<p>Okay I understand what you mean by “reasonable chance” - yes, it’s worth a shot.
But don’t build your list only with schools with admission rates below 30%. For an international student who needs financial aid, it’s often a mistake that means getting shutout. </p>
<p>You could only do one of those two majors, not both, so you could look for schools that offer either one.</p>
<p>I’m not entirely sure which one, so I am applying to a few schools that offer both. However, most of those schools are very selective. I had a list of safety schools too, including UT Dallas, Case Western Reserve and UC Irvine but they don’t offer a lot of aid for international applicants. I’ll try and search for schools that offer one of those majors and which I have a better shot at as an international student who needs aid. </p>
<p>UC Irvine doesn’t offer any financial aid - you need to be able to afford the 55k/year to be able to attend. UTDallas has merit scholarships including full tuition, but it’d depend on your ACT/SAT score (and I’m not sure the scholarships are open to internationals). I don’t know the situation at CWRU but it probably can’t be counted on as a safety since you need financial aid. A safety for an international who needs financial aid is a school where there’s automatic merit aid and you have the scores they want.</p>
<p>Yes, I’m revising my list after I looked at the specifics of the aid available in all those schools. They aren’t good safeties. That’s why all the schools on my list at the moment are reach schools and I’m trying to find safeties. </p>
<p>‘NO ONE has a “reasonable chance at” UPenn and Rice’ Um, someone with a top award at, say, IPhO or WSDC would probably have a “reasonable chance” at Penn. Generally, however, no.</p>
<p>Anyway, there are no safeties for internationals who need aid except for merit-aid options. If you can afford to pay 30k or more, look into schools that just cost less. Purdue?</p>
<p>I am also very suspicious of Esat936’s analysis. Penn spends about $13k in international student aid every year, while Brown spends about $9.8m: Penn has more money to give and how they choose to allocate it is a case-by-case thing. I also understand that Brown is smaller, but it is also a school that is quite keen on accepting UWC students (141 UWC students were enrolled at Brown in the year 2013-14; 12 at Penn). So although the UWC/non-UWC thing shouldn’t make a difference if you can afford to pay around $25k every year (which is what Brown receives for every aid-seeking UWC student), Brown’s relative generosity is a non-factor. At this level of competition, however, you should simply apply to both.</p>
<p>I’d also like to point out that acceptance rates are meaningless for internationals. Every LAC or university that is full need for internationals has an acceptance rate below <10%. The pools, however, vary, so it may be easier to get into Whitman than say, Vassar (even though Vassar spends much more money than Whitman) simply because the competition may not be that strong. There’s no sure thing anywhere, though, not at Whitman, not at Penn, nowhere.</p>
<p>What are UWC students? </p>
<p>United World Colleges.</p>
<p>
Take a bit of time to plan further than college. </p>
<p>Cognitive science is too general a major. If you want to do cognitive science-related work later, you will need a graduate degree. Graduate programs in cognitive science approach the area from one particular perspective and admit students with matching backgrounds. For example, if you want to approach cognitive science from a neuroscience perspective, major in biology. If you want to approach it from a psychology perspective, major in that. If you want to do computational neuroscience, major in computer science. </p>
<p>Any big university should offer all of the core courses of Penn’s cognitive science major. They are just not bundled together as a potential major at most universities because that combination of courses doesn’t really prepare you for anything after college.</p>
<p>So I’d strongly encourage you to pick a more “traditional” major and then take cognitive science-related courses in other disciplines as electives for your degree. Similar education, more options later, and more universities to consider now.</p>
<p>Check the LACs that will give merit scholarships if you truly want an American undergraduate education and you are not majoring in engineering or business. A few LACs offers engineering or business major. International students often overlook the LACs for they are less known in their home countries, partly due to their lack of graduate school.</p>