International Student
CIE O’levels: 1A*, 6As, 1B
EDEXCEL International A’levels: 3As
SAT: 2040; M-800, CR-610, W-630
SAT Subject Test: Physics-740
IELTS: 8.0
Essay: very well written(I think so! :p)
ECA:
-Volunteer For Bangladesh, Jaago Foundation
Helping underprivileged children get quality education for free. We collect funds from people for them. I achieved teamwork and leadership skills.–for about a year in my gap year
-Drummer- I am a self taught drummer who plays only for the fun of it. I’ve covered many songs including Give Me Novacaine, Toxicity, Lonely Day etc.— for about 2 years
-Leader & Head Organizer: Community Service Club- I headed in arranging charity sporting events for collecting funds to assist underprivileged children with their education
Participation grade levels: 9, 11
Cricket—Captain of one of our school’s team. I lead my team as captain and opening batsman. The team spirit & value of team work were very essential.
Participation grade levels: 9
Professional Experience:
-Part-time O’level Physics & Mathematics teacher at a school- taught for about a year in my gap year
**My family income bracket is below $30,000. I would not be able to attend WPI if I don’t get financial aid and scholarships.
I cannot afford to pay more than $18000 for my cost of attendance. Your thoughts and opinions are all welcome!
Other universities/colleges I’ve applied:
Drexel University
University of Nebraska- Lincoln
University of South Florida
Dickinson College
Ramapo College of New Jersey
Saginaw Valley State University
nwddr, seeing that no one has responded, I will give you my opinion. I will be frank with you. You are basically asking for a full scholarship because the room and board alone would cost about $14K. I am not familiar with your school’s grading system bu I am getting the impression that you are not the valedictorian or salutatorian of your school. Your SAT is average although U.S. schools will give some leeway as English would not be your first language. As an international student you will be competing with the #1 graduates of most schools around the world. The odds of you being a standout with what you described so far is very low. Having said that, I encourage you to apply because not applying gives you zero chance. However, temper your expectation. Request for a waiver of the application fees so that you can apply to as many schools without costing you much. Good Luck.
I know very little about issues facing international students, so I won’t comment on that. However, your list of schools is hard to understand. Are you interested in studying engineering?
@markab2 , thank you for your honest response. I’m trying my best not to get overwhelmed by high expectations. @VMT , Yes, I’m interested in studying engineering. However, I kept way for a 3-2 engineering program through Dickinson College. I also applied for an Engineering Physics major at Ramapo College in case I get zero financial aid from the other colleges.
An alternative option might be to seek admission at a community college for the first two years and then transfer. This will certainly be easier on your budget. You might look at some of the other [url="<a href=“http://theaitu.org%22%5DAITU%5B/url”>http://theaitu.org"]AITU[/url] schools besides Drexel. They are private, specialize in engineering, and some have good merit aid for international students.
Ramapo College of New Jersey and Saginaw Valley State University are considerably worse than the other schools on your list. Their reputation means you would have to be a standout student (possibly near/at the very top of your class) to get an excellent job.
Also, if you live off campus and cook your own meals, you can save significantly off the advertised COA, especially if go to a school in a rural area.
I also suggest you look into the Rochester Institute of Technology. It is a good engineering school with a great co-o program and you will hopefully get good aid with your stats. Btw, I am also from Bangladesh and I am student in the US right now. Good luck with the process.
One more advice is to increase your SAT score. It’s kind of idiotic, but universities care a lot about increasing their median and 75th percentile scores, as this is a factor in rankings and marketing. As an international student who wants aid, you want to be well above the 75th percentile of admitted students. If you could improve your SAT score to 2200+, it would help you with scholarships and aid.
Practicing for a standardized test is not intrinsically useful, but it will help your chances.