Chance me for these colleges

<p>@Hezekiel - I am researching my options and in the process, my college list is being updated regularly with additions and subtractions. I hope to arrive at a final list by August. While I’ve heard things about Colgate’s alcoholic culture, I’ve also heard things on the contrary. I’m looking to find out more.</p>

<p>I’ve received replies from a few colleges. I’ve quoted the parts relevant to this discussion below:</p>

<p>Berea College - </p>

<p>“Every accepted international student receives a full tuition scholarship for all four years. We provide 100% of the funding for room & board the first year. On average room & board costs $1,000 per year each year after the first.”</p>

<p>Soka University of America - </p>

<p>“Soka University is committed to ensure that every admitted student, regardless of citizenship, is able to attend Soka without worry of costs. If your family makes less than $60,000 US/year then the Soka Opportunity Scholarship will actually cover the full tuition. We also have a number of Merit Based scholarships up to $15,000 US to help cover room and board costs. We also have Institutional Loans available for students who require them, however, there is no need to worry about financial aid at this time.”</p>

<p>Grinnell College - </p>

<p>"In terms of financial aid, International students applying to Grinnell are expected to contribute some amount of personal funding for each of the four years of the undergraduate program, however small the amount might be.</p>

<p>Like the vast majority of small private colleges in the US, Grinnell’s international student aid policy is not ‘need-blind,’ for international students but rather ‘need-sensitive,’ meaning that your financial resources as documented on the College Board’s CSS Profile might be considered in determining an admission decision. Like most schools, we are need-sensitive because we have limited financial resources and we want to spread those funds out in order to maximize our yield for the best qualified and most diverse class possible. For well-qualified international applicants, however, we can offer to meet between 70-85% of demonstrated financial need as determined by our review of the CSS Profile.</p>

<p>That said, Grinnell has created several comprehensive Special Scholarships for students from certain regions which can cover all related costs of attendance that the student’s family is unable to cover. These scholarships, as you might guess, are highly competitive and a student wishing to compete for these must apply in the Regular Decision pool (January 15 deadline). There is no separate application for these scholarships, the review staff will choose and evaluate candidates based on their level of demonstrated need."</p>

<p>Reed College-</p>

<p>“Yes, if you were accepted, Reed would meet 100% of your demonstrated financial need. In general, an aid package is made up of a moderate loan (around $2500 for a first-year student, increasing by $1000 each subsequent year), mostly institutional grants, and a work study program. For more detailed information about the financial aid process, please check out our Financial Aid website. Applying as an international student with financial need is a very competitive process at Reed. Because we meet full need, we usually admit 20-25 international students with need each year.”</p>

<p>I will keep posting replies as and when I receive them.</p>

<p>@peepigntom- You’d be an asset for any college. An Indian applicant who rows, wow! :D</p>

<p>I speak from my experience on the Colgate University sub-forum on CC.
<a href=“Question about Colgate - Colgate University - College Confidential Forums”>Question about Colgate - Colgate University - College Confidential Forums;

<p>May be an isolated bad experience though.
Yea @peepingtom- An Indian who rows, really stands out.</p>

<p>Grinnell- I don’t think these special region-wise scholarships are open to Indians, are they?
So how do you plan on financing, if you get in there? ( The rest 15- 30 % )</p>

<p>Thanks @nikhilravi, for the info and the compliment (good to know Reed admits 20-25 each year, Soka surprised me too! Already knew about Grinnel (they expect to contribute $2-3k but that too can be covered via regional scholarships). Berea is definitely a hard nut to crack, their intl acceptance is around 4% (lower than Harvard!)
I’ll also post some info that I’ve acquired from colleges, too bad I deleted most of them.</p>

<p>Yes the region wise scholarships are open, or else why would they email Nikhil otherwise? I read that on their website too. Scholarships are most endowed by intl alumni from China, Japan etc. </p>

<p>@peepingtom- Soka is amazing. They have a very good academic program and really good financial aid. They have the largest international student body in the US in terms of percent of total student body with 41.1% of their students being international. The university is not very well known because it is relatively new ( chartered in 2001) and it doesn’t really recruit students actively. Their alumni have gone on to grad school at Harvard, Yale and a lot of other top schools. It will be one of my top options if I do not get into Reed ED.</p>

<p>Yes, Berea is a very tough nut to crack, especially for international students.</p>

<p>@hezekiel - Thanks for the link. Will definitely consider that before I apply.
You mentioned in an earlier post, Reed’s alcohol and drug culture. I have heard about this and while I admit that there is some amount of recreational drug use at Reed, I simply refuse to believe that students doing drugs would be able to cope with the work and load of what is arguably one of the most rigorous undergraduate programs in the US.</p>

<p>@nikhilravi
Please tell me more about Reed, what you’ve gathered. It sounds really interesting, it’s unbelievable that you’re applying Reed ED and not SCEA somewhere else.
Also, I knew about Soka, but I thought it was more of a conservative catholic type (what I gathered from Fiske Guide to Colleges). </p>

<p>International Special Scholarships are designated for students from Africa; Eastern Europe and Eurasia, Latin America, Middle East, and Nepal, as well as a native speakers of Russian (regardless of citizenship).
Grinnell website says this.
Indians will be competing for the other merit scholarships I guess.</p>

<p>@nikhilravi - I know this kind of sounds lame, but another reason dissuaded me from adding Reed to my list ( might reconsider though).
Its 4 year graduation rate is in the low 30s, which is lesser than most of its counterparts.
Since you would have researched Reed thoroughly ( it being your top choice), do you know of any reason for the low 4-year graduation rate?</p>

<p>Lots of Steve Jobs wannabe kids getting stoned and dropping out? LOL</p>

<p>Reed is one of the best LACs in the US, although the US News rankings might tell you otherwise. (This is mainly because Reed does not participate in these rankings. They participated only once and were ranked in the top ten.)</p>

<p>The college is extremely intellectual and has a highly rigorous academic program. Only a handful of students have ever graduated with a 4.00 GPA. Each student is required to complete a two-semester long research project in their senior year and defend it. From what I’ve read, all science majors get their own labs to work on their research (How amazing is this!). Also, Reed is probably the only college in the world with a nuclear reactor completely operated by undergrads!</p>

<p>They also have an unusually high proportion of graduates who go on to earn PhDs. (Higher than HYPS)</p>

<p>For me, the college is an almost-perfect fit. Assuming I get in everywhere I apply, I’d choose Reed over the ivies. That’s why I’m applying ED to Reed instead of SCEA to an ivy. </p>

<p>Hope this helps!</p>

<p>Soka isn’t really conservative catholic. It is funded by a sect of Buddhism called Soka Gakkai. But they maintain that they are totally secular and this is reflected in the fact that there are no religious courses that are required to be taken by students.</p>

<p>@Hezekiel - I am not sure where you get your stats from. Their graduation rate has been in the 70-80s range for a decade or so now. </p>

<p>Thanks, you’re a mine of information. I never said they’re Catholic, just “Catholic Type” was trying to imply conservative like girls taking celibacy oaths and other such things!</p>

<p>I am sorry. I distinctly remember seeing it in 30s, but I must be mistaken. ( It is 57%)
<a href=“http://colleges.findthebest.com/l/3538/Reed-College”>http://colleges.findthebest.com/l/3538/Reed-College&lt;/a&gt;
Please have a look at the 4-year graduation rate.</p>

<p>I guess any figure above 70 is good, </p>

<p>@peepingtom -</p>

<p>Haha! I was worried about that too. But from the information I’ve gathered, that really isn’t the case.</p>

<p>@Hezekiel - The graduation rate for the class of '10 was 70%. For the class of 2014, their retention rate has jumped to 92% which points to an upward trend.</p>

<p>Are you applying for the Class of 2019? </p>

<p>Also, you need to take a qualifying exam in your major before being allowed to begin senior year. As is the case with their academic program overall, this too is rigorous and many students flunk out.</p>

<p>@Peepingtom - Yes, I will be applying to the class of 2019. You?</p>

<p>@nikhilravi- Thanks for the info! and @peepingtom-
Do you think USD 20000 as a debt ( loans during undergrad) is reasonable ( in the USA)?</p>

<p>I don’t think so, $20k is more on the higher side! Are you kidding yourself, You’ll have to slog hard for at least 5 yrs to repay that!</p>

<p>same here, class of 2019. I think I’ll apply to Reed as well.</p>