<p>I am a student from India seeking for undergraduate admission in the top universities in the US. I would like to know how hard it is for an international student like me to get 100% aid?
Apart from this, i would also like to ask</p>
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<li><p>Are the SAT Subject Tests weighted more than the SAT when it comes to financial aid?</p></li>
<li><p>Getting a good SAT score but a low SAT Subject Test score affects admission?</p></li>
<li><p>Why would some colleges require SAT Subject Tests like Physics, Chemistry to assess the application if the student wishes to opt a branch that doesn't deal with Physics and/or Chemistry?</p></li>
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<p>Kindly reply me.</p>
<p>For your general question: it can be quite difficult for an international student to get 100% aid. You’d do well to look into what universities offer to meet 100% of demonstrated international need. Off the top of my head I believe MIT, Harvard, and UChicago all do but I could be wrong in that, best to check the websites of the universities you’re interested in directly. A good backup/more realistic option may be top Liberal Arts Colleges which tend to be good schools that give generously to internationals.</p>
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<li><p>You’re confusing financial aid with merit scholarships. Financial aid has nothing to do with how good you are as a student; as long as you’re good enough to get into the school, only how much your parents can pay, NOT the quality of you as a student, will affect financial aid. Merit aid, on the other hand, is more common for international students as most universities do not offer financial aid to internationals. For merit scholarships, you will need to be one of the top students that school admits (definitely top 25%). SAT will count more for this than SATIIs, although SATIIs could play an important role in differentiating similar candidates. </p></li>
<li><p>Depend on the subject you want to study and what the subject tests are in. If you’re applying to do engineering and have very low SAT Math II and SAT Physics scores, that’s a concern. Same if you have a low Literature SAT II score but want to study English. If they’re in unrelated fields…they could still matter if you’re looking at top schools. Even if you know you want to study English, Harvard will not be pleased with a 600 in Physics or something like that.</p></li>
<li><p>The only school I know that does that is MIT. If you want anything that isn’t math/science related, you shouldn’t even be applying to MIT as it’s subpar in anything that isn’t math/science (with the exception of its Econ…but its econ is significantly more math focused than most).</p></li>
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<p>Well, I would like to study CS. Does the course deal with the Physics, seriously?</p>
<p>Thanks for your kind reply.</p>
<p>Ah I can see what you mean with that being frustrating. Unfortunately MIT is obviously an amazing school and will have many top applicants with great scores…being good at science is part of the MIT culture. I would guess that even though they aren’t directly related, scoring well on subject tests like Chem and Physics are indicative of success at MIT, hence why they require them for everyone. And although your course will likely not deal with physics directly (although I’m no computer scientist so I can’t say that for sure!), being able to think in that type of scientific, logical way will be important for CS. </p>
<p>And no, they won’t waive the requirement, even if you wanted to study English so I wouldn’t bother even asking them. Your time would probably be better spent trying to self study one of those exams.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply again.</p>
<p>MIT requires difficult classes in physics, chemistry, and calculus from ALL its students, regardless of major. You will also have general education courses in a variety of subjects. If you want to study CS only, you should apply to British schools. Most top undergraduate programs in the US will want 1/3 of your classes at least to be in subjects other than your major because their graduates ought to be more than high-level technicians, they need to be well-rounded with knowledge and interests outside their field of study.</p>