Thank you so much for pointing it all out. The process of navigating US schools is indeed a difficult one, but it’s getting better day by day, and your help has been invaluable. I think my preferences for factors outside academics have cleared up, too.
Now I know I’m looking for, first of all, great undergraduate education. As far as school spirit goes, I’d like it to be intellectual, quirky, yet down-to-earth. A friendly environment for an international students would be a great asset. It seems like U-Chicago, Brandeis and many LACs fit the bill. Now it’s time for me to do better research. I also know that as an international, whatever might be considered safety for US student with similiar academics and extracurriculars will be reach for me, and their reach will be my dream, due to financial aid.
For the record, my SAT is 1540 and subject tests (Math II and Spanish) are 770. I will be taking SAT with essay in October. My unweighted GPA is 4.9 out of 5.0, there are no weights or credits system in my country. I also have extracurricular achievements at regional and national level, and one at international. However, due to health issues, I have a C in one subject on my school report, which has caused me lack of sleep and makes me wonder if it makes sense to apply at anywhere (in the US) at all…
Thank you again for your input 
If you have any more suggestions, please post.
Calm down, @bombonlina. That C won’t hurt you at liberal arts colleges, as you have an excellent record. You also have excellent test scores. You could potentially score merit aid at some schools. Just do your research, apply widely, and take advantage of ED programs. Where are you from?
@International95 I’m from Poland. I’m thinking of applying ED at Chicago but I’m worried that my nationality will hurt my chances (aka many Polish Americans or dual citizens already).
I mean EA, no ED at Chicago
UChicago recently added ED I and ED II.
“@DadTwoGirls thank you for your suggestions but I’m afraid Canada is out of my reach due to finances”
Do you expect to get a full scholarship that covers 100% of the cost of attendance from the US schools? If so, then you need to focus on universities that meet 100% of need for international students, which is a rather small number of US schools, and which would render most of this thread irrelevant. Otherwise, how much of the cost are you able to cover?
@DadTwoGirls that’s what I’m doing. There are quite a few full-need colleges for international students out there, but apart from HYP + Amherst, they also happen to be need-aware (like aforementioned Chicago). From what I’ve researched, the likes of Stanford, Duke, Pomona, Northwestern, the rest of ivies and top LACs also fall into this category. Many of the schools mentioned here so far are also full-need but need-aware, which does not render this thread irrelevant.
The problem is that at all those schools percentage of international students on finaid is around ~25% (compared to 55-70 at HYP, of all internationals attending, I’ve run the numbers). So you need to be really, really good to convince them to give you a full ride, by which I’m not surprised at all.
Darmouth is an interesting school in this matter - even though it’s not need-blind it has over 80% of it’s intl students on aid with average award of $51,046. With Brown, which has the same need-aware full-need policy, the number is down to 29% and avg award to ~$46,000.
Another thing to consider are athletic scholarships, which pull the numbers up at schools like Duke, Vanderbilt, Stanford to some extent as well. Me thinks.
Source: colleges websites + https://public.tableau.com/profile/yoko.kono4022#!/vizhome/InternationalFinancialAid_Final/FinancialAidtoIntlDegree-SeekingUndergraduateStudentsintheU_S_201415_Final
I, obviously, am very poor and wouldn’t be able to contribute at all. It’s a long shot, but I’m gonna try my best, that’s all I can do.
^ middle class families in Poland make around $12-15,000 a year, so yes since this student isn’t wealthy s/he likely needs a full ride.