<p>Hi, I am a final year secondary school student from a small country in Europe. I am applying to colleges in the US. I am in the process of adding some "safety" schools to my list.
Are there any good schools that might not usuallly receive high numbers of applications from International students, thus improving my chances of admission? I have financial safeties (colleges that are generous to Int'l students) and ones I should get into.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated! </p>
<p>All of the schools on lk65ty5rt4’s list are reaches if you need financial aid. (Even liberal arts colleges with an overall admission rate of 40% might have an admission rate below 10% for international financial aid applicants. Peterson’s used to report international admission rates separately from domestic admission rates but unfortunately these numbers are no longer online.)</p>
<p>There is no good affordable university that is not popular among international students.</p>
<p>Grinnell College is not too bad but receives a lot of international applications. Typical rate for admission among internationals can be as low as 5 % apparently; it depends a lot on where you are from.</p>
<p>@b@r!um Some of those school have need-blind admissions for Int’l Students so I don’t see how they’re all reaches… That sucks about the Petersons thing though, could have been a brilliant addition to the few resourses Int’ls have! @_Silence I took Grinnell off my list but I might put it back on, thank you!
Are there no schools where being an International would be an advantage, a quirk of sorts?</p>
<p>Post #2: Dart, Swarth, Penn, etc. are matches. Duke and Chicago are safeties… for whom? We don’t even know OP’s stats and resume. These schools are not matches and safeties for most applicants.</p>
<p>As a general rule of thumb, the schools that are quite far from major international airports have fewer international students (particularly European students) than similar quality schools that are close to airports that fly directly to Europe. There are however some exceptions such as Grinnell and Cornell. Great schools that have lower than average int’t students include Davidson, Williiam & Mary and Holy Cross, although the latter is not really that far from Boston. Londondad.</p>
<p>@jshain I totally don’t have the time to type everything out here (using android app), but I know where I stand with schools in relation to where would be reaches and safeties for me. I would love to meet the people who have Chicago in their safeties !
It saves my time, and other Int’l Students who know where they stand with colleges, if people with the know-how just post! Sorry if that’s a problem though, I am new! :(</p>
<p>ACT is not available in my country. I am taking my SAT I soon, expecting to do great - it’s so easy compared to what we do here, plus I put in a lot of work. Taking the SAT II in Literature and Chemistry, never scored under 97% in either in class so should do quite well in that too.
Like I said, I know when a college is “out of my league”, I’d much rather just hear the options you guys have.</p>
<p>Please confirm that you are holding a UK passport and English is your native language, because this information is critical to help you to identify your safeties.</p>
William & Mary and Holy Cross don’t have many international students because they don’t give financial aid to international students. If the OP were able to pay $50,000 a year, those might be interesting schools to look into. Davidson has approximately the number of international students one might expect given the limited amount of financial aid they have.</p>
<p>In my own experience, international popularity is entirely driven by price and prestige. Prestigious colleges and affordable ones (either through financial aid or low out-of-state tuition rates) appear to be popular among international students. Geography seems to have little impact once you account for price and reputation. </p>
<p>As another example, take Haverford. It’s extremely similar to many LACs with high international enrollment: it’s extremely selective, located in the Northeast, close to a big city with a major international airport (Philadelphia). Yet it has very few international students. Why? I think it’s because Haverford gives almost no financial aid to international students, and liberal arts colleges generally don’t have enough international name recognition to be worth a $50,000 per year investment (unlike, say, UCLA or the University of Michigan). </p>
<p>Please feel free to provide evidence countering my claim. Else I stand by my assertion that there are no good affordable universities with few international applicants, which the OP is looking for.</p>
