<p>julienyu, have you tried your government? I think the SA govt. has resources to financially assist its students abroad.</p>
<p>Look at Oberlin too 
I just discovered it and it looks awesome, they have a big music conservatory there.</p>
<p>Keep looking. Dont stop yet. thats all the advice i can give at this point. Its very hard to get into Oberlin/Swarthmore/williams. They are the best LACs in rankings. The most competitive international students- those with flawless applications- apply to these places as safeties in case they dont get into their ivies. A lot of people get accepted by a school like princeton but rejected by one of the three mentioned LACs. So these are reaches just like the ivies. While you will want to apply to these schools, it would be prudent not to apply to all of them. And invest your time looking for places where your chance of getting accepted with aid is far greater. Hedrix and some similar schools have three to four full rides which they hand out ealry. so might wanna apply to one of those.
Also recent experience has led me to believe that the ED 1 choice can be crucial. With the right ED school you could put urself where your chances of admission are significantly improved.
since you are applyingnext year, There is ample time. Keep looking.</p>
<p>About the Safety issue. You Are looking for aid. There are no safeties for you. You have better chances at some places than at others. But then those places may not have enough aid.
Bates, Bowdoin, Dickinson, Connecticut may have proved to be generous to internationals in the past. But there funds vary greatly from year to year. For instance, Saint LAwrence Uni awards lots of aid. In 07 it awarded aid to 117 people and in 08 only to 47. the average award was very close in both years (dont wanna quote ijncorrectly). but despite this draw back these sort of LACs are your best bet aid. Concentrate on them.</p>
<p>Just a point of clarification. Brandeis is indeed a Jewish sponsored school, but it is completely non-sectarian in the spirit of the great american universities founded by religious groups (Harvard, Princeton etc.) and its undergrad classes are now less than 50% jewish. See the posts on diversity at Brandeis. The strong international component has contributed to this diversity. The international flavor of the grad schools also contribute (e.g. IBS (the International Business School is majority international students).</p>
<p>Good. I’m a bit intimidated now. But I’ve heard of lots of chinese students getting into universities like Princeton with full scholarships. How does that happen?
Oh, and I’ve done some research and didn’t find any scholarships for students going overseas here in SA.</p>
<p>As far as I’m aware Princeton only awards need based aid. A “full scholarship” would then just be the maximum amount of financial aid as required by the family’s low income.</p>
<p>Doesn’t that have a negative impact on your chances?</p>
<p>At most of them, yes. There’s only a select few that give full need based aid and do not take into consideration how much aid you need.</p>
<p>The “Need blind-ness” is mostly applicable on US Students only. For internationals, Karpov said it right! Asking for Aid does reduce your chances…</p>
<p>My stats are really not that impressive. Thanks for letting me know that–in a kind way.
I’ll keep trying.</p>
<p>Come on now. Thats not what everyone meant. Your stats are extraordinary. But you will need to work equally hard to find the right colleges and on your application. Thats all that we were trying to impress upon you.
Dont be humble. Be ruthless.</p>
<p>Thanks-by the way, I’ve been trying to start clubs at school to fill in my leadership blank. Hopefully it will work.</p>
<p>Some people might be a bit excessively conservative in my opinion. As some people have just said asking for aid will lower your chances of admission at every college, as an international student. However not necessarily by very much. Also, being an international student means you represent geographical diversity, which will increase your chances. Depending on how your SATs come back, your options could be fairly different, but I would think that if you get above 2200, you will have a small chance of admission at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, and a good chance at any of the second half of the ivy league and comparable schools–Dartmouth University, The University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, Washington University in St. Louis, Northwestern University, Georgetown University, etc. and a good chance at the best liberal arts colleges–Swarthmore, Amherst, Williams, Pomona, Middlebury, Bowdoin, etc. </p>
<p>I’ve always been partial to Brandeis and you should have a good to very good shot there.
Good luck!</p>
<p>Thank you. I got my SAT score yesterday: 2250 with maths 800. I’m going to write again in June. Which universities use superscoring?</p>
<p>Most do. Cant think of any that dont.</p>
<p>Even Stanford?</p>
<p>I asked the same question about a week back. Search through my posts for a thread I created. I got an excellent reply which should answer all your questions about superscoring. I’m just too lazy to do it myself right now. =(</p>
<p>Does anyone know anything else about this university?
And can anyone help me find a list of schools that are need-blind to international students?</p>
<p>My suggestion is to emphasize on your South-African experience - don’t even bother elaborating on your Chinese-ness - I did that, and it didn’t go too well since there are too many Chinese. Focus on writing the unique stuff you have met or experienced in your essay, thats the key :). Williams is need blind to international students too - so that will not hurt your chance. Apply ED if you really like it, since they will probably be willing to take in more students due to their drop in applications by 20% for this fall.</p>