International student college chances + lots of financial aid

Nw! I am not going to put about mental health but I am going to add the family circumstamce that made me went down in my freshman year. Could that works?

Reality check. The top students in your country will also be applying to the colleges you listed. Realistically, you have almost no chance of admission. You may qualify for less selective schools, but very few are able to fully support an international student. Investigate options closer to home. There are great options in South America.

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While US college admissions is very tough for all international students, we simply don’t have enough information to make such a definitive statement. @roycroftmom could be right, but she could also be wrong. I firmly belive in the truism that you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

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I think you need to recalibrate. Your reaches are super-super-reaches, your matches are super-reaches, and your safeties are reaches.

44% of high school graduates go on to 4-year colleges. So if you are in the top 20%, if everything else were equal, that would put you in the middle of that bunch. Applying to tippy-top schools would be a long shot. Now you add the fact you need full tuition. That makes it less probable. Now add in the fact you are international. That makes it less probable still.

Your safeties need to be in Chile - every US university will be a reach. Your best for the US would be a highly targeted approach. That, I am afraid, is going to take a lot of work on your part: but a quarter of a million pesos is a lot of money. It’s not unreasonable for you to have to work to get it.

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Sure, but if the OP spends her time on applying to ow-probability schools and not on higher-probability schools is that really a good idea?

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I definitely would put Berea in the mix. If you get it, it will be affordable and academically I think you would qualify.

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All of the schools she lists would be a reach for a regular domestic applicant with a 3.7 gpa ( top 20%), no scores, no amazing extracurriculars-adding in the international/full need factors lowers the odds even further.

I would consider all of these colleges to be reaches.

I would suggest that your guidance counselor mention any extenuating family circumstances in his/her recommendation so it doesn’t sound like you are trying to make excuses.

Have you taken the SAT/ACT and TOEFL?

Are you also applying to colleges in your home country?

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Not in my country. The opportunities are not enough for me (economically, they provide full tuition but not money for housing, etc and due to many things I want to leave my country). I have italian citizenship and I am going to apply to medical schools in italy when the application opens for next year and take the IMAT.
I am going to take Duolingo, as it is more affordable to me

Paging @MYOS1634

Do you know anything about colleges in Italy…like are the courses taught in Italian?

There are med schools from various public universities that teach medicine in english (e.g Sapienza University of Rome, University of Bari, Uninof padova, of Bari and so on)

@chipflower what about undergrad schools? Are they taught in English? Or are we assuming this student will enroll as a medical school student direct,y out of high school if they attend college in Europe?

Pursuing schools in Italy may be a good idea if they will offer free tuition, but they are not generally residential and can not offer free dormitory/meals.

As in most countries, medicine would be a direct admission after secondary school.

Italian medical schools are direct admit after HS

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Yes it is. As a italian citizen, I am able to recieve grants and scholarships and housing assisttance. I have family in Italy, If not, I could apply there for a part time job as many students do as barista or whatever to earn money and live with housemates :smiley:

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Those sound like great options

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Yes. Tysm for your honesty and advice. I really appreciate that

I sincerely wish you all the best

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Top 20% from a reputable private school is similar to, say top 20% from Deerfield and American colleges are likely to have a baseline for your school since I’m sure some students have applied.
However, your odds are very low. You have a chance but like for all internationals who need a lot of aid, odds aren’t in your favor.
Make sure your adviser or counselor checks the fee waiver box on their form on CommonApp.
I would recommend adding adding colleges simply to get a couple acceptances, even if they turn out to be unaffordable (choose those without extra essays). This way you can get some comfort in the fact you were admitted and can say so to anyone who asks. International applicants generally underestimate how painful it is to be an exceptional student and be denied over and over and over again, a pain that’s compounded by people asking about results all the time.
Berea is extremely competitive: it doesn’t admit more than 1 student per country or region. It is worth applying to though.

Italy sounds like the best possibility.
However, I don’t see the requisite advanced classes in Biology, Chemistry, and Physics on your list of senior courses - are you sure you would have a shot at the test?
In addition, you’ll need to plan for plane tickets early, since basically you have a 2-week window between the results and the start of classes…
Finally, start studying Italian so that you can figure things out in daily life (English and Spanish may help but you’ll need Italian for basics).

I’m with @MITPhysicsAlum: you need a full recalibration on your college plans.

  1. Getting into a US college that will pay 100% of your costs plus give you extra money to pay for essential costs (such as transportation) is unlikely- and the main reason to think that it is possible at all is that you know people who have done so successfully. As others have said, there are no safeties for you. I suggest that you cut at least 1/2 of your first set of colleges way down- figure out which ones you are a good fit for (for example, why Columbia? are you really drawn to the common core? why Columbia and not Barnard?) There are a lot of extra essays for you to write, and I don’t know when you will find the time, because…

  2. By your account your ‘extracurricular’ activities take up 113 hours every week, leaving you just 55 hours to eat, sleep and -oh yes- take a rigorous academic load of classes, write college essays.

  3. Then there’s the IMAT. By your account you have taken a year each of chemistry and biology, and no physics. Take a look at the IMAT, and scroll down to the sections on Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Math to see what is covered: https://www.admissionstesting.org/Images/656742-imat-test-specification-2022.pdf

Note that “The test does not require a lot of extra study as it is a test of skills and knowledge that learners are expected to have already.” In other words, applicants for medical school are expected to have this level of knowledge before they get there. If you are seriously interested in the Italian medical school path, you may want to move to Italy now and enroll in upper secondary school to get the science classes that you need.