<p>Well basically what i mean is, people are telling me that i should be applying to more competitive schools:some of my very optimistic friends, my mom(kind of), some of my mom's friend (one lives in michigan and seems to have a lot of knowledge on how it rolls around in the us, since im a korean in germany)....</p>
<p>Now i dont know if its allowed here or not but i dont care so: my sat is 2240 (verbal 700,writing 760,math 780 and essay 10), toefl 113, my act from october is 33. I go to an international school and my gpa is 6.54 out of a 7.00 scale. My activities are not so great: i did some community work over the summer, took part in the school creative magazine, and been in the school math team(our team got 9th in some competition with a load of international schools from all over). I was in the varsity tennis team in 11th grade and i got 2 awards from the uk math challenge. Not much and this is really it.</p>
<p>Ok, now so far i applied to SUNY binghamton and UNC chapel hill EA. For regular i want to try rice, virginia, johns hopkins, emory, rochester, duke and vanderbilt. Somehow people are telling me why im not applying to any ivies:brown or columbia or what not. I thought i was being down to earth, but now some people are bombarding me these suggestions.</p>
<p>I have no idea what i should do. I spend a lot of time working on the list and i thought it was a realistic targetting list, but now i really dont know what to think...apparantly ill regret having applied so "low" (if you can call my list low that is, i am confident that they're all good schools). Please HELP!!!!!!!!!IM CONFUSED....</p>
<p>Apply to the schools YOU want to apply to (with maybe one or two pity schools thrown in for your parents, if they're paying). My favorite school, and the school where I ended up going to college, was a safety school -- my SAT score was 300 points over the average (old SAT). But that was perfect for me -- I got a full scholarship that covered my tuition, fees, room, and board; I had a blast there and learned a lot; and now I'm in a top graduate school.</p>
<p>I could've applied to Ivy League schools, and was encouraged to, but I didn't want to. Ivy League and other competitive schools were not my style, plus I didn't want to go far from home and I certainly didn't want to owe that much money after graduating. 5 years later, I really don't regret not applying to Ivies -- and I'm at one now for graduate school and although I thought it was my "dream" school for undergrad, I'm really glad I didn't come here as an undergrad.</p>
<p>You are applying to very good schools and your efforts may win you some good merit aid. Keep up with what you're doing and don't worry about what anyone else says -- if you don't want to go to Ivies, why waste your money?</p>
<p>Your list seems to me to have a realistic range of safeties, matches, and reaches. If you actually LIKE Brown or Columbia, certainly add it to your list, but from what you say it sounds as if either of them would be a very high reach for you. Certainly with schools like U Va, Hopkins, Rice and Duke on your list you aren't aiming "low."</p>
<p>TCKs like you usually get a boost in admissions, although being Asian (and the single most over-represented Asian nationality at that) works against you. Perhaps they cancel out.</p>
<p>Either way, with Ivy admissions being largely a crapshoot at this point, it's worth a try!</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'm at one now for graduate school and although I thought it was my "dream" school for undergrad, I'm really glad I didn't come here as an undergrad
<p>What does did you mean when you said ivy admissions are crapshoot????
And I heard and read many times that in the end it's up to me to decide and i shouldn't listen too much to others. I just want to get my uncertain feeling out of the way. I've read on this website and many others: ivy and top school admissions not what it used to be, so difficult to get in and so on....</p>
<p>apply to the schools that you like, the ivy league is blown out of proportions because a non-ivy school like Rice is comparable to an ivy league school. It does not matter what school you go to ivy, or non-ivy as long as the academics are at your level and you feel challenged and like the school.</p>
<p>When people say that ivy admissions is a crapshoot, they mean that it is like playing a game of craps, which is to say just rolling dice. You have no way of predicting your chances of admissions at HYPSM.</p>
<p>If one of these schools really truly appeals to you, and you have the money to pay for the application, go ahead and apply. But please, don't let yourself fall in love with that place any more than you would let yourself fall in love with fill-in-name-of-famously-attractive-person-here if you just saw them on TV.</p>
<p>You are better off to pick a list of schools that appeal to you (which you seem to have done), and where your grades, test scores, and extra curriculars/life experiences fall clearly in the range of students who are admitted each year. These we could call the "reasonable reaches", "realistic matches", and "reliable safeties". If money is an issue for you, don't forget to hunt down schools that are "likely financial safeties" too.</p>
<p>When people say that ivy admissions is a crapshoot, they mean that it is like playing a game of craps, which is to say just rolling dice. You have no way of predicting your chances of admissions at HYPSM.</p>
<p>If one of these schools really truly appeals to you, and you have the money to pay for the application, go ahead and apply. But please, don't let yourself fall in love with that place any more than you would let yourself fall in love with fill-in-name-of-famously-attractive-person-here if you just saw them on TV.</p>
<p>You are better off to pick a list of schools that appeal to you (which you seem to have done), and where your grades, test scores, and extra curriculars/life experiences fall clearly in the range of students who are admitted each year. These we could call the "reasonable reaches", "realistic matches", and "reliable safeties". If money is an issue for you, don't forget to hunt down schools that are "likely financial safeties" too.</p>
<p>well ive kind of given up on looking at tuition fees since as a foreigner, public vs private is not too much of a difference and financial aid is virtually non existent, although i did hear that some rich schools kind of gives some money, apparantly emory or rochester although this may just be a load of bull.</p>
<p>UNC estimated their tuition as 38000 for foreigners and looking at their website they dont seem to keen on accepting foreigners and arent that friendly either....;</p>
<p>Vanderbilt probably has the most generous financial aid package for most students. Here are other schools that give out a lot of money on your list</p>
<p>Schools that give out A LOT of money: UNC-Chapel Hill, Rice, Virginia, Johns Hopkins, Emory, Duke</p>
<p>Schools that give out some money: SUNY Binghamton</p>
<p>Well what im wondering is if that list and other lists i see apply to foreigners like me because i thought they don't.....and also would i have a disadvantage if i check the box for "do you plan on applying for financial aid?" on the common application???even if the school states that they don't give out aid to foreigners? and i mean the need based admission, how much of a disadvantage does that really put you into??</p>
<p>most schools have need-blind admissions. All of your schools are need-blind</p>
<p>This means that they will not look at your financial status when looking at your application. A lot of schools on your list will meet your demonstrated financial need, I'll go look up which ones. SUNY Binghamton probably won't meet your demonstrated need but might give you something</p>
<p>wow, i guess i didnt look into that properly. Thank you very much for your help...but from what i remember when i was researching those schools, i thought aid was slim for foreign studens. I remember for sure that case western reserve stated explicitly that no aid would be provided for non-Us citizens.</p>
<p>i know im bombarding the thread with questions but since people are saying ivy admissions are becoming crap games, do people know others that got in that had really non ivy level grades, test scores etc. who were clearly not out of the league??</p>
<p>Case Western meets demonstrated need of 89% of students (prob international students are in that 11%)
Vanderbilt dosen't say anything
UNC-Chapel Hill: guarantees to meet full demonstrated need
Rice: guarantees to meet full demonstrated need
Virginia:meets demonstrated need of 95%
Johns Hopkins: does not guarantee to meet demonstrated need
Emory: guarantees to meet demonstrated need
Duke: guarantees to meet demonstrated need
SUNY Binghamton: guarantees to meet demonstrated need of 80%</p>
<p>The amount of aid for internationals is included in the USNEWS listings and the college's Common Data Set filings. </p>
<p>For example, from Swarthmore's 2007-08 Common Data set, we see that 50 of the 99 nonresident aliens received need based aid with an average package of $39,625 and a total international aid budget of $1,963,252.</p>
<p>You should be able to find these number for any school. Just track down their Common Data Set filing from their website.</p>
<p>As an aside, I do not consider myself an expert on international admissions in the slightest, but I certainly would not describe the original poster's list as "shooting too low". International admissions is very competitive and those are very selective colleges. </p>
<p>Posters who are using domestic admissions as a frame of reference are doing a serious injustice to the original poster. Neither admissions nor financial aid is the same.</p>
<p>i have no idea whether my stats are non-US or US related but regardless of the fact, the only certain point is that colleges are need-blind and applying for financial aid will not hinder you in any way</p>