I’m interested in programs relating to biochemistry, BME, materials science, and also Mathematics/Econ. I’m an international student wanting financial aid. Which options gives me the best chance. I’ve got waitlisted to the 3 schools that I mentioned in my post.
if i’m being honest, i don’t think you need to reapply to schools by which you were waitlisted. statistically speaking, you’re better off ED’ing to an LAC since they typically have higher ED rates. if my data is correct, in 2016, for the class of 2021, williams’ ED acceptance rate was 35%. claremont mckenna’s was 31%. pomona’s was 21%. compare those statistics with total acceptance rates of 14.5%, 10.4%, and 8.2% respectively. those are big differences.
@kalons It’s a good strategy to apply to them over the other three, but I don’t know anything about their fin aid to international students.
amherst college is the only liberal arts college that offers financial aid to international students without their ability to pay acting as a factor in whether or not they are admitted. liberal arts colleges that are known to offer very good financial aid to international students but are not need-blind include williams, swarthmore, grinnell, pomona, vassar, bowdoin, etc. among others.
While @kalons is correct that Amherst is the only LAC that’s need blind for int’l applicants, that may overstate the reality. Williams, for example, gives FA to 58% of its current int’l students, and I know int’l students with substantial FA at Swat, Grinnell, Pomona, Vassar, Bowdoin, Macalester, Middlebury, Hamilton, Colby, Kenyon, Kalamazoo, Claremont-McKenna, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Bryn Mawr, and Haverford, among others.
The ED stats are a bit misleading, especially at smaller LACs. Most of the athletic recruits and legacies are admitted through ED, so when you strip them out the ED rate isn’t as high for a regular applicant as the raw percentages suggest.
@marvin100 I’m definitely considering applying to LACs in a regular decision this, as so,e offer 3-2 engineering programs, while some have majors like biophysics. @dadof4kids That’s an interesting point.
@dadof4kids - this is true about all schools with ED–it’s always misleading for those reasons.
@mellowfellow67 I don’t think the ED athlete/legacy caveat applies too much to international students as they are unlikely to be either. The problem with international ED admissions at LACs is that the sheer numbers of international students admitted is very small. Who knows, you might be one of the lucky few, admitted with aid, but you should understand what you’re up against.
In order to get clear statistics on international admissions you have to do some digging (or maybe try contacting the colleges directly). Wesleyan is one that publishes transparent data.
For their Class of 2021 Wesleyan admitted 56 out of 1184 international applicants who requested financial aid. They don’t say how many were admitted under ED, most likely only a handful.
http://www.wesleyan.edu/admission/informationfor/international.html
For their Class of 2021 Williams admitted only 12 international students during the ED round. Other schools that target a higher percentage of enrolled internationals may admit more, but we’re still looking at low double digits.
For their Class of 2022 Williams admitted a total of 103 out of 2102 international applicants, under 5%. Their ED international admit rate may be higher, but still considerably lower than the US admit rate.
I wouldn’t count on acceptances from Stanford or MIT if they waitlisted and ultimately denied you last year. I would suggest you target more mid-sized privates that guarantee to meet full need for internationals.
@momrath, what are some specific schools that I should consider applying ED to?
@mellowfellow67 I think you need to comb through the individual school’s common data sheets and determine which are statistically “international friendly.” Look at the number of first year non-resident aliens that are enrolled, the percentage of non-resident aliens that receive financial aid, and the total dollar amount of financial aid allotted to internationals annually.
I can give you some comparative figures for LACs, but I really haven’t analyzed mid-sized privates). Some schools aggressively recruit international students, both full pay and those needing aid. For others it’s not a big priority. International aid budgets vary widely from school to school, but within each school the year-to-year percentage of enrolled internationals to the undergraduate student body and the dollar amount of aid granted, doesn’t change much unless there’s an overall change of policy.
Some academically rigorous LACs that I would consider “international friendly” are Macalester, Dickinson, Grinnell, Middlebury. Also Mt. Holyoke, Bryn Mawr, Smith if you are female.
For mid-sized privates, you’ll have to do your own research.
I just corrected my post to read NON-resident aliens.
With respect to LACs and economics, schools within the top 20 or so in this analysis would be notably strong:
The “full need” schools (including full-need LACs) comprise a good set of possibilities.
(https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2017-09-21/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need).
Many of them grant FA to a high percentage of enrolled internationals, with very high average FA package sizes.
The challenge, I think, is to get in at all. Based on numbers I’ve seen for MIT and Wesleyan, I would expect the admission rates for high-need internationals at many of those schools to be some fraction of the already-low overall college admission rates. That could bring admission rates down into the single digits for some of them (including some that you may not think of as super selective).
If you apply to “full need” schools with Early Action, then get bad news by late December, you still have time to add applications to less selective colleges. Possibilities include:
Boston College
Colorado College
Georgetown University
UChicago
For math/econ, the most prestigious of these (and I think it’s safe to say the best) is UChicago, but it is nearly as selective as MIT and Princeton. I don’t know about their international numbers. They don’t publish a CDS.
Getting WL’ed (not rejected) by Penn, MIT and Princeton is a good sign. But, if you’re determined to study in the USA and want to assure an acceptance next year, you might want to consider some much less selective colleges that award large merit scholarships automatically for qualifying stats.
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
Be sure the awards are available to internationals and that they are big enough to cover full need.
I have no idea whether they give financial aid to international students or not, but take a look at RPI. Also Hamilton College - great math department, strong in economics and biology, all new science facilities, and cooperative programs with 4 engineering schools, including RPI, which has BME as well as materials science. Financial aid at Hamilton is need-based only.
Hamilton, along with Harvey Mudd, Haverford, Bowdoin, Reed, Carleton, Grinnell and Macalester, appears among the highly selective LACs listed in a Princeton Review sampling, “Great Schools for Mathematics Majors.”
Caltech is another EA option that pledges to meet the full need of all admitted international students, and OP certainly couldn’t go wrong there with his academic interests. It’s at least as selective as Princeton and MIT, though.
@tk21769 Continuing to study the United States is the goal, so I’m definitely applying to some of the colleges you suggested like CC, UC, and Georgetown.
@warblersrule Caltech is extremely competitive, maybe if my research work goes big.