<p>I am looking for safety schools that are usually willing to offer a considerable amount of aid to international students. My stats can be considered decent but my BIG BIG BIG financial need might hinder my chances for colleges currently on my list, and I just want to make sure I have a "plan B" to fall back on in case everything goes wrong.</p>
<p>There are (almost) no safety schools for internationals with significant financial need. Before I make one suggestion, let me ask you:</p>
<p>How desperately do you want to study in the States?</p>
<p>The only college I know that might qualify as a safety is the University of New Orleans because you would almost automatically qualify for a merit scholarship covering tuition, housing, a meal plan and a book allowance. However, please know that UNO is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina (I don't mean the infrastructure) and that it is not that great of a university... I am having a hard time finding a challenge and academic peers at Bryn Mawr College - If I were stuck at UNO, I would probably shoot myself.</p>
<p>Some departments are better than others... The programs I am interested in suffer from the we-want-to-make-our-major-accessible-to-everyone syndrome.</p>
<p>According to UNO's website all you need for a full scholarship is a 1210 SAT (math + critical reading) and a 3.5 GPA. As I said before, UNO is far from being selective...</p>
<p>hey guys
UNO has actually become the tough university to get in as everyone is applying there
one of my seniors last year was accepted to UNO but he had good grades and SAT scores
maths:790
CR:730
Writing:690
total: 2210</p>
<p>He had excellent ECAs and excellent academics and leaderships
So, i don't think we shall keep UNO in our safeties' list
i also kept this university in my list but after i knew that all of the students from my country are applying for it, i kick it out of the list</p>
<p>BNKS8, you claim that UNO is actually quite selective. That point is contrary to every statistical figure that has been recently published about UNO, so I will ask you to defend your point. Since you argue from personal experience, can you provide us with the number of students you personally know who have applied to UNO and who have been either accepted or rejected? Also, could you please estimate when the students who were accepted and rejected each applied? Because it makes a huge difference whether one applies in December or April...</p>
<p>
[quote]
UNO has actually become the tough university to get in as everyone is applying there
...
i also kept this university in my list but after i knew that all of the students from my country are applying for it, i kick it out of the list
[/quote]
I don't think that this is a valid point. Assume that in fact a lot of international students, including many well-qualified students, apply to UNO. You would certainly agree with me that most of these international students, even if accepted, will eventually not enroll at UNO because they get offers from better universities. That means that UNO's yield rate is extremely low. For argument's sake, assume that only 1 out of every 100 admitted international applicants actually enrolls. Then UNO can actually admit quite a lot of international students without being swamped by foreigners! That in turn means that it is not that selective after all...</p>
<p>hey man
i will tell u some facts
overall 8 students applied for UNO for the deadline january 15 last fall
and out of these 8 students, 6 had 3As atleast on A-Level and had excellent ECA
about SAT they all exceeded 1320 (CR and Maths)
but i was shocked to see the acceptance; only 2 were accepted
but both got full aid
so its your choice whether u see UNO as safety or ....
MY POINT IS VALID DUDE</p>
<p>Assuming what you said is true, there are many other ways to interpret these results (e.g. in terms of yield management). If half of your school applied there, it is not unreasonable for a university to only accept students who actually appear to want to enroll. Given that your high school is as prestigious as it is, a fourth-tier university might rightly assume that most of the applicants from your school actually want to attend a better university than that. </p>
<p>Of course UNO might have also developed a >30% acceptance rate overnight. Let's wait for the updated admission statistics...</p>