College Choice Help Needed

Student Lounge International Students
1

<p>Hey fellow internationals, I'm a prospective applicant for the class of 2016 and I was wondering if anyone could share some thoughts on my college choices. </p>

<p>First off my SAT breakdowns are: 670 math 630 cr and 650 w. 1950 total. I'm planning on a retake and perhaps subject tests in Math II and Chemistry/ Physics later on. But do feel free to comment if the scores are good enough for any of the colleges listed below as retakes are pretty expensive here, so I'm trying to avoid one if possible. </p>

<p>I'm interested in a business related major, such as finance, economics, accounting, business management, with an emphasis on international relations. I'll be posting a list of colleges here and I hope you guys can help me narrow down my choices with these criteria I have in mind, thanks! :D</p>

<p>1) I hope to pick up a new language in college, perhaps Mandarin, Spanish, French or German.</p>

<p>2) I am also interested in a semester abroad program in other countries. Speaking of which, how do semester abroad programs work? Do we pay the full fee or will we be able to obtain subsidies and grants from our institutions? Are there any schools with amazingly coordinated semester abroad programs?</p>

<p>3) I'm also a gay student still in the closet and hope to meet more people in college, thus gay acceptance and tolerance levels are highly important to me. And that does not shine pretty well on Notre Dame, which really is sad as they have an amazing business program. Thoughts? And do share your knowledge on lgbt life at my other college choices too. </p>

<p>4) After conducting my own research, I realized that universities tend to accept international students from countries that are under-represented in their communities. Thus these universities often offer such internationals a reasonable amount of financial aid for diversity's sake. My family can afford about 20k USD per year and that's about it, mind if you guys scan through my list and help identify schools which will potentially offer aid? I know for a fact Tulane offers internationals up to a maximum of 18k usd. </p>

<p>5) I would describe myself as a person interested in international affairs, such as politics and economics. I am also somewhat geeky, as in star wars, lotr, science jokes and stuff like that. But I'm mostly interested in getting to know and meeting people, so yeah college diversity and non-segregation among races are pretty important to me too. </p>

<p>My current top 4 are Emory University, Northwestern University, Georgetown University and Tulane University. Any specific comments on these schools?</p>

<p>You guys are welcomed to suggest any other schools too (: Will gladly look them up</p>

<p>The list would be as follow with a few liberal arts colleges which I like and plan to apply to (but those colleges are really a longshot considering my abysmal SAT scores)</p>

<p>Emory University (Goizueta)
Northwestern University (Kelogg)
Georgetown University
Tulane University
University of Notre Dame (Mendoza)
University of South Carolina (Moore)
University of Minnesota (Carlson)
University of South California (Marshall)
University of Virginia (Mc Intire)
Wake Forest University
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (Kenan Flagler)
University of Texas at Austin (Mc Combs)
Indiana University Bloomington
George Washington University
Temple University
Villanova University
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
University of Richmond
Vassar College
Pomona College
Connecticut College
Davidson College</p>

<p>Thanks for taking time off to read all this, but I'll really appreciate all your help as I'm a little bummed out here.</p>

2

<p>don’t forget colgate university. it is free to apply to for internationals.</p>

3

<p>where’s vanderbilt</p>

4

<p>I don’t think Vandy offers business majors. I do know its an amazing school though, but I can’t afford to apply everywhere. Looking to shortlist about 10 (:</p>

5

<p>State schools DO NOT offer financial aid to internationals:
UVa: Students must be United States citizens or classified as eligible non-citizens in order to be eligible for federal, state, and University financial assistance.
University of South[ern] California: International students who are not U.S. citizens or eligible non-citizens are ineligible for certain types of financial aid. However, other sources of aid are available. See more at [USC</a> Financial Aid - Applying & Receiving Financial Aid - International Students](<a href=“http://www.usc.edu/admission/fa/applying_receiving/international/]USC”>http://www.usc.edu/admission/fa/applying_receiving/international/)
UNC: Merit-scholarships only [Merit-Based</a> Aid At Carolina](<a href=“http://admissions.unc.edu/Aid_and_Scholarships/Aid/merit-based.html]Merit-Based”>http://admissions.unc.edu/Aid_and_Scholarships/Aid/merit-based.html)
The other USC: Merit scholarships only [Financial</a> Aid Programs](<a href=“http://www.sc.edu/financialaid/programs.html]Financial”>http://www.sc.edu/financialaid/programs.html)
UT Austin: For the most part, international students are not eligible for federal, state, or university aid or scholarships. [Financial</a> Aid & Scholarships | Be a Longhorn](<a href=“http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/international/finaid]Financial”>http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/international/finaid)
U Minn: The University of Minnesota cannot offer financial aid or scholarships to international undergraduate students. </p>

<p>Your scores are low for:
Pomona College
Davidson College</p>

6

<p>I guess that means its time to remove all public unis from the list then. Thank you so much for the info !</p>

<p>Emory University<br>
Northwestern University
Georgetown University
Tulane University
University of Notre Dame
Wake Forest University
George Washington University
Villanova University
University of Richmond
Vassar College
Connecticut College</p>

<p>Any comments on these colleges? And suggestions for other colleges are welcomed too</p>

7

<p>Harvard
Yale
Columbia
Stanford
UPenn
CalTech
Dartmouth
Duke
Chicago
Lehigh
Williams
Amherst
Swarthmore
Oberlin
Wellesley (if female)</p>

8

<p>^ those schools will be reaches for you.</p>

9

<p>Vassar’s acceptance rate for aid-seeking internationals is ~8%. Which definitely makes it a reach. Same goes for Northwestern, which only offers aid to a handful of internationals, iirc.</p>

10

<p>Public universities MAY offer merit scholarships to international students…for example, Michigan State University and Oklahoma State University.</p>

11

<p>FYI schools like University of South Carolina, UNC-Chapel Hill, Davidison, Indiana University, and University of Minnesota aren’t very gay-friendly schools. Retake your SAT and shoot for a 2100<. Another school to consider is NYU because it has a great international program and study abroad program.</p>

12

<p>Most of the universities in your list are not need-based for internationals. Therefore, in these universities, all international students are put in a separate highly competitive pool. You do not have a good chance in these universities. I would suggest trying Brandeis University or the University of Rochester.
Although both these schools do not offer a good business program, your chances there are relatively high considering your not very high SAT scores. Also, Brandeis is very liberal (and Jewish).
In general, I believe that when you apply to a university as an undergraduate student it really does not matter what you are planning to do in the future. In college you learn million of things that are not unrelated to your subject of interest. You can always go to a graduate school in business.</p>

13

<p>I did consider NYU for a moment but the high fees and lack of aid just makes it not possible for me to attend. </p>

<p>I will definitely look into rochester and brandies, thank you so much for suggesting those schools. As for the likes of Harvard, Yale etc, I guess my chances are pretty much non-existent considering the amount of truly amazing students applying to those schools. I’ve always thought of myself as a pretty competitive student, (straight As in gce o levels , student leader etc) but my SAT scores has been a real wake up call. I guess I’ll have to aim a little lower now. </p>

<p>I’ve always been attracted to the idea of learning stuff unrelated to my interest, something only a broad liberal arts education can offer. However I am still slightly undecided between the practicality of a business degree as opposed to a liberal arts education. If I were to take my future into consideration, the possibility of me returning to my home country to work is extremely high. (I don’t really view myself as a stellar enough applicant to work in the US after graduation) And my UK-influenced background has prodded me to shoot for a safer option - obtain a business degree, which is something similar to a degree one obtains in the UK, and I get my fair ‘partial’ share of unique liberal education experiences a UK education cannot possibly provide. </p>

<p>I’m still pretty confused right now, but thank you all again for taking time off to help me.</p>

14

<p>

Your college may or may not apply institutional grants to study abroad programs. Study abroad policies vary a lot between colleges.</p>