Help to choose universities

<p>Hi everyone!</p>

<p>I'm an international student who is planning to apply for fall 2015. </p>

<p>I want to major in Mathematics. But I can't narrow my college list.</p>

<p>I haven't taken SAT yet (will take it next week but I get like 1900-2040 on practice tests)</p>

<p>My GPA is 9.3 from 10 (approximately 3.72)</p>

<p>Maybe you can recommend me something</p>

<p>Davidson
Oberlin
Grinnell
Macalester
Brandeis
Kenyon
Richmond
Colgate
Occidental
St Olaf
Trinity
Berea
Pitzer
Franklin and Marshall college</p>

<p>Thanks in advance</p>

<p>is your family prepared to pay the total costs of attendance?</p>

<p>Nope. That’s why I’ve chosen only those Universities and Colleges that can provide good financial aid packages</p>

<p>get your sat scores first. based on your practice test results, you are not competitive for merit aids on all the schools listed. Try another list, start with automatic scholarship schools, I am not even sure Alabama will give you enough money.</p>

<p>None of these schools meet need for international students. Just because they give good need for US students does not mean you will get enough aid.</p>

<p>They do give aid, I checked all the websites + I know some people from my country who already study there and receive aid</p>

<p>If you already know, why you ask?</p>

<p>Read what I post, I said “BASED ON your stats” and intparent said “ENOUGH aid”</p>

<p>Most schools on your list offer relatively generous aid to the international students they accept, although the admission decisions at all of them will be need-aware. You can look up the number of international students awarded financial aid, and the average amount, in each school’s Common Data Set file, section H. The following page lists schools with relatively good aid for internationals (but some of the numbers may be a couple years out of date):
<a href=“http://www.desperateguide.com/us/top-25-financial-aid-colleges-in-us-for-international-students-need-aware”>http://www.desperateguide.com/us/top-25-financial-aid-colleges-in-us-for-international-students-need-aware&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>It is hard to evaluate undergraduate Math departments except by combing through the online course descriptions and faculty biographies. All those schools are small liberal arts colleges, so you’ll want to be sure they offer enough Math courses to cover your needs and interests. The Common Data Set, section J, shows the percentage of students who graduate as Math majors. A relatively high number may be a good sign. At Colgate, for example, only 1.9% of graduating students in 2012-13 were Math/Stat majors. At St. Olaf for the same year, 6.6% were Math/Stat majors.</p>

<p>Another metric you may want to consider is the number of alumni who go on to earn PhDs in Mathematics & Statistics. In 2003-12, alumni of the following LACs earned 10 or more PhDs in Math/Stat according to NSF data on webcaspar.com:</p>

<p>Number of PhDs … College
58 Harvey Mudd
33 St Olaf College
33 Williams College
28 Carleton College
25 Oberlin College
25 Reed College
23 Pomona College
23 Swarthmore College
16 Whitman College
15 Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL)
14 Bryn Mawr College
14 Furman University
14 Haverford College
13 Amherst College
12 Davidson College
12 Grinnell College
11 College of the Holy Cross
11 Lafayette College
11 Macalester College
10 Bowdoin College
10 Bucknell University
10 Spelman College
10 University of Puget Sound</p>

<p>In 2003-12, alumni of the following research universities earned 40 or more PhDs in Math/Stat according to NSF data on webcaspar.com:</p>

<p>Number of PhDs … University
154 University of California-Berkeley
142 Harvard University
112 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
100 University of Chicago
80 University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
73 California Institute of Technology
72 University of California-Los Angeles
71 Princeton University
66 Cornell University, All Campuses
64 University of Texas at Austin
49 Stanford University
48 Columbia University in the City of New York
48 University of Colorado at Boulder
48 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ
47 University of California-San Diego
46 North Carolina State University at Raleigh
46 University of Florida
44 Yale University
43 University of California-Davis
41 University of Wisconsin-Madison
40 University of Washington - Seattle</p>

<p>Many of these are either super selective private schools, or else public universities that may not offer aid at all to internationals. In interpreting the above numbers, also keep in mind that some of the above schools have much larger enrollments than others. </p>

<p>thanks for the response tk21769.</p>

<p>Artloverplus, sorry, i didn’t notice your first answer. I don’t compete for merit aids, these schools provide need-based aid.</p>

<p>In addition to the website tk mentions, these two websites might be helpful:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.educationusa.info/financial-aid.php”>http://www.educationusa.info/financial-aid.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2013/09/19/colleges-that-give-international-students-the-most-financial-aid”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2013/09/19/colleges-that-give-international-students-the-most-financial-aid&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>the schools mentioned on the three websites might be the only schools in the US who offer ANY aid to international students (my information is about a year old). you might want to check your list against these three sites. I think i found a couple schools on your list not on any of these lists.</p>

<p>I think that in general you have reason to be much less confident of your ability to attend any of these schools than you seem to be, OP.</p>

<p>jkeil911 , I’m not 100% confident about my chances to get there but I’ll do my best to get there. Anyway thanks for the information</p>

<p>They give SOME aid to international students, but I do not believe any guarantee to meet your financial aid need completely. If you want to get an idea of how much aid they give, Google “<school name=”"> Common Data Set". Look at the financial aid section, and find the lines for what # of international students get aid and the average amount. It gives you an idea of what % of international students get aid the amount. </school></p>

<p>Let’s start with key questions:
1° What can your parents afford, per year?
At need-aware colleges, your financial need is taken into consideration, so that choosing universities would vary on this factor.
2° Is a 9.3 in your country considered good? Rare? What top percentile is that in your school?</p>

<p>I need full aid.
I’m 2/30 in my school. 9.3 is pretty good but I hope to improve my GPA during the year. Last year it was 9.6 out of 10</p>

<p>seems I only gave you two of the websites. here’s the three:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.educationusa.info/financial-aid.php”>http://www.educationusa.info/financial-aid.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.desperateguide.com/us/top-25-financial-aid-colleges-in-us-for-international-students-need-aware”>http://www.desperateguide.com/us/top-25-financial-aid-colleges-in-us-for-international-students-need-aware&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2013/09/19/colleges-that-give-international-students-the-most-financial-aid”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2013/09/19/colleges-that-give-international-students-the-most-financial-aid&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Davidson-VERY few get 100% need. Mostly 80%
Oberlin-100% need met, but unlikely that you get it.
Grinnell-85% need met
Brandeis-doesn’t meet 100% need
Richmond-meets 100%, but SUPER hard. Deadline is critical.
Occidental-meets 100% need
Berea-yes. but super competitive. Not sure</p>

<p>The number above is what I got by emailing each school regard int. student financial aid policy. </p>

<p>I don’t know about your ECs, but assuming you don’t have siginificant ones(like national/state level competition and awards) unless you have 2400SAT and perfect GPA OR near perfect GPA and pretty good SAT with “overcoming serious obstacle” It’s highly possible that you won’t get in any of schools that will guarantee full aid(I can’t say about Berea because I don’t know well). I am sorry that it sounds harsh but that’s the reality for poor international students. </p>

<p>Do you have any ECs? or back up plans?</p>

<p>i understand that getting there will be very competitve but I hope to compensate everything with essays and recommendations.</p>

<p>I have some regional science awards, participation in international exchange programs, some volunteering</p>

<p>Fact, is, for internationals who need a lot of financial aid, <em>everything</em> needs to be perfect. You can’t have anything to ‘compensate’ for. :s The universities are going to invest $200,000 in you - a HUGE chunk of THEIR money. They won’t do that unless you’re 100% stellar and will bring something (preferably advertisable :p) to their institution.</p>

<p>Not only for int but also for citizens international exchange program doesnt count much unless you were “chosen”. Even with good essays, competitive scores, good Ecs and recommendations, plenty of international students get rejected.
Again…do you have a plan B?If you have m+cr 1400 or higher and good gpa, howard university will give full aid.</p>

<p>i have plan B in my country as well as in Europe. Actually I was chosen from more than 300 applicants for the exchange program and this is the program of american embassy in my country</p>