<p>So... I'm a high school senior in Costa Rica but i've lived basically all my life in California. I've noticed there are A LOT of people confused about admissions and that's only natural so I thought I would offer my help to anyone that asks for it. Whether it be international admissions, financial aid, chances or anything else you can think of i'd be happy to help :)</p>
<p>Here’s a question that comes up a lot:</p>
<p>“I am an international student and want to study engineering or business in the US. I am good but not good enough to be competitive at Stanford or Princeton or the like. (Let’s assume an SAT score of 2000 for the sake of argument.) My family is quite poor and I’d need a full financial aid to attend. What are my options?”</p>
<p>Maybe you can offer a new perspective to this all-to-common scenario?</p>
<p>Thanks for the question b@r!um :)</p>
<p>I know of a few university’s that can be applied for this case:</p>
<p>[Wesleyan</a> University | Best College | US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/wesleyan-university-1424]Wesleyan”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/wesleyan-university-1424)</p>
<p>[Skidmore</a> College | Best College | US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/skidmore-college-2814]Skidmore”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/skidmore-college-2814)</p>
<p>[Amherst</a> College | Best College | US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/amherst-college-2115]Amherst”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/amherst-college-2115)</p>
<p>[Trinity</a> College | Best College | US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/trinity-college-1414]Trinity”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/trinity-college-1414)</p>
<p>The links are to a website that will give you a basic review of the schools
I hope this’ll help :)</p>
<p>Wesleyan, Skidmore and Amherst are liberal arts colleges that don’t offer business or engineering degrees. Trinity might be one option for a prospective engineer, but their engineering program is tiny and only offers civil and mechanical engineering. Do you know any universities with business or engineering programs that offer significant financial aid to international students and are not in the Ivy-selectivity range?</p>
<p>Hey I’m just going into my junior year and this whole college search is pretty overwhelming. Do you think you could suggest some colleges on the east coast with great financial aid (need based or merit). Anything would be really helpful, thanks!</p>
<p>@barium (and kayyyy, this answers your question)</p>
<p>surely, any private sub-USWNR-20 university (and even a couple LACs) will potentially provide aid to an international student with scores above the institutional average? At LACs the selectivity drop-off is even starker, and , since they get less internationals than the R1s, are even more of a match for the international B student?</p>
<p>Faid for internationals is like merit aid for citizens - depends on the individual.</p>
<p>That said, Smith has a good engineering programme:)</p>
<p>also, Amherst with a sat score of 2000? ***, OP?</p>
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Most certainly not! Or at least not significant amounts of aid. Especially not the business and engineering schools. But for what it’s worth, LACs overall give much more aid to international students than universities.</p>
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Maybe (?), but since it’s a women’s college, it’s off-limits to the majority of prospective engineers.</p>
<p>@barium</p>
<p>the fact that a list of applicable schools depends on the individual was kinda the backbone of my post. and, idk, most internationals i know are on quite significant need based aid.</p>
<p>I admit that my question was a bit mean because there are very few “decent” engineering and business schools that fund international students who are not superstars. That’s the conclusion I came to after I researched financial aid opportunities for international students at several hundred colleges and universities. </p>
<p>The point I was trying to make to the OP is that international college applicants have different concerns from American citizens: How do I finance my education when the resources are so limited? What do I say at my visa interview? How do I open a bank account or get a cell phone contract without a social security number?</p>
<p>Good advisers recognize the boundaries of their expertise, aware that bad advice can do more harm than no advice at all. I was wondering if the OP could help with typical concerns of foreign students (as was implied in the first post), or if his/her expertise is limited to Americans living abroad. Either one is fine, and the OP’s contributions will be greatly appreciated here!</p>
<p>
I know many international students on significant need-based aid too, but they are concentrated at a few dozen colleges and universities. (Mostly the US News top 20 national universities and top 50 liberal arts colleges.) The vast majority of universities in the US does NOT give significant aid to international students.</p>
<p>idk about OP. Amherst ‘university’ for engineering or business with 2000 SAT score, even if internationals are forgiven low SATs?</p>
<p>idk, man.</p>
<p>At least the OP did name colleges with financial aid for international students. I do give him/her credit for that.</p>
<p>Those colleges might not offer the majors I asked for; there was no hint how to go about finding more colleges with need-based aid or merit-based aid; and there was also no mentioning of other paths leading to a business or engineering career, but it was a start. (For example, I know several prospective international engineers who went to a liberal arts college studying science on full financial aid and then enrolled in a fully-funded graduate program in engineering. Not the quickest way to an engineering degree, but a workaround for students who can’t afford to attend a university with engineering programs. If the goal is to settle down in the US, one could also get a Bachelor’s degree overseas and then come to the US for grad school.)</p>
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<p>Thank you :)</p>
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<p>That I am highly aware of.</p>
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<p>I do admit that college-specific questions like the one you asked me aren’t my strong point but I did try to look for a college that would have a lot of financial aid, something i think a lot of internationals struggle with.</p>
<p>One of the problems with simply finding FA info online through your basic search engines is that, often, it’s incomplete or misleading. For example, Trinity College which OP listed. It’s famous – or infamous – for giving great financial aid to international… squash players. So on paper they look like a good place to apply. So many international men and women with 100% scholarships! In reality it’s not so much, unless you’re a competitive squash player and ranked within the international top 100.</p>
<p>Hi.I need a little advice from you.Should I give the SAT before or after my A levels?</p>
<p>SATs test GCSE-level material. Studying for A-levels first won’t hurt but it won’t help either. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that you have to take the SATs before the application deadlines. If you want to start college in fall 2013, aim to take your SATs in October and November 2012.</p>
<p>And do you know about the Fsc mainstream? The one that runs in Pakistan.</p>