I am an international student requiring high financial aid, and I applied to Skidmore and Trinity because I thought it would be comparatively easy to get into them, but now I am seeing that people like me with higher stats are getting rejected from them and lower stats students are getting accepted. Maybe, it is because they think we see them as a safety and want to protect their yield.
Is there anything I can do to avoid this situation?
BTW my SAT 1is 1550/1600
I think the real issue is that there is limited financial aid for internationals and the schools may choose to reject students when they can’t provide the requisite financial aid.
@ucbalumnus I already do most of the things that are possible for me to do in that list. Anyways,thank you for your help!
@happy1 I have seen that even international requiring high financial aid with low stats are accepted in ED and sometimes in RD too whereas those with high stats are rejected.
You require high financial aid and are international. I am really sorry to say this, but please understand that you start out with a huge negative against you. It may not be surmountable. You can try to think of it from every angle under the sun, but the bottom line for you will be if they have the money to give you. Don’t take it personally.
If you get in anywhere, be very proud of yourself, because it means they see you as the best of the best. Usually int’l students needing high aid are going to be the very top, most desirable students.
Hopefully you have a back-up college in your country. Good luck.
Astral, I wish you the best of luck. Building on Lindagraf’s comment, which I think is helpful (though I’m not an expert on international admissions), what about the University Colleges in the Netherlands? Long story short, most of the leading universities there, like Utrecht and Amsterdam, have established University Colleges, which are designed to be like U.S. liberal arts colleges. All classes are in English. They are terrific schools and cost something like $12,000 for international students (I know a U.S. student who attended one) and bachelors degrees only take 3 years. You might have your heart set on the U.S., and I don’t know the application deadlines, but I just wanted to throw that out for you. You can just google Netherlands list of university colleges to get info.
@TTG: The University Colleges are tiny and so not quite like LACs as they tend to have a small number of general majors. The expectation is that kids will go on to grad school.
However, they are comparatively cheap. Furthermore, German unis are tuition-free.
From what I understand, some colleges had bad experience with kids from certain countries where cheating on standard tests is wide-spread and the students can’t keep up when they come to the campus. I am not saying that is the case with you, but that may be the reasons for the inconsistency you are seeing, especially it is related to kids from different countries.
I also agree with others on the odds with high financial need and being international. Is there an option to study in your home country for undergraduate and come to US for graduate schools? That is what DH and I did years ago with free rides. If you can do that well on SAT, you can do well on GRE or GMAT, and others. It is way easier to get graduate scholarship. Best of luck!!
German unis are tuition-free.
@purpletitan, yes one of my S’s good friends (U.S.) attends a German university for free. I didn’t mention it because most, except maybe Jacobs, which is different, classes are in German. I’ll add that South African universities cost much less and are in English, though there are lots of protests going on over tuition costs. These protests have had an impact on university operations and will perhaps be an issue going into the future.
Some of these countries require you to prove you have the financial means to support yourself before allowing you to go there for university.
It’s simple: it’s not your high stats. The colleges you mention (any that use the Common App) are holistic. Not every kid with high stats actually submits a good app package. And, most colleges are sensitive to intl fin need.
@TTG: There are a decent number of courses/majors in German unis in English now:
https://www.daad.de/deutschland/studienangebote/international-programs/en/?p=l&q=°ree=1&fos=0&lang=2&fee=0&sortBy=1&page=1&display=list
I am not disputing what you said in post #4 above. But I think you misunderstand the US admissions system. First, as noted above, internationals needing a lot of aid have the deck stacked against them. No matter how great your academic stats are, these schools must be considered reaches. The colleges you applied to are private institutions and are not obligated in any way to finance your college education.
Second, colleges, especially LACs practice holistic admissions which means that they look beyond academic stats. So a student who has somewhat lower stats may present an essay, recommendation, and/or activities that are particularly compelling to a college and they could get the nod over an applicant with say a higher SAT. If an applicant is a recruited athlete he/she would have an advantage in the admission process. If an international applicant is full pay that would also be a positive in terms of admission chances. Being that we can never see the full admissions file of other applicants, it is would be a waste of time to try to determine why one student is chosen over another.
You have excellent academic credentials and should seek out affordable options where you can continue your edcuation in case the schools you applied to don’t work out.
1.) You are an **international student **asking a school to fund you for 4 years of your education, which you think you deserve.
There are thousands of US students, who have better stats than you, who don’t qualify for financial aid.
These students and their parents are using combinations of savings, loans, summer work, etc. and will be in debt for a long time, in order to pay for their children’s education. The universities are aware that the costs are prohibitive for some, but the uni’s also don’t have endless funds; they are not made of money. The universities use their limited funds to help domestic students first.
Pay full fees like we are doing. You will have lots of acceptances if you can pay full fees.
2.) It is not relatively easy to get into them. There are over 3000 universities in the US and many students access their local, good universities, get degrees and get good jobs. If you are applying to universities from a “list” that may or may not fund internationals, then it won’t be “easy” to get into those schools because of the international competition to get in.
Apply to universities that want international student diversity These are schools in the Midwest and Southern US.
3.) So what? I don’t think you are aware that universities want a student to “FIT” their school. If your essays or statements come across as arrogant or uniform, then, you’ll be rejected for fit.
No. The universities can pick and choose whomever they want on their campus, that’s why it is so tough to get in.
PurpleTitan, thank you for the correction.
@TTG: Not at all.
Thank You everyone for your advice! Yes, I knew the admissions are holistic and that’s the reason for this, but I just wanted to explore all this from another angle. I was not claiming anything, I just wanted to know what others think about this possibility.
And I didn’t mention my SAT score to say that I should be accepted by those colleges @“aunt bea” . I thought people would want to know why I am asking this and what my stats are as this post is concerned with that aspect.