, Pennsylvania
103 students, $3,859,836 total
Lawrence University – Appleton, Wisconsin
110 students, $2,222,784 total
Macalester College – St Paul, MN
222 students, $7,647, 111 total
Middlebury College – Middlebury, Vermont
129 students, $6,313,628 total
Mount Holyoke College – South Hadley, Massachusetts
448 students, $15,480,183 total
Oberlin College – Oberlin, Ohio
146 students, $4,343,742 total
Ohio Wesleyan University – Delaware, Ohio
149 students, $3,368,998 total
Reed College – Portland, Oregon
45 students, $2,080,424 total
Sarah Lawrence College – Bronxville, New York
$2,592,487 total
Skidmore College – Saratoga Springs, New York
80 students, $4,281,849 total
Smith College – Northampton, Massachusetts
168 students, $7,339,206 total
Soka University of America – Aliso Viego, California
164 students, $5,308,880 total
St. John’s College – Annapolis – Annapolis, Maryland
39 students, $1,229,271 total
St. Lawrence University – Canton, New York
155 students, $5,939,516 total
St. Olaf College – Northfield, Minnesota
$5,309,947 total
Stanford University – Stanford, California
187 students, $9,088,919 total
Swarthmore College – Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
56 students, $2,604,476 total
Trinity College – Hartford, Connecticut
146 students, $7,446,464 total
Union College – Schenectady, New York
82 students, $2,706,410 total
University of Pennsylvania – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
332 students, $14,245,353 total
University of Richmond – Richmond, Virginia
128 students, $5,628,674 total
University of Rochester – Rochester, New York
328 students, $6,538,139 total
University of Southern California – Los Angeles, California
221 students, $4,254,535 total
Vassar College – Poughkeepsie, New York
92 students, $4,445,049 total
Wabash College – Crawfordsville, Indiana
53 students, $936,950 total
Wellesley College – Wellesley, Massachusetts
114 students, $5,417,075 total
Wesleyan University – Middleton, Connecticut
83 students, $4,270,370 total
Wheaton College (MA) – Norton, Massachusetts
103 students, $2,344,486 total
Williams College – Williamstown, Massachusetts
80 students, $4,373,650 total
Worcester Polytechnic Institute – Worcester, Massachusetts
350 students, $8,148,755 total
Yeshiva University – New York, New York
133 students, $3,209,689 total

Generally, with the exception of just 6 Universities and Colleges in the US that are need blind and committed to meeting 100% of demonstrated need of international students, there is little if any need based financial aid available for international students.

@hpcsa- A small correction. The numbers you cite are for financial aid, not merit aid. While some of the schools on the list may offer merit aid to international students many, if not most, do not. Those schools offer need-based FA to international students. While it sound like the OP will qualify I didn’t want other international students to be confused.

@Sue22 Thank you for your message. As most of the listed schools are not need-blind for International Students and will therefore thoroughly consider the ability to pay as part of their admission decision process for this group, in practice financial aid to International Students will always highly correlate with merit aid to the highest international top performers, as considered by the respective college. You are correct in that the numbers quoted are total Financial Aid to International Students, yet in practical terms a limited part of this will solely be need based, given that the majority of international students showing a gap in affordability will not have been admitted by these schools in the first place.

The average amount of aid given (also found on the college data site) can be indicative. For example, Mount Holyoke (COA $66K, does NOT meet full need for international students) gives an average of $40K, while Trinity College (COA $67K, does meet full need) gives an average of $50K.