GPA: 3.95 (at least)
Rank: Top 10% in last two years, top 5% in first two years of High School
Sophomore Salutatorian
School Merit Scholarship winner
Best Science project award at regional exhibition
Best end of year English and Science project award
2nd Position in robotics competition
1st Position in regional football tournament
4-H community service work at the only 4-H facility in my country
Community work with Red Crescent and tree planting with local development authority
Attended seminar on renewable energy at Mishkat Energy Center in Saudi Arabia
Debating club founder and president
Former Science club president
Former school media and social network manager
Writer and football correspondent for SportsPulse
Varsity level player in football and cricket
Fluent in three languages
SAT: 2220 (Superscore) -> 760 Math, 720 CR, 740 Writing
SAT 2: (giving in December) assuming -> 780-800 Math 2, 750 Chem, 750 Physics.
Good essays and recommendations
Need lots of aid: can pay a max of maybe $5000 p.a.
Which unis do ya’ll recommend?
Including Merit Aid BTW - please list any that give a substantial amount of merit aid which is available for internationals!
I don’t think that there are any schools with eng’g that would give you enough merit that your remaining costs would only be $5k. this is why:
Your int’l travel costs, health insurance, and your personal expenses will cost at least $8k. A univ awarded “full ride” merit scholarship isn’t going to cover those costs.
Since your family can only pay $5k per year, you will have to focus on the schools that give full need to int’ls.
@mom2collegekids 5K was conservative. Lets say, with loans, I can pay upto $15000 p.a. Does that change anything? I was hoping my SAT 1 score could get me something substantial. I’m applying to some LACs that have proper engineering and computer science programs like Bucknell. Would you recommend that?
I’m a Canadian citizen so plan A is Canada - I will be applying to UBC, McGill etc and they will be pretty easy on the pocket, relatively, so I can afford to target the top US unis - I understand that my chances aren’t great for a UPenn or a Cornell or Brown but I don’t see a reason not to try.
Keeping that in mind, I will be targeting the likes of MIT etc. I just wanted to ask if there are some good engineering unis like Texas A&M that offer financial aid/scholarships to internationals. I know UIUC etc don’t.
What would you recommend I do?
Go to school in Canada. Schools in the US have to help US taxpayers first. They are now taking additional foreign students who are full pay in order to pay the bills. There is occasionally an outlier who is given full need. Those outliers have very unusual situations and meet their diversity requirements in some way. Perhaps an African student who invented something, a Nepalese student who saved lives in the earthquake… Examples like that. Schools are more like a business now. There is no free lunch. Sad, I know. Many, perhaps most Americans cannot pay for school either.
Well, since you’re a Canadian applicant, I don’t know if your transcript needs evaluation.
Alabama would give you FREE tuition plus 2500 per year for engineering, but you’d need to apply NOW, and get everything sent is…transcripts and scores. There is a Dec 15 deadline for everything to be received, BUT, int’l applications can take longer because of delays in sending transcripts. Remaining costs would be about $15k.
The app is VERY easy…takes only 5 minutes. No essays, no LORs. But get that app in NOW.
Your interest in U of Pennsylvania and M.I.T. is understandable (if you think that you would settle in the U.S. eventually), but why would you pass up excellent engineering universities in Canada such as the University of Alberta? It wouldn’t make senses to pay the tuition premium of U Penn versus U Alberta, McGill, Toronto etc.
A college classmate of mine is a Canadian citizen. He returned to Canada to attend law school at McGill, but came back to the U.S. once he earned his law degree (I believed he has dual citizenship and his family had long owned property in the U.S.) You should have a sound academic and ECONOMIC reason for studying in the U.S. if you are a Canadian.
In addition to Alabama, you could qualify for an automatic-for-stats full ride at Louisiana Tech, which is mentioned in https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/howard-us-kathmandu-connection-nepal-emerges-as-top-source-of-foreign-students/2014/08/27/4cd70376-2a20-11e4-958c-268a320a60ce_story.html . Check the school to verify if international students are eligible for it. The article mentions Howard, but the automatic-for-stats full ride that you would qualify for is first come first served, so it is possible that the scholarship money has run out by now (ask the school if you want to know).
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/ lists more schools; ask the schools to find out if international students are eligible. http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/ lists competitive full ride scholarships; again, ask the schools if international students are eligible.
@LakeWashington
I’m not - I will be applying to the 5 top Engineering Unis in Canada (Waterloo, McGill, UBC, UofT, Alberta). This is just additional. Its why I’m going for the MITs and Ivies. I’m just looking for ideas on others that offer money too.
@mom2collegekids , Not sure I can go for Bama, they have a pretty irritating transcript evaluation process…I’m doing A Levels and did an International High School course before this - no idea why I can’t just send those like I do to every other uni.
Send an email to Ms. Caitlin Kelley and ask if that’s needed for Canadian applicants.
caitlin.kelley@ua.edu
@mom2collegekids Done. Thanks for the help. Hopefully there is a reasonable alternative.
Same situation here, except I’m Egyptian and Canadian colleges are veeery expensive for me.
If you are interested in engineering I’d recommend Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly Pomona, the deadline was yesterday but Pomona still has openings last time I checked this morning. The app doesn’t take 15 mins and it’s a good school (top 5 public). about 17k for tuiton. But you need to apply NOW.
Edit: The app is still open, you need to sign up here → http://www.csumentor.com/Filing_Status/default.asp
Best of luck!
Undoubtedly those ‘cost of tuition’ figures are for permanent residents of the State of California. The cost for out-of-state students and international students will be much, much greater. Also, certain engineering departments in the CSU system may still be impacted, meaning that enrollment is restricted.