<p>I'm an International Student (residing in the US - No Green Card =/). I plan to major in Economics (maybe double in Political Science). I was wondering what "Matches" and "Safeties" were for me.</p>
<p>My GPA is a 3.34 (cumulative) - there were a few issues Sophomore and beginning of Junior Year, which I assume my counselor will write about. I got a 32 on the ACT (without studying, so I might take a few practice tests and retake it). I'm extremely active in the SGA (school wide, not the class one) and a Political Club (Founded it and Presiding over it). I go to an extremely competitive IB Magnet (My EE - Original Research Paper for getting the IB Diploma - is on the Politics). The only significant contest I've won is this one statewide thing for Economics (pretty prestigious). Oh and I'm Asian.</p>
<p>I know that I'll be at a disadvantage if I apply for Financial Aid, so what are some colleges I should look into with my stats? I'm looking for colleges where Professors teach rather than TAs and colleges with small classes - which is why I originally restricted my college search to LACs, but I'm open to universities like Vandy, Rice too :)</p>
<p>Maybe Lewis and Clark? You’ve got the ACT scores, although your grades are a little low. I wouldn’t count on it, but it’s certainly do-able. It’s a small LAC in Portland, OR, and the fact that you are an IB student would probably help you–after all, a B in a IB class doesn’t mean the same thing as a B in a regular class.</p>
<p>A 3.34 isn’t mediocre. There are thousands of colleges that happily would take you.</p>
<p>Is financial aid any concern because you’re unlikely to get financial aid from any college that would accept you? If financial aid is a concern, unless your family can afford at least $30k a year for your college, it will be hard for you to find a private school to go to. May also be hard to find public schools except for community colleges and 4-year ones in states with the cheapest public colleges.</p>
<p>What kind of college environment are you looking for? Size? Region of country? Urban or rural? Is it important that the college have a football team? Greek life? Size of the Asian-American and international population? Parties?</p>
<p>Thanks…Financial Aid is a concern, but like you said, I know that I’m unlikely to get it at most places. $30k might be pushing it somewhat, they’re claim they can handle up to $20k (and grandparents are talking about selling their ancestral property, so I dunno, $30k might be reachable in that scenario).</p>
<p>Size doesn’t really matter as long as the classes are small…then again, it’s probably more likely that I’d find small class sizes in large Public U. Sports and region don’t really matter to me - I’d prefer slightly warmer weather but NE winters won’t be that a total surprise to me. I’ve never had trouble making friends out of my race (in fact, it’s Asians I’ve had trouble with), so the International and Asian student population don’t matter a whole lot. In fact, I’d prefer if I could live with the domestic applicants, rather than in the International housing. The only deal breaker might be an extremely liberal college (I’m middle of the road - slightly conservative) so a place like Oberlin might be a bad fit (as would something like Calvin).</p>
<p>Both of these should fall inside your 20k budget.</p>
<p>Please don’t let your grandparents sell any property just to fund your education. You don’t have a green card. You don’t know how long you will be able to stay here once your student visa expires. That property may come in handy later on in your life!</p>
<p>You’ll probably have the most affordable options if you look at public universities that you can commute to from home. You could do 2 years at community college and then transfer. Lots of very smart students with income limitations do that, and go on to have excellent options after graduation. </p>
<p>I agree that it sounds like a bad idea for your grandparents to sell their property to fund your education. It’s very generous of them to offer to do so, but I think that you could get a good education without their making that sacrifice and taking such a risk.</p>
<p>As you look for colleges, keep in mind transportation costs. Those add up quickly as does the costs of additional clothes if you move to a colder climate.</p>
<p>Most U.S. students attend college within 250 miles of home. It’s only on CC where you could get the idea that everyone is considering places all over this large country. That’s simply not the case. Finances and logistics restrict most people to options fairly close to home.</p>
<p>True, but I don’t see an issue applying for a H1B if the Green Card doesn’t come through before I’m 21.</p>
<p>Northstarmom, actually I wanna go as far away from home as I possibly can (and return as few times as possible). This might sound horrible, but I’ll probably go insane if I have to live with my parents for 2 more years…I’m considering applying to State U (not the flagship campus) - it has smaller classes and apparently is generous to international students according to my counselor.</p>
<p>I don’t see an issue applying for an H1B either. But I do see an issue about your getting it. The INS doesn’t hand out H1B’s like candy at Halloween.</p>
<p>LOL, Nice analogy. Don’t you think I’d have an advantage coming from an American College/University vs. someone with an unheard of college name? Besides, isn’t that all the more reason to go to a good college and hence land a good job (a job that would guarantee me a H1B).</p>
<p>Not a bad idea, besides college back “home” is something like $2000 a year too, but as I’m sure you know, there’s a strong stigma with anything non-Engineering/Medicine in Asian countries. So from a job search perspective, I’d probably end up working in the massive bureaucracy or something</p>
<p>You might want to take a look at the U. of Oregon, as it’s very reasonably priced for OOS.</p>
<p>Just as there are no small parts, only small actors, there are no mediocre kids, only mediocre grades, and yours are better than mediocre. I’m glad that you’re realistic about your chances as an international student, but don’t sell yourself short on a personal level.</p>
<p>About the ACT - the science section is a particularly good place to try to raise your score. Do a few of those practice tests and get familiar with the format and type of questions.</p>
<p>What great scores! I don’t know enough about the ACT to make specific comments, but I’m wondering if your relatively lower score in the English section is because you are missing some grammer/syntax info. A prep book might coulf help you with that.</p>
<p>I second the recommendation of UMinn-Morris. It’s a public LAC that doesn’t charge OOS fees, so it would be affordable, and it has a decent regional reputation for academics.</p>
Don’t you think I’d have an advantage coming from an American College/University vs. someone with an unheard of college name? Besides, isn’t that all the more reason to go to a good college and hence land a good job (a job that would guarantee me a H1B).
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Not really. You may have an advantage in finding an employer who want to hire you, but you will still have to meet requirements (and I do not see any advantage here) and, most important, will go to the same pool as everyone else. Last few years H1Bs for qualified candidates in that pool were granted based on lottery (literally) with about 50% chance. The lottery is held in April for visas starting in October, meaning you will have to have job offer somewhere in January of your senior year for job starting in October. The process of getting GC takes forever for immigrants from India and China with undergrad degree.
The only more or less certain way is to get advanced degree (this will place you in the different, much less competitive pool) from a program , which allows 1 year OPT (optional professional training) after graduation for international students and when find an employer who will be willing to sponsor your H1b after OPT.</p>
<p>Haha, trust me, I know. Actually my parents have applied for a GC, so I’m considering just applying for an EAD (that way, I won’t have to worry about H1B, right?)</p>
I’ll look into U of Oregon</p>