Help me narrow College Choices (for international aid) and Chance?

College Search & Selection
1

Hi there,
I’m trying to come up with a small list of colleges to apply to - my school restricts applications to only Seven names…
I’m a female International student - I attend a United World College (UWC)- and would love to continue my education in the US but would need considerable aid (my parents can afford at a strech 20k/year).
I would prefer a LAC, not worried about size and location. No major decided yet, possibly English/Media/Film.
My Stats:
IB -predicted 38/42 (with a possible extra 2 points), all 6s at HL (English, World History, Economics), and mainly 7s SL
SAT -1460 (ERW 760, Math 700)
EC - many (of course, like all UWC students), including a Uganda service trip, learning Sign Language to help at brain injury center, creative writing prizes, working at marine rescue center etc.
-Fluent 2 languages, good third.

I’m not terribly familiar with US system but… Right now considering:
Reaches - Middlebury (ED?), Williams and one of the Claremont Colleges. (which one would be better chance for aid and considering my stats?)
Targets: Barnard, Colby, Skidmore, Davidson, Macalester, Bates, Kenyon, Richmond
Safeties: Uni Florida, Uni Rochester, Trinity (?)

Does my list make sense, did I miss potential targets and how do I narrow it to seven applications? Please help if you can…

2

I doubt you will get any aid at Florida as there are only ~300 merit scholarships so I’d take that off the list.

Most of the schools you’ve listed are need aware for international students.

3

@AlfaBeta72,
US colleges are more accustomed to dealing with GPAs than with predicted IB scores.Does your high school also give a letter or percentage grade for each class?. If not, do you know your class rank?

It helps if your high school is known to the college’s admissions committee. Can you compare your scores to those of other graduates of your high school that attended US colleges? For international students needing significant financial aid, a maximum of 7 applications seems to me no where near enough, but perhaps your school has a record of success with US colleges.

Financial aid for international students is a complicated situation. Aside from a handful of very selective schools, most private colleges are need aware for internationals; however, if a student is admitted then many will meet full demonstrated need. A few colleges offer merit aid to internationals, but it is rare and and usually unpredictable.

Few public schools offer financial aid to internationals. I’m not familiar with UF’s policies.

It’s misleading for internationals to use US admit rates to determine reach/match/safety. Admit rates for internationals are generally considerably lower than US rates. Admit rates for internationals requesting substantial aid are even lower.

All selective colleges admit internationals and all offer need-based aid; BUT (and this is a huge but) schools vary widely in the percentage of internationals they seek to enroll and the total amount of aid offered each year to internationals.

It’s difficult to get clear statistics because few publish complete admissions information; however, by looking at each college’s common data set you can get an idea of which are comparatively more generous with financial aid.

Among LACs, these are some with the highest budgets for international financial aid.
Total Financial Aid / % Enrolled / % Given aid
Macalester USD11.3 M / 11% / 54%
St Olaf 11.0 / 12% / 86%
Trinity (CT) 10.6 / 13% / 65%
Mt. Holyoke 10.5 / 28% / 53%
Amherst 9.1 / 8% / 87%
Smith 8.6 / 15% / 44%
Grinnell 8.1 / 23% / 78%
Middlebury 8.0 / 11% / 55%
Dickinson 7.7 / 16% / 71%
Colgate 7.1 / 11% / 57%

Remember that US colleges, especially small LACs, will evaluate your application holistically. In addition to your academic record and test performance they will look at your interests, your talents and any diversity factors such as race, religion, economic status and life experience. You’ll need to make sure that your essays and recommendations reflect what you can contribute to the campus community, both in and out of the classroom.

4

Thanks Momrath! My school does not give a GPA or class ranking, but all the colleges on my list (and yours, cheers!) are part of the Shelby Davis Scholarship programme so they’re used to dealing with UWC students and their reports, I believe.
I’ll keep in mind your advice regarding the essays and recommendations, and keep my fingers crossed!

5

Since you’re at a UWC, I’d ED at Middlebury and EA at Dickinson. Is UF in the Shelby Davis Scholarship Network? If not, NCF could be a safety.
At large universities, always apply to the Honors college. You might want to look for smaller public universities (UVermont, UMass Amherst) though.

6

Thanks MYOS - will look into Dickinson and Umass Amherst, and yes, UF is a big partecipant in Shelby Davis Scholars, which gives me hope.

7

You may want to consider New College of Florida.
https://www.ncf.edu/

NCF is less selective than most of the colleges mentioned above. It also has a much lower sticker price.
Merit scholarships are available to OOS students and eligible noncitizens.
https://www.ncf.edu/admissions/financial-aid/scholarships/out-of-state-freshmen/

8

Regarding your interest in English, these articles discuss the literary aspects of various colleges, and may offer you further ideas:

https://contently.net/2014/11/06/resources/tools/training/10-best-colleges-creative-writers/

http://flavorwire.com/409437/the-25-most-literary-colleges-in-america

9

We know a few UWC kids from our hometown – it’s an amazing program and I’m sure you’ve benefitted so much! One who graduated from UWC New Mexico last year got a full ride to Duke so that’s a good sign for you!

My ‘go to’ recommendation for international students interested in LACs is Grinnell b/c they are targeting 17% international students within the next few years and are very generous with need and merit aid. Mt. Holyoke would be another suggestion as a target and also interested focused on its international students. Finally, I fully endorse Davidson b/c my D is a first year there and it’s an amazing college!!

All that said, as an international student I think all the targets on your lists are actually reaches. I would create a list of 5 reaches 2 safeties. Agree that publics are not likely to give you as much aid (unless there’s a specific program/scholarship for international students that you’re aiming for) so I would stick with privates.

@momrath offers some great salient data for you

I’d suggest the following:

Reaches:
Grinnell
Macalester
Middlebury
Davidson or Scripps (one of the 5Cs; women’s college and slightly higher acceptance % than the other 5Cs)
Mt. Holyoke or Kenyon (these are closer to target)

Safeties: Dickinson, NCF? – not sure about these

Good luck and keep us posted!

10

Thanks Merc81 and AlmostThere, will definitely look into those!

11

Congratulations on your hard work and success.

I know UWCs extremely well–one of mine attended one, and we know lots of UWC students. It’s great you are looking at the Davis schools.

From what you say, Middlebury and Williams are great reaches for you, and have lots of money to give.

One you might want to research is Wesleyan University, an LAC in a small to mid-size town in Connecticut. It is an excellent school and would go in the reach category, though you are a great candidate. It is especially strong in your areas of interest. Lin-Manuel Miranda (“Hamilton”) is an alum, and that has given the school lots of attention.

https://www.wesleyan.edu/cfilm/

I agree with Kenyon College. It is in a very, very small town. It has an incredible list of famous alums in literature and film. Really beautiful campus. We know a student there now who loves it.

Would you consider a women’s college? Wellesley might be good. Stunning campus in a very nice suburban town near Boston. Students often socialize with Harvard/MIT students. Excellent academics. Hillary Clinton is an alum.

Smith College is another women’s college, on the other side of Massachusetts, in Northampton, a great college town. Also a terrific school. It has a reputation as a very liberal, activist place.

All are terrific academically. Some of these schools have different cultures. Richmond and Davidson, both terrific, would be more conservative and southern and Smith much more liberal, for example. Some would appeal to some, some to others. Richmond has an outstanding business school and law school, and so more of a pre-professional vibe. Definitely not knocking it. Campus is beautiful; Richmond (nicknamed RVA) is now a great city for college students and young professionals. Weather is great during the school year. I’d have been happy for any of mine to go there. Just saying all that would be different from a Smith or Kenyon or Bates or Middlebury or Williams, which would have more of an academic vibe.

Good luck!

12

@AlfaBeta72, NCF is hard to analyze. Their total (all four years) non-resident enrollment is just 17 students. (Compared, for example, to Mt. Holyoke which has 151.) NCF’s total spend on international aid is about USD500,000. So yes, it’s possible for you to to be admitted with enough aid to attend, but if you’re really limited to 7 applications I would follow the money.

The best option would be to convince your school to allow you to apply to more than 7 schools. Double that is not out of line for internationals needing substantial aid. Secondly, target colleges to which graduates of your high school have been admitted with aid.

I’m not clear on how the Davis UWC Scholarships interact with the colleges’ own need-based aid. If you are confident that you will receive sufficient funding through the Davis program, then you can be less concerned about each college’s overall international admit rate and funding. Could you please clarify?

Davis Scholarships not withstanding, my top picks would be as follows. All of these schools either have a relatively high net number of enrolled internationals or a relatively high budget for international aid or both. I hesitate to categorize as reach/match/safety because international admissions are so unpredictable, but you can use US rates as rough guidelines.

Some are more selective and prestigious than others, but all are academically respectable. I strongly encourage you to consider the less selective womens schools: Holyoke, Smith and Bryn Mawr.

Macalester

St Olaf

Trinity (CT)

Mt. Holyoke

Smith

Grinnell

Middlebury

Dickinson

Bryn Mawr

St. Olaf

Franklin & Marshall

Clark

Wesleyan

13

Just to add, I agree with Skidmore, Grinnell, and Mount Holyoke (all female) as terrific schools that will have higher acceptance rates, in general, than say a Middlebury or Williams (that does not mean academics are not as strong).

Grinnell is in a rural location, so that would be a consideration–you may like or not like that. (In contrast, Macalester is a very urban LAC, right in a major metropolitan area, with very much of an international vibe.)

Mount Holyoke is actually close to Smith and is part of the Five College Consortium, with Smith, Amherst, University of Massachusetts at Amherst (state flagship), and Hampshire. Students can take classes, etc. at the other schools.

Skidmore has gotten more competitive in recent years, especially for international students, I believe, as it has a reputation for giving good financial aid to international students.

I’d also put Trinity (Hartford, CT) in the same category–great academics, not insanely competitive, though it’s gotten stronger interest in recent years.

14

Correction to what I wrote above: That figure of 151 international students for Mt. Holyoke was just for first year students. The total enrolled internationals for 4 all years (according to the updated 2018-19 CDS) is 595. The point is that there is a big range among LACs in the number of internationals enrolled and funded. You kind of have to read between the lines, but the figures provide a relative picture of each college’s commitment to enrolling and funding internationals.

15

Thanks so much TTG and momrath!
To be honest I haven’t quite made up my mind on all-female colleges yet, will need to think about that hard over the next few weeks/months, though I guess Smith (or Scripps) being part of a consortium could help. I was at an all-girl school for years and I’m not quite sure I’d want a repeat…
The Shelby Davis Scholars basically subsidizes the Colleges for 10k or in some cases 20k per student admitted with aid, so it’s a great help but not a complete game changer. And sadly the UWC policy for limiting the number of colleges (it’s 8, but I need to keep 1 for non-US applications just in case) is worldwide to all schools, so I can’t really do anything about it…
Question -a friend of mine mentioned St Lawrence as being UWC friendly, would that be a decent fit?

16

I recommend you experiment by creating a tentative list as if your choices were relatively unconstrained. Colleges that meet full demonstrated financial need for all accepted applicants will support your attendance irrespective of their UWC affiliations or your international status. Strategies oriented specifically toward your perceived circumstances could in some cases be counterproductive. As an example from reply 2, Colgate may provide a large budget for international students, but its acceptance rate for international applicants settles at ~7% nonetheless. More importantly, you would not want to miss colleges that may be most suited to your academic interests and general preferences.

17

Does your school provide any acceptance statistics based on GPA/test scores to help you target/narrow your choices? With international acceptance rates generally lower than domestic rates this knowledge would help you determine your 7 apps.

With regard to women’s colleges in consortiums, Bryn Mawr is also in that category.

18

Scripps figures on international enrollment and funding aren’t particularly compelling. As mentioned, Mt. Holyoke, Smith and Bryn Mawr all belong to consortiums and all are generous toward internationals in enrollment and funding.

19

@momrath – what about Barnard since it was on her first list? What’s its track record with international students enrollment and aid? I know its acceptance rate has really dipped in recent years…

20

Barnard enrolls a respectable percentage of internationals (9.5%) but awards financial aid to few (30 out of 252 12%, $1.8M). At the Asian international high school that my son attended, Barnard was a top favorite, I think because of its “almost” Ivy reputation and urban location, but most internationals-- though not all – who attended were full pay. Competition among internationals needing aid is fierce.

Wellesley fares a bit better statistically (14% enrolled, 27% receive aid) but is highly selective.

Please don’t get me wrong: you certainly have a chance of being one of the lucky few who get admitted with aid to Barnard, Scripps, NCF and any other college that doesn’t look promising on paper. If you had the option of applying to 15 schools (as many internationals do) then I would say apply at will. But with only 7 applications you should look carefully at the CDS figures. They don’t tell the whole story, but if you follow them from year to year you see a trend.