International, no money, weak ECs, mediocre scores, should I just give it up?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Ok so first of all I’m from Spain, and my GPA is 8.7 (7th of my class), I’m poor and live ina place where ECs are simply not a thing, maybe a mathematic olimpyad here and there but that’s it, to have decent ECs you have to come up with them on your own, know enough people who would actually move a finger, and not be poor. I don’t fit the last 2, so almost every project I’ve ever started has ended with no results at all.

My scores on SAT are 760 for R&W and 670 for Maths, in the Subject Tests I got 710 on Maths Level 1 and 700 on Physics, which apparently is barely 50th percentile and, all things considered, sounds too low to influence any full ride.

And yes, when I say no money in the title, I mean my parents’ annual income is around 17000€ (and it comes from government aid because neither of them can work)

So, I was going to apply to Loyola Marimount University, Duke, Northwestern, and Lafayette; since they all offer full rides to international students (albeit through quite competitive programs). Am I wasting my time?

2

What majors are you applying for?

Due to your being low income, you qualify for application fee waivers - check the box on Common app as well as ask your guidance counselor to check it too.

You should apply to more than these (Commonapp allows you to apply to a maximum of 20 although I don’t recommend applying to 20!).

Loyola Marymount won’t work. If you’ve not applied there yet, replace it with another university.
I don’t think you have a chance at Northwestern and Duke, barring some exceptionally well written essays and recommendations. (Send essay via PM).
Apply to Gustavus Adolphus, Truman State, Drake, URichmond, Grinnell, Colby, Bates, Lehigh (not for Stem though), Denison, Dickinson, Bucknell, Gettysburg, St Lawrence, Marist, Vassar, Hobart-and-WilliamSmith plus universities that have scholarships for stats (look at scholarships for 1400 new SAT).

You can also try applying to Canadian and European Universities.

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In California: USD, USC, and Chapman. Ask for fee waivers.

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@41ADAN

Your test scores are good enough for a lot of schools, but I think finances will be challenging - esp. since you’ll need room and board. (None of my business but is there a reason you don’t want to go to an EU school for potentially much less?)

I would imagine you’ve looked into it, but there aren’t that many US schools that give much aid to international students. Here’s a list of schools USNews claims do. (I don’t know first hand)

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2017-09-21/10-universities-that-offer-international-students-the-most-financial-aid

Of those, Skidmore, Trinty and Wesleyn would be most realistic for you, but you never know.

Here’s another list. I can’t vouch for this list either but it is a place to start.

http://thecollegematchmaker.com/65-colleges-give-generous-aid-international-students/

Good luck.

5

Forgot to mention: Spain has some incredible athletic talent.
Could you be recruited for a sport?
I was very impressed by the people of Spain, in how much they walk, exercise and generally are very health conscious.

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@CaliDad2020 I do plan to go to university here in Spain if I fail to get a full ride in any colleges, the reason I ended up with only a few is that I’m only looking for schools that offer either MechE or AeroE (preferably the latter). I have already checked those lists out but I’ll give them another look.

@“aunt bea” unfortunately I’m not very proficient in any sport

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@41ADAN

got it. Engineering is trickier, since many of the generous full-need schools are extremely competitive and generally the engineering schools are even more competitive. Additionally, engineering programs tend to focus most on your math board scores

That said, there are some schools on that list where your scores may be competitive and that have good engineering programs, but I don’t know if they will give enough money. (For instance, looking at Illinois Inst. of Tech’s web page, it appears they give quite a few international students aid, apparently from 10k to full tuition, but it’s unclear from a quick look if even full tuition will be enough - but you may want to have a look. They have Aerospace and seem to be actively courting international students. I can’t comment on the quaility of the program. NOTE - they have a Dec. 1 deadline for scholarships.)

https://admissions.iit.edu/undergraduate/finances/international-student-finances-and-scholarships

Union College doesn’t have an Aero major, I don’t think, but has a very well regarded MechE (and engineering in general) pedigree. It’s a great school. Your SAT reading score is well above 75% for Union, but your math is merely average. (In general, in the US engineering application process your math scores will be low for “most competitive” programs. But will be good for many schools.)

https://www.union.edu/admissions/apply/international/

UMiami has Aerospace. Don’t know how competitive it is, but my guess is very.

Rice and Lafayette are also well-known for engineering, but are realisticially probably too competitive for you to hope for much merit aid.

Have you looked at non-Spanish EU programs? I’m not 100% sure how it works, or if you could afford living expenses, but there are a number of really good MechE programs across Europe.

I’m sure there’s someone out there with more knowledge about this than I have, but it seems like you just have to do a deep-dive into as many schools as possible to see if there is any chance of getting enough aid.

Good luck!

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@CaliDad2020 I haven’t looked much into other schools here in Europe but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to do it, although at this point deadlines might be a problem. Tomorrow when I have time I’ll take a look into all of the suggestions that have been made in this thread. Thanks for the help.

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@41adan no worries. wish I had more info. We looked into a couple of EU/Swiss schools and for some the costs were very reasonable for EU citizens. I also think most of the Euro schools had spring deadlines as one of the issues was my kid would not hear back in time if they didn’t get on it early.

One of the issues is sometimes the number of English language undergrad programs. Most have full Grad/masters in English, but not as many undergrad. I know Munich Technical U has some English, for instance, but not sure about MechE. Swiss Zurich and Lausanne both have some english lang undergrad as well, but I think it was not the right programs for my kid. Most French schools are in French. Dunno how your other langs are, but that might be an issue.

The Dutch have good engineering. I believe Delft’s Aerospace bachelors is in english (their MechE is in Dutch I think) but I don’t know how competitive it is: Delft has a great rep. but it requires Calculus A/B or B/C + Physics 1 and 2 or Physics C (or for Euro Bacc: English + Mathematics (5) + Physics) and costs 2k Euro a semester or something, but there are lots of other Unis in Netherlands, Denmark, etc.)

https://www.tudelft.nl/en/education/programmes/bachelors/ae/bsc-aerospace-engineering/

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@41ADAN

Not sure if you are even really interested, but I looked around a bit as my curiosity was piqued.

It looks like the following German U’s may have an English Lang Bachelors in MechE. Did not look at EU fees or entrance requirements, but should be easy to research
Karlsruhe Institute of Tech (KIT) (it’s pretty well ranked)
Rhein-Waal U of Applied Sciences
University of Duisburg-Essen

This Danish school offers an English Lang general Engineering Bachelors (MechE is in Danish). Didn’t look into quailty or price or admission requirements.
Technical University of Denmark
https://www.bachelorstudies.com/BSc-in-General-Engineering/Denmark/Technical-University-of-Denmark-DTU/

again, don’t know if this is even interesting to you, but I’m sure there are tons more. Not a lot of centralized info on the web I could find, but my kid is looking at Euro Masters, so I’m checking out some schools anyway - although there are many, many more choices for Masters as they tend to be in English.

Let us know how it works out.

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@41ADAN

Also, let me know if you want me to list any other EU schools that have english lang MechE or AeroE bachlors in my web-surfing.

Happy to let you know if you’re still interested, but don’t need to keep this thread alive if you’re not.

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AeroE is NOT a good choice for an international student since most internships and virtually all jobs are restricted to citizens due to security clearance. If you want to work in Aero, you’re better off studying MechE (doing an Aero minor), than straight Aero.
Look into merit scholarships: Temple, UMinnesota Duluth, Miami Ohio, FAMU…?