Personally, I’d apply to the school I most wanted to attend as long as expectations of an acceptance were reasonable. In your case, that seems as if it could be Lehigh or Tufts – so, whichever you’d prefer.
Lehigh requires that I send them official score reports! This ridiculous! I’m probably going to withdraw my application and apply ED2 at tufts. Thinking of adding Colby to the list?. Any thoughts?
“Lehigh requires that I send them official score reports! This ridiculous!”
Most schools require official score reports (although Tufts allows self reporting and only requires reports if you are admitted). I know it can get annoying getting nickel and dimed, but I don’t think you should let a small fee be the determining factor in where you apply ED2.
I’ve no idea why you would redirect your application as a response to Lehigh’s application standards. You’ll always be able to find colleges with softer requirements. However, if Lehigh’s policy has deterred you, perhaps your initial interest wasn’t based on a meaningful consideration of fit.
You’re asking Lehigh to accept you, then offer you a significant amount of aid. Yet you think it’s unreasonable for the school to expect you to invest $12 in an official score report?
I know I sound crazy. But getting my parents to pay an extra 250 EGP is no easy task. Also, I don’t understand why would they want the official reports. It would be easier and cheaper if I self reported them and if I get accepted I would send the official ones. I am applying to about 10 schools. If they all required me to send official reports that would 2500 egp! Even a wealthy family would find it too much for an application. Do bare in mind, Im asking for alot of aid because I NEED it.
“Also, I don’t understand why would they want the official reports. It would be easier and cheaper if I self reported them and if I get accepted I would send the official ones.”
My guess is that Lehigh doesn’t want to have to deal with situations where it finds discrepancies between what an admitted applicant self-reported, and what appears on his/her official report. Also, not trying to make light of your family’s financial situation, but if you can’t come up with the equivalent of $12 USD for something as important as an ED2 application, I don’t know if going to school in the US is going to be in the cards, even if you do get significant FA. Who’s going to pay for your travel costs to and from school? It gets cold in Bethlehem PA in the winter, who’s going to pay for your winter clothes?
Do bare in mind that most funding, at these universities comes from the government (which gets its funding from American taxpayers) for mostly domestic applicants.
The schools are not obligated to fund international students.
They don’t give full funding to US citizens, and, since most US students can’t afford to pay, their parents take out huge loans to attend.
Your sense of entitlement is absurd.
The schools don’t have to admit you and they don’t have to give you funds to attend.
The schools fund you with their own formulas; you don’t tell them what you need, they tell you what they can give you. Don’t expect a full ride because that is not going to happen.
You are aware that you also need to pay your own transportation, living expenses, and the required health insurance?
Also, if you are admitted anywhere, once you graduate, you are expected to return to your country. Immigration rules are strict. Employers are required to hire US citizens first. If you apply for jobs in the tech industry, expect that employers will NOT be willing to sponsor a non citizen, nor wait, nor pay visa fees. There are plenty of US candidates who need to pay back their loans.
Why apply? You should really consider going to universities in your country because there is a likelihood that you won’t be accepted anywhere in the US since you indicate you need a huge amount of cash.
For Egyptian parents, applying to universities outside of egypt is basically wasted money. Barely anyone in the whole country manages to actually get his undergrad degree in the US. Asking your parents for money to flush it down the toilet may be a similar situation you’ll relate to.
Bisho2022, it’s clear from your posts that you are unclear about what’s included in financial aid from colleges/universities in the U.S. You will be expected to pay thousands of dollars per year, even if you qualify for the highest amount of aid. That is the way it is. You won’t even be allowed in this country without proof of finances. You may well be wasting $ on these 10 applications. I have only heard of one college/university that provides that level of funding to qualified students that you seem to need, NYU Abu Dhabi.
https://nyuad.nyu.edu/en/admissions/undergraduate/financial-support.html
I am well prepared to pay thousands of dollars towards my education. But yet again, Barely ANY Egyptian undergrads manage to go to the US, so paying money to apply seems like a waste to my, and most, parents.
Anyways, lehigh appreciated my frustration and accepted scores from my counselor. Please try to understand. It is hard for a foreigner to understand our ideology; however, as I said asking money for college applications to which you are not getting a full ride in and probably not going to be accepted at in the first place is like flushing cash down the toilet.
I don’t know how you guys managed to understand my frustration as an insult to the universities as if they are obliged to accept because of how good I am.
For the record, it would be an honor to study in any of the universities I am applying to, and I hope that this is the case in the future.
Honestly, in my case it was because I cannot relate to the perspective you indicated:
Lehigh maintains practices that allow it to establish a solid and orderly array of information for each applicant. Their policy in this case seems reasonable.
American kids and their parents do this all of the time with even poorer results.
You are grossly over-estimating the wealth of many US students.
i don’t know grinell, but i know grinnell doesn’t have engineering, only physics. the school has a 3+2 engineering program with rpi, caltech, columbia, and washington university in st. louis, but students typically end up not pursuing that route. the physics department is very, very good. hard as hell(en keller), but very good. i actually know a student from egypt in my class year. he’s super nice.
the main comparisons are:
grinnell does not have an application fee. lehigh does.
lehigh has an engineering degree program. grinnell does not.
grinnell is a smaller liberal arts college. lehigh is a mid-size university.
both schools promise to meet 100% of your demonstrated financial need, but both schools are also need-aware for international applicants.
it really comes down to how much you’re willing to spend applying to schools and what you’re wanting to study.
It’s been settled: lehigh ed2
RD: swarthmore, tufts, bucknell, Grinnell, reed, union, aub, CWRU(deffered), lafayette( deferred).
Whish me luck!
P. S. @auntbea an Egyptian has access to over 20 universities without tuition. Only 3 or 4 are well respected in the Arab world. Since we do have this option, it’s unusual to apply abroad( to superior universities) because of the miniscule percentage that get accepted.
Best of luck with your applications, @Bisho2002.