<p>Hi, I am an international student from Nicaragua. I studied at the best all-spanish school in the country and i ranked 2 out of 134 students. I have a 96 out of 100 gpa and I am very good at math and sciences. I have actually won medals on centroamerican competitions. I took the SAT last june and scored 1730, CR 570, MATH 610, WRITING 550 and I am planning to take the toefl on november. </p>
<p>My intended career is civil engineering and I am looking for universities that offer needbased financial aid and scholarships to international students, so far i have the following universities:</p>
<p>-Texas A&M
-Lehigh University EARLY DECISION
-Oregon State University
-Illinois Institute of Technology
-Marquette University
-Florida Institute of Technology
-Smith College
-Dordt College</p>
<p>Throughout high school I participated in several extracurricular activities. For example, I was part of the soccer team and the social apostolate. </p>
<p>I wonder which are my chances on getting into one of the previously mentioned universities and if you recommend me taking the sat again since I did not had any kind of preparation for the first one!</p>
<p>Thank you for taking the time to read my post!! :)</p>
<p>Smith and Dordt are totally opposite, so that if you were happy at one you’d be miserable at the other. Smith is the most liberal of the women’s colleges, and Dordt is a very conservative, very religious school.
If you like Smith, look into the other women’s colleges (Wellesley, Bryn Mawr…)
If you like Dordt, look into Calvin, Wheaton (IL), Grove City, The Catholic University, etc.
If you like Lehigh, look into Lafayette, Gettysburg, Bucknell, Union, Clarkson.
Your SAT is too low for Lehigh, can you retake it in December - registration is Nov 8?
You shouldn’t have taken it without preparation and I hope your counselor explained that your score can be explained that way. (Note to other international students: I don’t quite understand why someone would pay money to take a test for which they don’t study. The very principle of a standardized test is that it’s standardized, ie, you MUST prepare for it since it follows a specific “protocol”. it’s the very definition of a test you can’t “wing”.)
Your other achievements are impressive and indicate that you have a strong background so it’s too bad that SAT score is going to hinder you. Preparing for the SAT will help you clear that hurdle.</p>
<p>Thank you for your reply! I took the SAT without preparation because i didn’t have time to study and I want it to have an idea of how the test was. When I searched for universities I did not actually pay attention to the religious side, campus life or anything like that, I mainly focused in the possibilities of obtaining a full scholarship or financial aid.</p>
<p>My high-school was indeed very religious and I did not like that fact so thank you very much for sharing that information about Dordt. The only reason I find it hard to discard it for my list of colleges is that I have been in contact with the admission advisor and he seems very interested in helping me with the application process. He is actually planning to travel to my country for other reasons and I will met him in a few days.</p>
<p>My first option is actually Lehigh and I am well aware that my SAT scores are low for its standards but since I have been practicing for the SAT since i first took the exam and i have not noticed any improvement I am not sure that taking the SAT again will mean improving my previous score. However, I think I would take your advice and take the SAT this december because I am really interested in the university! </p>
<p>About the other colleges, you do not have any idea about my chances??</p>
<p>Thank you again!!</p>
<p>MYOS1634, isn’t Smith the only one that has engineering, though? </p>
<p>I do agree that you should probably make some changes to your list, though. Speaking from experience, Smith is a VERY liberal place, which is more than fine by me, but it’s definitely not everybody’s cup of tea, so consider it carefully before applying. If you do decide to apply, I wouldn’t send that SAT. You barely make it into the 25th percentile of math at Smith, but your other scores don’t make it, so your score’s definitely not going to help you. Luckily, Smith’s test optional, so you only have to send the TOEFL.</p>
<p>Also, how much aid do you need? If you don’t need a lot, there are quite a lot of options for you, there are many schools that would love internationals without high financial need.</p>
<p>Sweet Briar also has a fully ABET accredited engineering program. It’s a very small college though.
[The</a> Margaret Jones Wyllie '45 Engineering Program | Sweet Briar College](<a href=“http://sbc.edu/engineering]The”>Sweet Briar College)
Bryn Mawr has a GREAT program where you do 4 years at Bryn Mawr and 1 year at Penn (Yes, UPenn of the Ivy League) and get a BA + a Masters in Engineering.
[New</a> Program Enables Bryn Mawr Students to Earn Penn Masters of Engineering in One Year : News](<a href=“http://news.brynmawr.edu/2012/04/19/penn-engineering/]New”>http://news.brynmawr.edu/2012/04/19/penn-engineering/)</p>
<p>OP: try the ACT. It has 5 sections: English; Reading (which includes 1 text from each: Arts&Humanities; Social Sciences; Sciences; Literature); Science; Math; Writing.
The writing prompt is more direct. The math is more advanced than the SAt’s. If you want to do engineering, the Science section shouldn’t be a problem since it’s mostly logic and scientific reasoning. Register before Nov 8 with the ACT website.
Register (it’s free) and practice there:
<a href=“https://www.number2.com/[/url]”>https://www.number2.com/</a>
and use this:
[SparkNotes</a> Free Online Test Prep and Study Guides for College Admissions](<a href=“SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides”>SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides)</p>
<p>I did some research and you can do something like that at Wellesley too, with either Olin or MIT. But for that program at Bryn Mawr, would they offer FA to an international for that last year at UPenn?</p>