Help deciding which college to apply to

Applying to College
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Hello guys. I’m an international student, going to apply to US colleges for the class of 2026. I will need full ride, and will only be applying to need-based financial aid providing colleges. I already know that my chances are really really low, and thus I need help deciding at which Colleges will I have relatively greater chance of selection out of the ones I’m listing below. I wanna apply to 4-5 reach colleges, because I have to try. The rest I will apply to atleast 10-12 others, depending upon where I have the maximum (relative) chance of acceptance. If you guys wanna recommend any college, feel free to do so. So… Yeah… Kindly help me decide which reach and other colleges should I apply to.

  1. Dartmouth (ED 1)
  2. Tufts (ED 2)
  3. Brown
  4. Cornell
  5. Yale
  6. UChicago
  7. Duke
  8. CMU
  9. JHU
  10. Amherst
  11. NYU
  12. Northwestern University
  13. Rice University
  14. Emory University
  15. Vanderbilt university
  16. Vassar College
  17. Whitman
  18. Miami University, Ohio
  19. University of Miami
  20. Colgate University
  21. DePauw
  22. Smith College
  23. Bates College
  24. Dickinson
  25. Illinois Institute of Technology
  26. Linden wood University
  27. Middlebury College
  28. St. Lawrence University
  29. Williams
  30. Wellesley
  31. Wesleyan

I’m having a hard time choosing which colleges to apply to. Any and all help will be extremely helpful. Thanks :blush:

A little bit about my scores… I still have to attempt SAT and ACT, but I’m quite sure I’ll get 1550 above and 33 above. Please don’t take this as arrogance. But I am sure about this.

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If you are an international student who needs full financial aid, then every college and university in the US is a reach.

What is your intended major or likely majors? What are Dartmouth College and the Illinois Institute of Technology both very good for?

Do you want a rural location (Dartmouth College) or to be right in the middle of a big city (NYU, U.Chicago)?

What are your grades like? Are you the strongest student in your high school?

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  1. You are absolutely right. Every college will be a reach for me. Although, what I meant by reach was top tier schools where I actually stand a chance. I wanna apply to schools like Dartmouth, Cornell, Brown because I know some students from my country with stats quite similar to mine, and in some cases even lower than mine, who got accepted with 100% aid at these schools.

  2. My intended major is CS or CS with mathematics. I know for a fact that all the schools I mentioned are said to have a good CS program.

  3. I don’t have any preference related to region or climate. I’m very good at adapting, and I have lived in both extreme weather conditions.

  4. Yes, I am certainly the best student at my school. Actually, I’m the only one at my school who has studied multivariate calculus to some extent. Not that it’s any helpful… As I can’t afford AP tests, they cost way too much. But I just wanted to give you a solid reason as to why I’m saying I’m the best student at my school. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

P.S. – I’m also quite good at singing, if that helps in any way.

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My high school doesn’t calculate GPA… Only annual examination percentage
Grade 9-- 95%, class topper
Grade 10— 94.8% (external board exams), class topper
Grade 11— 80% , grade dip as both my parents were affected by Covid at that time.

Belong to extremely less represented ethnicity

Only student from my high school to clear Pre-Regional Maths Olympiad 3 years in a row in Grade 9, 10, 11.

Won a state level scholarship (rank- 7/60k+) which helped me study AP and honors level concepts at a private institution. (Parents wouldn’t have been able to afford it otherwise.)

Founder and President of Vocal Music Club of our school

Performed on the state radio several times.

Won gold at NCC state singing competition while attending a 10-days Camp (kind of like boy scouts).

Tutor neighborhood kids for free who can’t afford internet for online classes.

Volunteered maintenance duties and tutoring children for free at a rural school (when the lockdown was lifted for some time).
(Although my mother works at that school, it was still volunteer work. Hoping that won’t be a problem.

Actively participate and organised anti-bullying events in my high school.

Will have excellent teacher and counsellor recommendations.

Participated in several International MUN conferences during the pandemic. (Unfortunately, school doesn’t have an MUN club… Not much students interested)

Tackled a lot of problems in my past including domestic violence, bullying due to religion, homophobia… About which will write in my essay.

Won several medals at intra school and regional level in badminton, table tennis.

Advocated against gender assignment to a particular game (kho-kho/ called tag in Britain). Founded and leaded the first boys team ever in our school, also coached the boys selected for the team in next year.

Also, not that it helps much… or at all, but still — Professional touch typist (75 wpm)

So… yeah… That’s it. My ECs aren’t that good but I’m confident about my SAT and ACT scores… they’ll help a lot. And also I’m pretty good at essay writing… According to what almost all of my English teachers told me​:sweat_smile::sweat_smile:

My stats… If they help​:person_shrugging::person_shrugging:

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Your list is going to be dramatically shorter if you simply Google the need blind colleges on this list, and then Google which ones are need blind for internationals. You need 100% demonstrated need as an international, which is going to make your list very short indeed.

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I think we should combine OP’s two threads.

I don’t think OP has to limit their apps to colleges that are need blind for internationals (only five)…because we do know that every year the meet-full-need colleges accept international students with full need. It’s not many students, but it’s possible…but obviously these would be tippy top students in their respective countries.

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Ah thank you so much!!! The point that I’ve been trying to make for so loooong!!

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Sure, the need blind for internationals do admit internationals with need. And yes, some of those (the neediest) will be given the equivalent of need for the whole year of tuition, room and board. They will be the superstar students.

The need aware colleges, not so much. A foreign superstar student MIGHT get full need met.

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Hmm… I don’t know about others… But I know Dartmouth and Cornell do.

Also… Colgate also provide a lot of aid, atleast to a few students from my country every year.

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That’s what you need to find out at all need aware schools. Look on their FA pages. They are pretty transparent about how they give out FA. Call and ask. Tell them you will need 100% full tuition, room and board, ask if they ever award that kind of money to international students.

You need more than a lot of aid. You need 100% of all costs covered.

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Yeah… That’s a great idea!!
Will definitely get to it right now.

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But to be a superstar you need a 4.0, rigorous courses and an almost perfect ACT/SAT. These colleges reject applicants with superstar applications because there’s not room for all.

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Well I still have to take tests… Dates keep changing due to lockdown, sadly we don’t get to choose our courses. If I want to opt for chemistry, physics and mathematics, then my school board decides which topics will be taught… Not me. I can just choose the subject like “yes I opt mathematics.” All the students are made to take the same course.

I cannot say anything about my GPA on 4.0 point scale… Cuz some say its basic unitary method conversion and others use some different method 🤷

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Many colleges will recalculate your uwGPA, in core subjects only.

Just taking the average percent of your three years (grade 9 95%, grade 10 94.8%, grade 11 80%)…in the US, this would be a B/B+ average. But, not sure if your HSs grades are on a similar scale, or each of those years included non-core subject grades (whatever the scale/class composition the colleges will adjust and recalculate).

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Also… There’s one more thing. High schools in my country deliberately give lesser marks in grade 11. This is basically to “prepare” students for class 12. And I actually mailed a few colleges about this, asking if this was true for students from my country… And they agreed to it.

Secondly, in grade 9 and 10… I got lesser grades in language exams cuz teachers never gave full marks to any question in writing section. And this also has been going on for a long time. That affected my overall %age.

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We can’t sort thru this on CC, and every AO will process this information as they see fit.

If you are among the top (meaning top 1% max) students from your country (and in some cases region), you will be in the mix. Even then, you will be disadvantaged at most schools, relative to the top students from your country/region who don’t need financial aid. If this does not describe you, I would not apply to 20+ US schools. And no, typing 75 wpm shouldn’t go on your application.

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Yeah you’re right. Guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

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As an example, Wesleyan University will give financial aid to international undergraduates on the same basis as US residents (that is, means full need). However, there are only 30 places available and about 1100 applicants. That might be worth a shot but it’s nothing near likely.

In contrast, Lindenwood University say that scholarships are available for international standards but do not say that those will meet full need, and it’s not at all clear whether they are small awards or of the size you would need. So you would need to ask them directly.

I don’t think it would take that much work to go through your 33 college list, find out whether they ever give international students either full ride (tuition, room and board) scholarships, or financial aid that meets full need. Even if you do have to contact financial aid departments directly. Once you have done this, you might have a list that is much smaller than 33 and probably one that is too top heavy.

Don’t forget, if you have an opportunity to study computer science at university in your own country and do well, it is much easier to get a fully funded place for PhD-level graduate study in the USA as an international than it is to get one for undergraduate study.

You sound fairly convinced about your major. You might want to look into scholarships and funding for university in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, the UK or Canada as well as the US. There is less flexibility in what you study but otherwise a comparable level of education in general.

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The only colleges that are NEED BLIND for INTERNATIONALS are Amherst, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale. I would recommend an ED to Amherst as your best chance to get in to a need blind school as the other five are much harder to get into. Additionally, many colleges say that they are need blind on their websites but that is only for American Students. The reason this happens is because the US government subsidizes some tuition for American Students who receive Aid while colleges must pay for international aid without US government help.

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Stanford is not need blind for all international students. I agree OP has to do research on which colleges provide good aid to international students.