<p>First of all, I am an international student from India that has studied in the U.S. since 3rd grade. Right now, I am a junior.
My problem is that while I believe I could be accepted and succeed at an elite, maybe even an Ivy school, I most definitely cannot afford that expensive of an education. In fact, my expected family contribution is at most 10k. This narrows down my options, because I cannot go to any school with no aid for internationals, such as Georgia Tech.</p>
<p>These are my stats:
ACT: 30 Composite (Should go up in April to 32/33)
SAT: 1920 Overall
No SAT II's (Probably will take in May)</p>
<p>No Community Service (Will try for some in summer)</p>
<p>Extra Curriculars:
National Honors Society (11th Grade)
Church League Basketball (11th Grade)
Quiz Bowl (11th Grade)
Academic Bowl (9th & 10th Grade)
Science Bowl (9th & 10th Grade)</p>
<p>I am not sure of my Class Rank as I will be moving again this summer, but in my current school, I am slated to be Valedictorian. My teacher recommendations should be fantastic, and my essays should be a solid 8 or 9 out of 10.</p>
<p>The reason I don't have community service is that I live in a small town in rural GA, with no opportunities. Academic Bowl and Quiz Bowl were stopped because I moved in the middle of my 10th Grade year. </p>
<p>My intended major is Business Administration or Management. W</p>
<p>My final question is: which colleges should I be aiming for right now, and how do I get there?</p>
<p>P.S. Sorry that the post was unorganized and thanks in advance for the help.</p>
<p>Many of these are small, selective liberal arts colleges. You might have a decent shot at admissions, but many of them do not offer Business majors. Would you consider majoring in economics?</p>
<p>Indiana University is a larger, public university that does offer aid to internationals (unlike many other state universities). It has a highly-regarded business school and is not too selective. Unfortunately, the average grant to internationals (~$7100) would not be nearly enough to drive the net cost down to within your budget. So in that respect, it probably would be a reach (but maybe still worth a shot).</p>
<p>With the Ivies and other “elite” schools, the problem is not necessarily that you could not afford them. Their need-based aid tends to be very generous. The problem for you, most likely, would be getting in. Your test scores are on the low side for those schools and your ECs don’t appear to be competitive. A LAC like Dickinson (which has an International Business & Management major) would be more realistic.</p>
<p>Another possibility: the University of Richmond, which has a business program highly rated by Business Week and does offer aid to international students (averaging $45K+ to 132 internationals for 2013-14).</p>
<p>First of all, thanks for the reply, tk21769.
I realize now that I forgot to tell some very important information. I want to be a management consultant or an investment banker after college. Both of these fields select from a very small group of colleges. On the subject of Ivies, I know that their aid is unparalleled, especially to international, but applying for aid would drive my chances down further in the case of all but HYPS and MIT. </p>
<p>On a side note, do I have a small chance at going to Duke, as I have heard that their aid is very generous as well.</p>
<p>Paku: at this point, you’re just not competitive for the top colleges. The combination of high-need and relatively undistinguished EC’s makes it almost impossible for you to get into “targets”. Perhaps Colgate but that’s a high reach. The schools tk cited are your best chances and even they aren’t shoo-in, just high matches to reaches.</p>
<p>You will do yourself a huge favor if you embark on a SAT preparation.regime from now through summer. Go to the SAT-preparation sub forum and read the pinned threads with tips from xiggi and silverturtle. You ECs aren’t comptlling. If you have none available it would be good to take up something yourself from interest and become skilled and accomplished. What do you do with yourself when not studying? High scores in Call of Duty don’t count’. Without compelling ECs you will need to write a killer essay.</p>
<p>You are going to have a problem getting into the meets full needs for internationals colleges. Most of those don’t have business or management for undergraduates and don’t need it. Try to look at quantitative areas so you can be a monster with numbers or something. Try to look at colleges where you are an attractive candidate, maybe like Grinnel;, who will consider you a minority, I think. Look at the financial aid forum for the pinned thread on automatic merit aid for your stats so you will have some guaranteed college you can afford. </p>
<p>Thanks for the replies, MYOS and BrownParent.</p>
<p>@MYOS, I realize that me getting into targets would be more luck than anything else, but what should I do to improve my chances other than higher scores and more EC’s?</p>
<p>@BrownParent, By “monster with numbers”, are you suggesting majors like quantitative finance? On the subject of automatic aid, I have found two colleges where I am automatically granted aid and those are University of Alabama and LSU. I will research more and find more colleges with aid like that over the next few months. This thread was opened to see if I might be able to get into a college with better education/name.</p>
<p>Unless you are able to get your SAT or ACT scores up significantly, your goals are unrealistic. You can search for colleges that are suggested for your GPA/test score combination (CC has a search tool), but then consider that as an international needing significant aid your odds are much lower. So you need to find target schools where your grades/test scores are above the 75th percentile. </p>
<p>All right, everybody. Thanks once again for all your replies and feedback.
I will work on raising my scores especially ACT, since I felt it was easier for me.</p>