<p>I'm an international student and now preparing for SAT1&2.
My family has some financial problems and can't afford much for my university.
So I have to get almost full tuition scholarship.</p>
<p>But the problem is that I don't have EC at all and I only have about 1 year to prepare.
And I think I'll spend all my time to study SAT reasoning test and get about 2100-2200?</p>
<p>Is there any college that I can get scholarship with no or little EC?
(I don't care if the college is good or bad)</p>
<p>And can you recommend some ECs that stand out in application ?</p>
<p>Generally, most of the colleges which gives significant financial aid to internationals are LACs and the IVY league institutions. One aspect that these colleges have in common is that they admit students who are holistically accomplished. this means that only your strong academics is not enough to earn an acceptance letter. you got to show accomplishments in your ECAs as well.</p>
<p>The Public universities are mostly academic-based universities and doesnt really count ECs as being an important in admission decisions. but unfortunately, they dont give much fin.aid to international students.</p>
<p>And as for recommending ECAs, what you have to understand is the fact that its not so much the ECA that counts but rather what you have done with your ECA- the depth of ur involvement, any accomplishments…</p>
<p>Do private schools that are not so good look at my ECs rather than my academic results?
I heard people admitted to some LACs without much ECs and got much financial aid.
Is it impossible to get like $30000+ just with academic results?</p>
<p>Lower ranked privates generally do not (cannot) award big scholarships to internationals. The cost to attend many of these privates is $50k per year. The lower ranked privates don’t have the funds to award $50k scholarships or anything close to that. </p>
<p>The high ranked privates have huge endowments which they can use to award financial aid. The lesser ranked schools don’t have that kind of money.</p>
<p>The truth is that low-income internationals, who aren’t admitted to ivies or similar, usually cannot get educated in the US since funding isn’t available.</p>
<p>Your chances are decent if you’re from a country they don’t see many applicanys from, i.e. somewhere other than most of Asia, Europe, Australia…</p>
<p>Do you mean that his chances for “acceptance” are good at lower ranked schools if he’s from a continent other than what you listed? </p>
<p>Or, do you mean that his chances for “big financial aid” are big if he’s applying to a lower ranked school and is from a continent other than what’s listed?</p>
<p>The first is definitely true. However, I don’t know how true the second one is. While lower-ranked schools often want more diversity amongst their int’l students, they typically don’t have the means to give free rides to internationals. Typically, they can’t give free rides to citizens/residents - even with gov’t help. </p>
<p>The OP says his family can’t afford much and will essentially need all his expenses paid. If I were to guess that his family can pay a few thousand a year, that would only pay for two trips back home (summer and Christmas) and his personal expenses. </p>
<p>Do you know of any lower ranked schools that can provide a full-ride to an int’l?</p>
<hr>
<p>gnrhee:</p>
<p>How much can your parents contribute each year?</p>
<p>You’ll need to score as high as you can on your SAT and ACT (take both - some do better on the ACT than the SAT and colleges will take whichever one is higher).</p>
<p>Depending on your scores, you’ll have two options…</p>
<p>1) if your SAT or ACT is high enough, you’ll be a good candidate for an elite school that can give FA to int’ls. Remember, the FA will be based on determined “need,” it won’t be based on what your parents “say” they can afford. However, elite schools expect to see high quality ECs, which you say that you’re lacking. They also don’t like to see ECs that you’ve only been doing for a year. They like to see ECs that you’ve continued to do over an extensive period of time.</p>
<p>2) if your scores are high, you might qualify for some good scholarships from the schools that award them to int’ls. Many merit scholarships don’t consider ECs. Many only look at stats. Those may be your best bet, IF your scores are high enough.</p>