I’m an Indian Student.
CBSE 9th Grade - 10 CGPA out of 10
10th Grade - 10 CGPA out of 10
11th grade ( Junior Year)- 85 percent
12th grade ( Sophomore Year) - 86 percent.
SAT - 2400
ECs-
1.Top 10 percentile in Breakthrough Junior Challenge.
2. Was a member of the boy scouts India
3. INSPIRE award winner
4. School Topper in 10th and 12th boards
Major- Physics
Can afford upto 7k per year. ( I need financial aid, this 7k includes everything, If needed 7k can go upto at max 10k)
I have visited the YOLA Website recommended by several members of this website.
Can you tell me where should I apply in order to get accepted?
PS I have taken one gap year.
.
I’ve heard really good things about IIT colleges
@Helium90 - Other than the extremely short list of places that guarantee admission and merit-based aid based on stats for international students (some from the http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/ list might still fall into that group), there are no guarantees for you. Everywhere is a reach. So go ahead and apply to the places that appeal to you that do offer aid to international students, and see what happens. But be sure to have a back-up plan in your own country.
Stay in India. You don’t want to have to deal with all the immigration issues that come with studying in the US.
Well there are a lot of schools. What kind of schools are you interested in?
@gigichuck actually there are very few schools that an international student can go to with $7k. Transportation and health insurance will eat up most of it.
Congratulations on your hard work and success!
As you can see above, it’s hard for the vast, vast majority of students to get the annual cost of college down to the $7k-10k level. To do so, students would either need to get enough financial aid (based on financial need) at an in-state public university; get enough financial aid from a college/university that meets full financial need (covers whatever a student cannot cover) (usually private schools); or receives a very generous merit aid scholarship. Merit aid is available at many schools, and sometimes a high percentage of students receive merit aid at a school, but this aid is often 1/2 or less of tuition or total costs, meaning that the cost is often more than $10,000 and can still be $60,000 or more. International students can receive aid at some schools, but even then it is very often more difficult to secure than for US students.
You can google US universities that offer financial aid to international students. I did quick search and get a list with Columba University, Harvard, Skidmore College, Williams College, Amherst College, Trinity College, Wesleyan University, Duke University, Wellesley University (all female), and Vassar College. These are all excellent and are safe, nice places to go to college, AND are all very competitive in admissions. Harvard for example accepts under 5% of applicants, and that includes “hooked” applicants who have advantage because they are recruited athletes, legacies, wealthy/famous, etc.
If you want to take a shot at schools, I’d suggest maybe Skidmore and Trinity, which are also very competitive, and more so in recent years, but not so crazy as some of the others. It had been my understanding that Skidmore and Trinity are generous with aid for international students. Numbers for admissions for international students are hard to find. I’m no expert and acceptance rates for international students may very well not parallel overall acceptance rates. Maybe you could look at Vassar too.
Anyway, these are long shots. Don’t count on any of these schools, and any other US schools you find by similar google searches.
Certainly focus your search in India and maybe Europe too. I know Germany and the Netherlands offer much lower costs for international students. They do have a few universities with classes in English. The Netherlands has several University Colleges that are modeled on US liberal arts colleges, have an international focus, and have classes in English, for example University College Utrecht and Amsterdam University College. You could google university colleges in the Netherlands to find the other ones, if this seems like a desirable option.
https://www.uu.nl/en/organisation/university-college-utrecht
Good luck!
@TTG Is Netherlands a good option?
How competitive are Reed, Colgate, Grinnel, Carleton and Swathmore? Are these all ‘Reaches’ for me?
University of Alabama? Will my GPA hinder the scholarships there?
How old is your SAT???
Your international status and requiring financial aid makes everything a reach.
Alabama covers mostly tuition, how will you pay room and board?
The Netherlands is a very nice, beautiful country, but you would have to decide if that option is a good fit for you, if it worked out. The university colleges are very small, and class choices are limited. But they are outstanding schools with outstanding students, and are often affiliated with major Dutch universities. And you’d maybe want to study Dutch while there. Classes are in English but Dutch is the language otherwise. The Netherlands is a major trading nation,
In a very quick search I found 16 German universities free for international students (German universities are all, I believe, free for German students). Some offer classes in English. You could google those to find some good choices for you. My son’s best friend in US went to Germany for study abroad early in college and stayed there and graduated from a German university. I don’t know much about German universities though.
Colgate accepts 7.3% of international applicants, which would seem to make it a reach for most of those who apply. However, if you also were to apply to some of the other schools you mentioned, plus to schools such as Haverford, Wesleyan, Middlebury, Williams, Hamilton and Pomona, your collective odds would appear to increase.
http://www.colgate.edu/admission-financial-aid/first-year-class-profile
You’ll need to retake your SAT since that score is more than 3 years old.
You can apply for competitive full rides such as McDermott at UT Dallas, UAlabama, Wilson at App State.
I think UIS would be an automatic full ride too but they ont have many majors.
Look into Truman state, UMN Morris?
(Your GPA in US terms is 4.0).
What is the formula to calculate the GPA?
Are there any guarantees for me in the US? Or maybe in Europe( Sorry i know this is an America only site, but some people mentioned EU, that is why) ? India is my last resort because i would like to go abroad for studies.
Suggest looking into Community Colleges in the US and then transferring. Cost effective.
Basically, your grades place you at the top of your class. 85 in Class XI is outstanding. There’s no “formula” but when your grades place you at the top of your class it’s a fair estimation to say you have straight A’s.
What about that SAT score?
In the EU, you’d have to look at prices.
You’d need to study German in StudienColleg first but German universities are free tuition (room/board should fit within your budget although you may have to look for cheap food due to cost of living.
If you speak French, a very intense program called PCSI (free tuition, low-cost housing) where you’d have something like 8 hours of math, 4 hours of chemistry, 8 hours of Physics+4 hours of Applied Physics, plus some English and Philosophy each week.
Here’s a public school offering this: getting in is difficult, but it’s tuition-free. HOusing is about €400-450/month and you can be “externe interné” (lunch and dinner) or “demi pensionnaire” (lunch or dinner) served at school for about €4 a full meal. You’d be below budget I think (about €6000 a year?)
http://cpgevaugelas.free.fr/
Here’s a private school offering this, it’s a bit over your budget ($13,000 for tuition, fees, room, board).
https://www.stanislas.fr/les-atouts-prepa-stan
You can look at prices in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, as well as Ireland. You probably have a good shot at Herriot Watt, Strathclyde, Durham, Birmingham, Cardiff, Queen’s Belfast. Not sure if price would be within budget though, I don’t think it’d be.
Hi, European user here. While the Netherlands is a very nice place to live and study, tuition fees for non-EU students exceed 7k by a lot. Your budget definitely isn’t large enough if you also consider housing, flights, visa, etc. In Germany there are (almost) no fees but keep in mind that you need to speak German fluently for 99% of the undergrad programs and 7k isn’t enough to live off in terms of housing, food, insurance, etc. In both countries the chances of getting a scholarship are small since most of the costs are covered by the government (for EU students). You could try Britain or a US community college since those are more likely to offer (merit-based) scholarships.
US Community Colleges are a terrible idea: international transfers don’t get financial aid, which means that if they can’t pay, they’re stranded. In addition, US Community Colleges are well above budget too.
In Europe, the CPGE PCSI Vaugelas (linked above) may be your best bet but you need to be fluent in French first. You’ll need to study it intensively to get to the level required to study there (and might have to do some immersion/language learning first, which may not be tuition-free).
In the US, you can also apply to Berea College. They admit a few international students, max 1 per country. They offer full tuition and work study to cover room/board. (It’s a work college, all students work and build a nice resume.)