Chance Me For Top Engineering Schools! / International

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hello everyone,</p>

<p>I'm a Hungarian international applying for need-based financial aid (no alternatives). I'd like to study engineering or comp-science and I'm looking for reasonable (though hard enough) choices besides MIT, Stanford and Cornell.
What universities would be good for me, and please chance me for Vanderbilt, University of Illinois at Urbana-C., Brown School of Engineering, University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Tufts.</p>

<p>Grades:
We don't have GPA, but I'm top 5-10% in my class, though we don't have official class rank either. My school is the second best high school in Hungary</p>

<p>SAT:
My previous SAT was only 1980 and I'll do around 2050 (650CR, 800M, 600W) this October. Since I'm an international, I might improve to 2100 or so.</p>

<p>Language exam:
I have a 7.5 IELTS and I'm about to have a TOEFL between 100-110.</p>

<p>Other school projects:
- member of the school government
- lots of math and physics competitions (but not succesfully, recently; my last final was in 9th grade...)
- volunteer teaching (I trained some seniors to get through the wrestling part on their sport final exams)
- debating group-competition (semi-final)
- school English-club organizing and holding weekly</p>

<p>EC:
- volunteer Hungarian teaching (I taught kids in Romania in a camp this summer)
- volunteer Math teaching (I taught homeless children with possible dyscalculia for months last year)
- internship (I was an intern at Citroen in Hungary for 2 weeks, where I worked, attended lessons about the mechanics and wrote tests)
- work (I was a presenter at the Budapest GameShow a few years ago, where I showed the mechanics and all of the Lego Mindstorms robot to small kids)
- 24-hour programming competition (semi-final)
- debating group-competition (semi-final)
- short movie making
- film-club organizing and holding regularly
- sport: wrestling (for 10 years now; national competition 4th place 2x, group 2nd 1x), pentathlon (natinal competitions, group 2nd-3rd many times), tennis (for 5 years now, not competing nationally), skiing, soccer (on club level - once...)</p>

<p>There might be some great other points in my favor, but just looking at these, what are my chances? Thanks!</p>

<p>oldxavier</p>

2

<p>Hi! I’m also Hungarian, so I’m going to reply to this! :)</p>

<p>Most of these schools are reaches, except for UIllinois, maybe, and especially when applying for need-based aid.
I’m also applying to Johns Hopkins, it has good aid for internationals, however it’s still a low reach for you.
I wouldn’t apply to Northwestern simply because it doesn’t have aid for internationals (only very limited).
Brown, UChicago, Vanderbilt are all high reaches for you, I’m not sure about Tufts.
I think you should definitely work on your SAT scores and maybe do subject tests in November. Some places require it, others only recommend it. Anyhow, it can’t do you harm. However, don’t forget to sign up early, because places fill up really quickly here!
Your TOEFL is fine.
As on other schools, if you could do the subject tests and get higher SATs, you could attempt to get into the Ivies. Dartmouth and Cornell are both need-blind for internationals, and Dartmouth is even full need. They’re a little easier to get into than the other Ivies, eg. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, but it would still be a tough ride. Also, try USC maybe. It has a full-tuition merit scholarship, for about 100 people/year, as well as a half tuition one. Yeah, I’m always recommending USC… Occidental College in LA has need-based aid for internationals, though it has a very liberal environment that is not for everyone. It is a top LAC, though. Have you considered LACs? Some have great aid. Duke & UPenn also have aid and a great reputation.
Also, have you thought about athletic scholarships? </p>

<p>See you at the October SAT!</p>

3

<p>Thanks LayraSparks!</p>

<p>I’m not sure about this reach-match thing, low safety is the easiest and high reach is the toughest?</p>

<p>As for the colleges, I’ll definitely apply to Cornell (and to MIT, and probably even to Stanford), all of which are madly unlikely, but still. USC seems OK, I’ll think it over more thoroughly a.s.a.p. Occidental should also be great, and don’t worry - Brown and Tufts are just as liberal as OC.</p>

<p>I’ll have 800 on Math II and around 750-800 on Physics, so the Subject Tests won’t be a problem; and thanks for mentioning, I’ll sign up soon.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, I’m not competing in wrestling anymore, as I had to reduce the number of trainings. I’d fit in the soccer (football to you…) team in most colleges, but I’m not an official player. Certainly, if you know more about athletic scholarship possibilities than I, please help me out! :)</p>

4

<p>Reach is a school that is difficult to get into, either because it’s very competitive, or because your stats are not good enough. And yes, high reach is the toughest. Match is a school you’re likely to get accepted to, and has/is known for the program you want. Safety is a school you’ll definitely be accepted to, and can afford it.</p>

<p>Getting into MIT, as far as I’m concerned, is possible, just very difficult. Actually, there was a girl from my school here in Hungary who got in and is attending, just to say something encouraging. I don’t know about Stanford, they almost accepted one of my friends with an SAT score in the 1900s, however she is an athlete. </p>

<p>With USC, it’s a great school, but you need to sign a declaration of finances form in order to apply, which is basically a statement saying you have enough money on your account to afford the first year. There are ways to get round this, but if it’s impossible for you to get around 60k (12 million HUF) on an account even for a short while, then I don’t recommend considering this. Unfortunately, most schools which don’t have fin aid for internationals have this, however if you receive a merit scholarship, you’re set. Yet to even get considered for a scholarship, you need to say you can pay for full COA.</p>

<p>If you don’t mind the liberal environment (a lot of people do, that’s why I included it), there are lots of LACs with good aid. Check the US News Rankings, they have the stats and the school sites you can look at.</p>

<p>I don’t actually know that much about athletic scholarships, but I can ask this week and get back to you on it. I don’t want to give you false information. Check athleticscholarships.net, maybe. They have some useful info.</p>

<p>That’s all I can say for now, if you have any questions, feel free to send me a PM.</p>

<p>And SIGN UP FOR THE SAT because there are so few places!!!</p>