<p>Hi everybody!</p>
<p>I'm a Vietnamese student and I really need your help to choose some suitable universities. I have a small list now, but the schools in the list are very risky, as I need A LOT OF AID. I need like full tuition or some thing like that as my mom can only help me a little bit. </p>
<p>I plan to major in communication or maybe history, as they are all the subjects I have devoted so much time to up until now. My Stats:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>GPA: 4.0 uw/4.80w (I took 4 AP & 1 Regular/5 courses during my junior year and got all A. I intend to take 5 APs next year. I don't know if I calculate my GPA correctly...)</p></li>
<li><p>SAT I: 2120 (W: 710, M: 770, CR: 640) -> It's my first time taking SAT, and I'm really depressed with my score. However, I'm working like crazy for it right now, and I hope I will score above 2300...</p></li>
<li><p>ECs: Model UN (11-12), Swimming (from grade 6-until now. I had bronze, silver and gold medals in my hometown competitions), Community Service (from 7 grade up until now. My activities for community services: raising funds for the Japanese after the hurricane in 2011, food distribution, making blankets for the homeless, working at the animal shelter, providing necessities for the poor), Writing (I'm my middle school newspaper's editor. I also write for my high school's newspaper. And I have been in a writing club writing about student life since grade 6)</p></li>
<li><p>Jobs/Experience: </p></li>
<li><p>Librarian assistant</p></li>
<li><p>Selling pizza </p></li>
<li><p>From grade 10-up until now: I participate in organizing some community service trips. </p></li>
<li><p>I have joined in the Event Organizer and Services Center since I was in grade 8. Starting from 2012, I become a member of the organizing team.</p></li>
<li><p>Since I was in grade 8, I have been writing for two famous newspapers. One newspaper I contribute articles about the historical events, foreign projects, and economic problems. Pretty diverse... The other one I write about historical events and famous people. At the starting point I was only the journalist, but after a while I get into the organizing team, where my main jobs are writing and editing articles. </p></li>
<li><p>I also work as manager assistant at VAPedia, a website providing information about studying abroad.</p></li>
<li><p>Awards:</p></li>
<li><p>I was my school's best student in U.S History and Chemistry. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Please suggest me some suitable schools... I am confused right now. I have a small list including: Dartmouth, Cornell (Totally dream dream dream schools), Mount Holyoke, Grinnell, Agnes Scott, University of Richmond, Wesleyan.....</p>
<p>Your scores are very good, especially if English is not your first language. Do not be depressed about them. I think you have a nice assortment of colleges listed already. It Cornell is your “dream dream dream,” you might consider adding Syracuse and/or Ithaca to your list. You obviously don’t mind rough winters, with Cornell and Dartmouth on your list, so maybe add Notre Dame, Carleton, Colgate, Hamilton, and Middlebury to be considered. </p>
<p>That’s a nice list. There are on it a few schools that are good with merit and your stats and ECs might get you admission to the two ivies. What I don’t see are schools that are strong in journalism and at which you would have some chance at good merit or lower costs of attendance like UMaryland College Park, Ohio University, Arizona State, Syracuse, UGeorgia, and maybe Northwestern (if your Expected Family Contribution is small). I don’t know about merit or FA at UMissouri, but it’s a terrific journalism school, too. In fact, your own state flagship may have a good school of communications or journalism that you could afford. There are innumerable schools where you can get a strong education in history, so I would search for the strong comm/journalism programs you might be able to afford and then check out their strengths in u/g history. I suspect you’re familiar with the net price calculators, but if not each school will have one and they can help your family determine what each school is likely to cost them. Any other questions?</p>
<p>Thank you both so much for your suggestions! Yes I’m not afraid of competing with other winters, although I acknowledge very well the fact that there are tons and tons of people who are better than me. However, I believe my ECs and GPA can guarantee me some chances into getting in a good college. </p>
<p>I also want to major in Business because I want to become financial analyst or financial adviser. I have experience in writing about economics for a newspaper (as I mentioned above), and I sold pizza last year, and I also participate in some events selling things to raise funds. The list I mentioned above includes some schools I want to apply to major in business, so yeah there are not many good school for journalism. And I’m engaging in a lot of projects about business right now.</p>
<p>Can you guys suggest me some suitable schools that I can study business well and have a good chance of getting into? And of course those schools can give me good financial aid. </p>
<p>I’m thinking that I may ED Cornell Dyson, is it possible for me? I will try to work harder and harder though as I really want to get into Cornell… I’m thinking about Villanova, Emory, University of Texas,… Can you guys suggest me some more schools that I should concern and I may have a chance of getting into?</p>
<p>Thanks a lot!</p>
<p>The LACs mentioned generally will not have business or journalism schools. One good exception is URichmond. But many state flagships, like my own UMaryland, will have strong business schools because, it is thought, state economies are aided by strong business schools. So look at the flagships if you can swing the OOS costs; they’re generally cheaper than most other schools, but they usually, not always, don’t give aid to OOS students. There are notable exceptions in UAlabama and Temple (PA, not a flagship), which offer automatic tuition to students with certain scores. More often, some flagships will offer OOS tuition wavers to meritorious students. </p>
<p>When you’re not working on this project, I suggest you improve your critical reading skills and expand your vocabulary. There are some good business journalists writing right now that you should be reading. Make a note of every word you have to look up, write down its definition on an index card. This will help your comprehension, right word usage, and spelling.</p>
<p>OP, are you an aid-seeking international? There’s a different approach to this process if you are one (i.e not schools like Maryland).</p>
<p>Yes. As I mentioned, I need a lot of aid, And I’m working hard to get a high FA. Can you tell me the approach? </p>
<p>An aid-seeking international needs to apply to as many colleges as possible. I usually recommend 15+, and I usually also recommend that you concentrate on liberal arts colleges. Mount Holyoke is probably going to work out for you. My case: I applied to over 20 schools, mostly LACs, and made it into five (my safety school was in Australia). I’d also tell you to look at options many internationals don’t think enough about (like Reed, Sarah Lawrence and Bard) as admission to these schools, though in the <10% range, is slightly easier than that at Wesleyan, Williams, etc (only Reed promises to meet need, though; aid at Bard and SLC is dependent on how much they want you).</p>
<p>You need a safety school. Agnes Scott is not a safety for internationals. Usually, only schools with guaranteed merit work as safety schools for internationals who need aid. There is a thread under Financial Aid & Scholarships that has a list of competitive/automatic full scholarships. Temple University may be worth a look.</p>
<p>Additional tip: when you look for schools to apply to, don’t only check out whether or not they offer $$ to intls. Also find out how much those schools spend on internationals. This is going to give you a pretty good idea about how many internationals are admitted with aid to these schools (colleges offer more money to intls than they spend due to yield issues). For instance, Middlebury spends $6m on intls every year, and MHC spends $15m. This means much, much better odds than, say, Pomona, which only spends $1.7m. Any school that spends more than $2m on internationals is worth a close look (but also check out average aid offered, as this gives you insight into stinginess. Oberlin, for instance, no no, because its average aid package is $30k; it’s usually around $45k at its peer schools.)</p>