GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
we don’t have gpa but i took phy,math,english,ICT IGCSE scored 9s (A*)(currently taking 4 more igcse subjects and will take 3 A-levels)
Unweighted HS GPA:
Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system):
College GPA (for transfers):
Class Rank: don’t have one but i was in top 20 after the igcse subjects i took
ACT/SAT Scores: didnt take
Coursework (AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores for high school; also include level of math and foreign language reached and any unusual academic electives; for transfers, describe your college courses and preparation for your intended major(s))
I’m supposed to have 8 IGCSE english second lang,arabic first lang, physics extended,maths higher, biology extended, chemistry extended, environmental management(predicted A* in other 4) and 3 Als (i suppose Math and physics and biology/chemistry) and AS arabic as fist lang.
Awards
i guess non? didnt do anything impressive (not because i didnt want to i simply didnt get the opportunity )
-i won art competitions second and third place
Essays/LORs/Other (Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)
i still didnt write any, applying for class 2028 Cost Constraints / Budget (High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.) need financial aid
Schools (List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below)
Safety universities in Egypt
I was wondering if its possible for T20 in US or Cambridge or Oxford in UK
i know this is not enough information to decide but hopefully regarding academics i’ll work hard but i know extracurriculars are a big thing so do mine in any way help? like i’m currently wondering if i should even put more effort into extracur next year or i hv zero chances anyways? keep in my mind there aren’t really much opportunities offered for under 18 years old in qatar and my school specifically doesn’t encourage doing anything outside school so its hard. Also if you have suggestions on how i can improve or like increase my chance let me know im open to suggestions , thanks.
t20 is a stretch due to the lack of ECs. And I would recommend doing at least 4 A-Levels, especially with further math if you want to pursue engineering. Engineering and CS is absolutely brutal this year and will most likely get worse as time passes. Add some good safeties like CU Boulder and UGA. Good luck!
You tagged UC Berkeley and maybe some other UC’s? The California UC’s do not give financial aid to International students so you would be Full pay at around $70K/year to attend. I would cross these school’s off your list.
For aerospace engineering, many internships and jobs in the US are not open to international students. So, if that is your preferred career, you might reconsider/research where that can work out.
I know you say you need financial aid, but how much can your family pay per year for college?
Unfortunately further maths is not offered at my school and i dont think its possible to take 4AL in one year(can’t take grd 13) but i will try my best and see how it goes, thanks for the help…
If you are interested in top 20 engineering why do you have Brown and UPenn on your list? While both are great schools in many fields, they are not known for engineering. Maybe you should target strong engineering schools that are not super selective private schools or Ivies - think Purdue, UIUC, Texas A&M, etc.
I am not familiar enough to comment on your IB curriculum, but I second mehtarp’s observation that your ECs are weak. Schools are looking for meaningful ECs where you were active for a long period, and you demonstrated advancement, achievement and leadership (for example, being on the Robotics team for four years and advancing from team member to engineering lead or captain).
If you are interested in BioMed, consider Case Western. They are #12 and not as selective as the schools on your list.
Penn does have a strong engineering school, ranked by USNWR in the top 20 for engineering in the nation. However, all of this is kind of irrelevant, since the student needs fin aid, but doesn’t have the extraordinarily outstanding record that would win admission to a school that is need-blind for internationals.
Original poster should take an ACT or an SAT. When applying as an international student, it really does help to have a stellar standardized test score. I’m sure that the SAT is offered in Qatar, at some point in time to have the score for applications next fall. Self-prep for it would be a good idea, so as to get a high score on the first try.
Do you have an idea of what percentile you are in your class? Being in the top 20 in your class doesn’t mean much if the class has 25 people per grade, but it means quite a bit if you have 1000 people per grade.
How much can your family afford per year for you, including tuition, room, board, travel, etc?
AOs don’t expect a high need student from a country where ECs are limited to have similar ECs to what is expected of a domestic student with financial means in the US, with that said I am glad OP has safeties in Egypt.
I second CWRU, but most state schools like UIUC, Purdue, TAMU, Boulder, UGA will be unaffordable for OP.
Adding RIT, Union, WPI, Lafayette, Lehigh to start as possibilities. Others will have to comment on UK schools.
Would some of the HBCUs be worthwhile suggestions? @AustenNut
I’m not where I can check now, but I’m fairly certain we confirmed in the past that Howard, Alabama A&M and others offered need aid to internationals (and were ABET certified). There’s a thread on it… I’ll look and edit with the link if I find it. That may be worth researching.
Would he get sufficient financial aid to attend Brown, UPenn or Berkeley, assuming he could gain admission?
Here is another plug for Case: They are generous with merit aid. Last year there were many posts on CC about Case awarding strong students with President’s Scholarships (merit aid) equal to 50% of tuition.
well im in top 20 in grade 11 which is around a 100 student and the thing about top 20 is that we all just got 9s on our IGCSEs i dont know if this explains anything but yea
well not much in dollars around 11k
also thanks
For Penn and Brown, they do meet full need, but how they calculate. We don’t know enough about OP’s financial picture to understand what they might provide (and the NPCs aren’t set up to work for international students).
Case does meet full need too, and they offer merit. But of course 50% tuition in merit wouldn’t get things close to affordable for OP…but if OP does have financial need it could work out, so I definitely recommend OP apply.
If your family can only cover 11K/yr, you will need a ton of financial aid, and this is hard to get as an international student.
Prep for and take an SAT. You need to see where you stand, in comparison to other applicants to US schools, and an SAT score could greatly help you. You want to get a very high math score, and an English score high enough that the schools will know that your English is more than adequate. If it is possible for you to compete and do very well in any science or math competitions, this would also be a good idea.
Forget about the California public schools. They won’t offer you fin aid.
For essay topics, you might want to consider the story of how your Egyptian family came to be living in Qatar, how it has been for you living there (possibly for much of your life?) as an expat in a country which relies on the labor of expats to run, but doesn’t necessarily welcome them into all aspects of the society. If you can somehow tie this in to your academic interests, your career goals, that would be great. Otherwise, consider the things that you love and that you love doing, and consider your academic interests and career goals, how the education that you hope to obtain will help you to achieve those goals, and try to synthesize an essay from those elements.
Once you have an SAT score, people on here can better advise you. Yes, most schools have gone test-optional in the US, but in the setting where the college is not familiar with your school’s standards, you really must have an SAT (or ACT, but I think that is much harder to access outside the US, although what with it being offered online, it might be possible) score to add a hard data point to your application.
