Help an international find safety schools?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi! So I'm living in Belgium but I've lived in the US for most of my life, so that's why I definitely want to return there for college. I will be applying as an international since I do not have American citizenship.</p>

<p>Stats:
GPA:3.8-3.9 (school doesn't report unweighted)
Course Rigor: Most Rigorous possible (Full IB with 4 HLs, 2 APs in 10th grade)
ACT: taking next week, expecting around a 33
SAT: took in 10th grade.. not planning to send. mid 2000s</p>

<p>AP- stats (5), Gov (4)</p>

<p>ECs- pretty good. nothing EXTRAORDINARY, but a lot of athletic achievements, and some leadership positions in clubs.</p>

<p>I want to major in economics, business, or math (some schools have a program where you pursue a math major and an econ major, or something like that- like they do at UCLA and Northwestern). I want to work somewhere in finance, which is why I want to attend the best school possible.</p>

<p>However, I have a long list of reach schools that I would LOVE to attend, but very little match or safety schools.</p>

<p>For my lesser reaches, I have the following:
UC- LA, B, SD
USC?
NYU</p>

<p>and those are by no means guaranteed.</p>

<p>Any tips? I would prefer a larger university (but medium or even smallish ones are fine). Location near a city (not necessarily in a city, but close to one).
East Coast, West Coast, or Chicago (I've been to all three and love them all)</p>

<p>Are there are schools that would admit me for sure, but don't cost too much. I won't get instate anywhere, and I don't need financial aid. I just don't want to make my parents pay $50000 a year.</p>

<p>Any schools I should look into? I was considering Michigan, but that prob wont be a safety either. I would to have schools that I could apply to early with the rolling admissions even though I'm going to apply SCEA to Stanford probably.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>What is your immigration status? If you have a green card, you are a domestic applicant. If you do not have a green card, you need to find out if you can study here in your current status, or if you will need to convert to an F1 (student) visa.</p>

<p>You also need to find out if you qualify for in state tuition and fees in your state of residence. </p>

<p>Your grades and exam scores are excellent. Go to the Financial Aid Forum and scroll down until you hit the threads on guaranteed merit based scholarships and on automatic full tuition scholarships. Some of those are open to international students, however many have early December application dates. Basically, if you have the GPA and the ACT/SAT score and you apply on time, you are in and you get the money.</p>

<p>Don’t forget to read each place’s TOEFL policy very carefully. It is unlikely that you would need to take the TOEFL, but sometimes there are surprises.</p>

<p>Usually, what would be a reach for a US applicant is a super-reach for an international, what would be a match is a reach, what would be a safety is a match, and then there are no real safeties for the international - even at full pay. However you have the stats for the small number of guaranteed admits as I mentioned above. In your case, you do have safeties.</p>

3

<p>Whoops! I just realized that you aren’t living here now. This is what comes of reading posts before my second cup of coffee.</p>

<p>Pay a visit to the closest office of <a href=“http://www.EducationUSA.state.gov%5B/url%5D”>www.EducationUSA.state.gov</a>. Ask the counselors there which universities students with your grades and scores have been admitted to recently, and whether those institutions proved affordable. You may be best off to complete your undergraduate degree in Europe.</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the reply, but I am definitely going to get my undergraduate degree in the US :wink:
People from get accepted every year to top 20 schools +ivies, with an average class size of about 150. </p>

<p>I’ll look there now, but do you (or anyone else) have any colleges you think I should look at?</p>