Hey everyone. So I am a student from India and will be applying this year for fall 2019 (class of 2023). I’ve read a lot of great posts on college confidential so I decided to give it a try. I’ll be giving some information about myself and hope you all can help me.
female
2)belong to a very small town
class 11&12 subjects- English, political science, history, psychology, informatics practices
ranked no 3 in a class of 27 students, 5 in the whole batch (approx 110-120 students)
member of school NSS (national social service) club. It’s a nationally recognized club.
participated in 4 MUNs, won 1 special and honorable mention. I love MUNs and will continue participating.
editor of school magazine in class 10 in my previous school
USG head of delegate affairs in my school’s MUN this year.
went for a one week summer program at a university in India
I don’t know if it counts but went to the local rotary hospital for a week to volunteer but didn’t get anything to do.
SAT score- EBRW- 730 MATH- 640
require at least 70% financial aid
possible major- political science
I am mainly looking at LACs and my top choices are Colby, colgate, Washington and lee. I’ll be applying ED to one of them.
Whole list:
Bates, Brandeis, Colby, colgate, Colorado, Skidmore, northwestern, Vassar, Middlebury, Washington and lee, Vanderbilt, Connecticut, Franklin and Marshall, Lafayette, Macalester.
First any and all kinds of suggestions and inputs are welcome. Any college you think I won’t have any chance at or another you think I should consider.
Second I need help deciding where to apply ED. I need 70% FA min. Location is not the top priority. My top three choices are I think equally strong academically.
*I know my extra curriculars are not that strong but keep in mind I live in a very small town and had basically no opportunities. My parents can’t afford to send me all over the country to do stuff.
You should do research on which US colleges are need blind for international students. Some are and some aren’t and there’s no point applying to those that aren’t given your need for substantial aid.
You have a lot of very good colleges on your list, but they are very competitive for admissions. That said, less competitive schools for admission are less likely to meet your financial aid needs as an international student so it’s not worth applying to them. I think your best bet is to apply to a lot of need blind colleges and cross your fingers.
I suggest you take the SAT again to get your math score up or try the ACT as it’s on the low side for some of the colleges you list.
Are you also looking in the UK? Their colleges are less expensive generally and only 3 years in England/Wales.
You’re very brave to apply to colleges across the world – that speaks well of your future. Good luck!!
Yes, the financial part of the US college equation is extremely important for international students. And you indicate you’ll need significant financial aid. Especially for international students, schools tend to be “need aware,” meaning they consider how much a student can afford to pay in the admissions decision. Admissions will be more challenging for a student who requires a lot of aid.
I suggest you google “colleges with good financial aid for international students” and “colleges that are need blind for international students.” Googling the former, I see some of the wealthiest and most extremely competitive schools. I also see Trinity College in Connecticut (not the Trinity in Texas) and Skidmore College, which are both excellent and now very competitive, but not as extremely so as a Harvard or Stanford. So you might explore those.
Googling the latter, I find some interesting ones like Holy Cross and Farleigh Dickinson. I just don’t know how much aid they would award, although Holy Cross (truly outstanding academics) also claims to meet full financial need. So you might look at some of those as well.
By Connecticut, do you mean the University of Connecticut (larger public university) or Connecticut College (LAC)? I assume the latter, and that’s a terrific choice. U Conn (the former) is also great, but would probably cost too much. Brandeis is a great choice too, if aid is available.
W&L is a terrific school with terrific academics. I don’t want to knock it at all. It is also more conservative and more “Greek” than the other schools on your list. Greek means it has lots of fraternities and sororities, and they are very central to social life. That might be a plus or minus for you, but think it would be good to be aware of.
There are only a handful of colleges that are need blind for internationals and they are way out of my score range. My scores fall in the middle 50% of most of the colleges on my list. Holy Cross is something I didn’t consider before but i’ll check it out now.
As far as W&L is concerned, it’s got great reviews literally everywhere. I’ve read about Greek life being a major part of campus with I think over 70% people involved in it? It’s something I would be willing to be a part of so it’s not a minus. As far as the political scene is concerned I have heard that while it definitely tilts towards conservative, people are generally accepting of other opinions. I follow US politics a lot and I am definitely a liberal democrat. So as long as people are accepting and welcoming I really have no problem.
The main issue with W&L right now for me is that I dont really know how good my chances of getting accepted would be as they haven’t provided statistics related to international admissions. All I know is that 5%-6% of their student body is international. That’s why I am being really hesitant about applying ED there.
It sounds like you are doing a great job researching US colleges. I love the schools on your list. AND they are all very competitive. Northwestern and Vanderbilt are among the most competitive US schools in RD. As an international student, you are in a completely different applicant pool (and there are also pools within US students, for example, at public universities, in-state v. out-of-state, in-state females v. out-of-state females). If you had your stats and ECs, I’d consider most of the schools on your list reaches or high matches. You appear to be a very strong student. Most of these schools just have many more very strong students applying than spots available. It’s just a limited supply and lots of demand, unfortunately. So you may be accepted to any of them, and I encourage you to apply to your favorites/best bets, but I’m not sure you could count on acceptance, for sure, at any.
So, I’d like to suggest a few others for you to research: Kalamazoo College and College of Wooster. They both have excellent academics, and your stats would put you solidly above the average. They are places where an ambitious young woman from India can make a positive impact. They are a little under the radar for international students, so maybe a little less competition in your pool. They give good financial aid, though I can’t say for international students. But maybe you can research them to see what you think. I like that it would give you some excellent schools where you would be very likely to be admitted, omitting the financial aspect. Here’s the international student info for Kalamazoo and Wooster.
@TTG - those are great suggestions! I am more familiar with Wooster and it is a great, innovative college that provides a lot of support to students.
Also, Grinnell College in Iowa has a goal of 20% international students. It’s more competitive than Wooster or Kalamazoo, but less competitive than some of the other colleges on your initial list. They are need aware for admissions, but they meet 100% need of those accepted. They have a very large financial endowment for a college its size and is a great college. It’s pretty rural and somewhat isolated which turns some students off.
Are you interested in women’s colleges? Because their applicant pool is restricted, they tend to have higher acceptance rates. I do not know how many of them are generous with need aid for international students, but you might want to look at Mt. Holyoke and Bryn Mawr in particular as they are well-endowed colleges with great quality and name recognition (in the US) but not quite as difficult to get in as some others like Barnard or Wellesley.
Finally, is it possible to SAT one more time? If you could get the math score up to about 700 it could make a difference.
@AlmostThere2018 I actually did give SAT twice but I got the same score both times. I am not that good in maths and quite a lot of stuff in the exam is part of class 11 syllabus here and I didn’t take maths in 11th. Grinnell was in my first ever list but I ultimately crossed it off. In fact I have to shorten even this list to 10. As for women’s colleges, I want to go to a coed. I was in an all girls school till 10th grade and I don’t think I can go to another female only institution.
@TTG I agree with all that you said. I am just going to keep my fingers crossed :). I won’t apply to both Northwestern and Vanderbilt, just one of them. That’s also because I just really want to apply to at least one. Also I have checked out Wooster They rarely give above $30,000 to an international student.