International chances at LACs?!?!

Student Lounge International Students
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<p>Hi,
I am currently a high school junior from Egypt! I would really like to attend American universities for my undergraduate years, but, it seems as if, it is extremely difficult for international students! I am also going to be asking for financial aid, which makes everything even worse. Currently my stats are as follows:</p>

<p>SAT: 2220 (math:760, reading:680, writing:780)
AP classes: World history (4), Microeconomics (4), Macroeconomics(4)
SAT 2: Biology and Math 2C (scores pending, but should be 750+)</p>

<p>GPA:
Freshman: 3.62
Sophomore: 3.9
Junior: est. 3.9
Current class rank: 1/135</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
Math tutor at high school for 1 year
Participated in the Mathcounts competition for 3 consecutive years
Played Tennis (as hobby) for two years
Has been building computers for 3 years
Has babysat brother for the summer of freshman year
Played jujitsu for summer of freshman year
Student class president for sophomore year
Currently, I have started a small private tutoring class; in which, I teach remedial English students how to tackle the SAT 1 exam (20 hours)</p>

<p>Now, I am thinking of applying to some liberal arts colleges, since they greatly value diversity and are willing to pay for it!
Prospective Universities/Colleges:</p>

<p>Williams College
Amherst College
Middlebury College
Grinnell College
Stanford University
Macalester College
Berea College (safety)
(please feel free to add to this list)</p>

<p>Do you think I have chances at these colleges? And if so how good of a chance? If not, then what should I improve? Also what are some majors you recommend for an international student who is willing to do graduate studies? (majors that allow for jobs in the US or Europe or in any sort of international organization)</p>

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<p>Also, does ethnicity(egypt/middle east) matter??? Do I only compete with internationals from that region of the world or am I competing against the whole world??</p>

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<p>

The bar is set by the entire international pool; but your application will be read in the context of your local school system.</p>

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<p>You’ll be competing with kids from all over the world.Berea College is NOT a safety,the accept only 25 International students/yr.But given your stats you are a very strong candidate and you shouldn’t face too many problems.Make sure you write a VERY GOOD application.Have you looked at :Bates College,Bowdoin College,Vassar College,Reed College,Colby,Hamilton College and Colgate University.</p>

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<p>I just realized I didn’t answer the question!The answer is Yes you have extremely good chances to get admitted to a very good LAC with finaid.Just add a few more schools to your list,write a good essay and you’ll basically be in the door.</p>

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<p>@macmill, WOW, Are you sure berea only accepts 25 ints per year?? I mainly came up with this list based on this website:</p>

<p>[Colleges</a> and Schools Awarding International Financial Aid - Kentucky](<a href=“http://www.internationalstudent.com/schools_awarding_aid/KY/Kentucky.html]Colleges”>Kentucky | Colleges and Schools Awarding International Financial Aid)</p>

<p>it says berea gave a full tuition scholarship to like 130 ints!! </p>

<p>I mainly focused on the top LACs, as they will make it easier to go to an internationally recognized graduate school!! (Upenn, stanford,mit, etc…) Since I am an international, graduating from an internationally recognized graduate school is of major importance to me!! Also what majors do you reccomend?? I have been looking around and it seems as if most H1 working visas go to biology related fields!! What do you think?? Are there other ways to get jobs in USA or Europe or international organizations!!</p>

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<p>I might also add Vanderbilt and Tulane University to my list!! opinions??</p>

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<p>KingUncaged1, that site is outdated. Berea enrolls right around 100 international students right now, which is consistent with the claim that they enroll around 25 new international students each year.</p>

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<p>@ Barium, I always thought that that number represented the freshmen ints!! So from now on, I have to divide by 4. Do you know of a more recent website??</p>

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<p>Collegeboard has up-to-date financial aid figures for international students.</p>

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<p>Hey, I’d suggest you apply to less LACs and more universities.
I was a similar applicant (international, needing significant FA) with similar stats. LACs have a very small student body and although they do have some internationals on FA, the number is very less. When given the choice, they definitely prefer the student from your country (or another country) with similar (or slightly lower) stats and who can pay their way. It is very very competitive for an international needing FA to get into the super selective LACs you mentioned. If you’re a girl, then you might try for womens colleges like Smith, Mount Holyoke and Bryn Mawr, which are not only excellent schools and take in many internationals on significant FA, but also have a higher acceptance rate due to being single sex. Quality of education is superb there.</p>

<p>You also might want to note that financial aid packages generally contain a loan component. Look carefully at the loan component before committing, it can get quite big for all four years totaled up. There are only a few schools that give FA and have also eliminated loan component in the FA package (Idk of any LAC that has done so btw).</p>

<p>Hope this helps, good luck to you! :)</p>

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<p>@Perfectpixie
Unfortunately, I am a boy!! lol
Where did you go??
I decided to limit the number of universities because I couldn’t find many (other than HYPS) that offer significant aid!! Do you know of any such Universities?? And do you think early decision might significantly raise my chances?? (for example ED Middlebury)</p>

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<p>ED will increase chances, but don’t ED at Midd. Midd is awful with aid, they just don’t give any, and if they do the packages are pretty stingy (remember their definition of aid might not match with yours). If you’re a boy, you might also want to consider Vassar. I hear boys have a slight advantage there, but again, it is another LAC with (i think) 27% acceptance rate or something…</p>

<p>Bard college is another LAC that has a lot of FA for internationals. Let Macalaster stay. Awesome aid. </p>

<p>In universities, Vanderbilt is good w/ FA for internationals (but it’s in the south, some people don’t like that, but let’s not think so far atm). Duke has this Robertsons scholars program and University scholars program which offers FA to loads of internationals, but that’s about it for FA at duke, Idk how good it is with FA for the rest who get in. Washington University in St Loius is another really good school, but they really want to see interest, so you better shower them with emails if you don’t want to be waitlisted (which they do to many students who they think aren’t “interested” enough and just applied for the heck of it).
Try Colegate too? But show a lot of interest here too.
UPenn offers pretty good FA and its acceptance rate is okayish…
Well, I just did a mini list for you, but just use US News rankings and do college search on collegeboard.com, check out acceptance rates, and FA offered to internationals, calculate avg FA by dividing amt given by total people receiving it, and make a list and shortlist.
Now, I just looked at your profile again, I think these colleges are pretty much reaches for you, and you should consider some matches too.</p>

<p>Ooh, try Earlham college too, it has great Fin Aid, and huge acceptance rate, so it might work as your safety. And Occidental (not safety, maybe high match?). Also Trinity college (v. good aid, high acceptance rate).</p>

<p>If you like Macalaster (you should) then if you ED there then you should have a pretty good chance of getting in, and with their generous FA policies, that’s another problem solved. Voila!</p>

<p>PS: I ended up enrolling at a decently ranked university with a no loan policy. :)</p>

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<p>New list:
Can you like chance me by percents so that I have a feel for each one!! ( for example: Williams 15% chance of acceptence etc… ) Thanks in advance!!</p>

<p>Williams College
Amherst College
Middlebury College
Grinnell College
Stanford University
Macalester College
Berea College
Colgate College
Vassar College
Bard College
Trinity College
Earlham College
Vanderbilt University
Duke University
University of Pennsylvania</p>

<p>P.S. For macalester, the collegeboard states that on avg an international got 33k while the total cost of attending is around 53k!!</p>

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<p>

Most of the posters on this board are college applicants themselves. We are no more qualified than you to estimate your chances, and we are certainly not in a position to give you a percentage chance.</p>

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<p>Some corrections:Middlebury has VERY good financial aid.Earlham,on the other hand,has TERRIBLE financial aid(like 2 full rides for intls per year!)Be careful about the info you get on CC,do the research to follow up!</p>

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<p>I think she was talking more about what kind of aid package they offer!! For example, some may give you huge aid packages, but a loan can constitute a fairly big portion of that package!</p>

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<p>^I beg to differ on that point.Loans are hardly ever a “huge” part of a finaid package.Most will not top more than $3000 per annum and that is true for most LACs that offer finaid to international students.Middlebury,for instance,does not give more than $3000 in loans,and if you are a low income student they will not give you more than $1000 in loans/yr.</p>

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<p>Correction: Duke gave out very generous FA to internationals (I was given a 59k grant), but extremely competitive. They only enroll 20 - 25 internationals needing aid per year. I don’t know how many apply though, but I guess it must be more than 200.</p>

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<p>As far as I know, this year Bard only considered international applicants who needed less than $20,000/year in financial aid; if you need substantial financial aid, I would advise you not to bother applying there.</p>

<p>On the issue of Middlebury’s financial aid policies, I know an international student who received an excellent fin aid package from them. So I don’t know how to interpret the information provided in this thread.</p>

<p>Vassar gives out great fin aid packages to a large number of internationals, which looks awesome on paper, BUT the actual percentage of international applicants receiving aid is dauntingly small (the acceptance rate for needful int’ls is south of 8%, I believe).</p>

<p>Reed, Trinity U in Texas, and Mount Holyoke gave me great fin aid, but as you’re a boy, Mount Holyoke is irrelevant to this discussion. Still, to give you some idea of what you might be expected to pay, Trinity’s package included no loans or work study, just grants, while going to Mount Holyoke would have meant taking out around $19,000 in loans over the course of my study. At Reed, I am expected to graduate with $16,000 in debt, although I hope to find some way to either start repaying it early by working at the college over the summer, or negotiate smaller loans.</p>

<p>For the record, my estimated financial contribution is less than $3,500/year.</p>