BYU consistently attracts international students, although you need a certain number of credits to get scholarships.
W&L is heavily Greek so I’m not sure it’s a good choice for an international who cannot have recommendations from sorority alumnae. It’s pretty lonely if you don’t join a sorority and don’t drink alcohol to get drunk.
I would replace it with Berea.
Look into Appalachian 's Wilson scholarship, into the competitive scholarships on-the yola site.
I understand that the application fees may be an obstacle for your family, but if at all possible, I’d strongly recommend that you apply to more colleges if you really do want to study in the US.
Back in 2006, I applied to about 12 selective-but-not-tippy-top liberal arts colleges myself. I was rejected from all but 2, and only 1 of the financial aid offers was affordable for my family. (Had an ACT score of 34 and a few national math awards too.)
It is tempting to look at a 40% admission rate at a liberal arts college and think to yourself that you should have at least a 40% chance of admission yourself. Alas, that’s not how it works. Until a few years ago, Peterson’s college search engine published separate admission statistics for domestic and international applicants. The difference was eye-opening.
The admission rate for international financial aid applications is most certainly less than 10% just about everywhere and can be as low as 1%. On top of that, international applications have on average higher test scores than domestic applicants. From a purely statistical point of view, you will probably receive 0 offers if you apply to just 5 colleges.
@MYOS1634 Thanks! I got a max of 20 on the Common App, so I can throw Berea in as well. I know they have automatic full tuition, but I can’t pay their room and board. Wilson at Appalachian is for 6 students btw.
@b@r!um I do plan to beg off application fees when application season starts, and pretty much beg off every fee. So that’s just my list so far. Can’t believe you got rejected with a 34 ACT. It’s sort of depressing. So which school gave you the best aid (merit + need based) and how much was it?
Berea doesn’t use commonapp and their deadline is super early. Everything has to be sent together in the mail and the deadline is for date of reception not date sent.
You cover room and board by working. Look into it.
Bryn Mawr offered me the best financial aid package, and it’s the college I ended up attending. (FWIW, my EFC was about $6,000 a year, which was do-able for my family.)
I saw Bryn Mawr being extremely accommodating to low-income students, both domestic and international. For example, I had a friend from Kenya who couldn’t get any financial support from her family. The college even paid for her airfare and offered her a credit to the bookstore so that she could get settled in before her work-study checks started to come in. Bryn Mawr kept one dorm open for students who couldn’t go home over winter break, which was always greatly appreciated. And then there was a laptop loaner program, where students could borrow a laptop from the library for a few weeks at a time. (It was useful to anyone who’s computer had just broken and also used permanently by a few low-income students who couldn’t afford to buy one.)
So after a little research, I’m adding Bryn Mawr to my list 
Any other schools you guys think i should consider?
Williams!!! They’re really good with aid to international students (source: me) and aren’t extremely picky with stats as opposed to the schools in its tier like top lacs, ivies (source: me). @gigichuck, AMA.
Question:
What is a possible safety for an international student looking for a full ride?
I finished compiling my school list today, and to my horror, every single one of them is a reach. For example, I’m applying to HYPMS, Williams, Pomona, and a couple other LACs.
I would really appreciate a response to this, because I need to fix that ASAP.
My only non-top 20 schools are
UT Dallas
Howard.
Pretty sure that’s not good enough.
Thanks!
I don’t believe that there is such a thing as a safety (or even a match) for an international student who cannot at least pay for their own living expenses. That said, here are a few colleges with merit-based full tuition, room and board scholarships. Maybe you can find a few for which you’d be a good candidate.
http://financialaid.lmu.edu/prospective/scholarships/lmuacademicscholarshipsforfreshmen/
http://louisville.edu/admissions/aid/scholarships/mentored-scholarships/jgb
https://www2.howard.edu/admission/cost-of-attendance
http://www.salem.edu/admissions/scholarships
http://www.uky.edu/financialaid/scholarship-incoming-freshmen
http://www.wofford.edu/richardsonScholars/scholarshipInfo/
http://www.smu.edu/Academics/PS/Benefits
https://www.hendrix.edu/financialaid/scholarships/
http://www.soka.edu/admission_aid/Financial_Aid/merit_based_financial_aid.aspx
http://admissions.miami.edu/undergraduate/financial-aid/scholarships/stamps-leadership-scholarship/index.html
https://www.barry.edu/stamps/
http://www.drake.edu/admission/undergraduate/costsfinancialaid/typesofaid/scholarships/nationalalumni/
http://undergrad.osu.edu/cost-and-aid/merit-based-scholarships
First you need to figure out if you qualify for common application fee waivers. Basically it means if you live in public housing, receive public aid, or if your parents’ common income is below 44k or 56k depending on how many people are in the household. Note that both UTD and Howard will require a fee no matter what - don’t apply through common app. Have your guidance counselor or the person writing the counselor 's report for commonapp check the box for you. It means you’ll be able to apply more widely.
Then you need to check the yola site with the list of automatic scholarships and check each college’s website to see if conditions still apply.
Apply to two guaranteed scholarships of your choice.
Make sure your list includes Berea.
Then add whatever you want :-).
Berea has such a low admission rate for international students that it’s a long shot as well. (The last figures available put it around 2%.)
Thank you!
I’m using both the coalition app and the common app because I like Coalition’s interface.
MYOS, thanks for mentioning the yola site. Hadn’t heard of it before and it looks super useful!!!
^the guaranteed “scholarship for stats” open to internationals are the only safeties they can have.
However everything needs to be checked every year because the goalposts often move. For instance, the automatic full tuition for a 1400 at UAlabama has morphed into $25,000 a year for 1490.
MYOS, out of curiosity, are you aware of any “guaranteed” full-tuition, room and board scholarships based on test scores/class rank/grades? I checked a few “automatic” scholarships on the yola site but none of them appeared to be guaranteed. Instead, the university websites use language along the lines of, “All applicants with a minimum SAT score of … will be automatically considered for this scholarship. No separate scholarship application is necessary.”
Yes. Obviously not at top-flight universities but can be a good alternative for kids who need to 'escape’a problematic country, culture, or family.
An issue is that conditions can change, but MAPS at Montevallo, PrairieView A&M at least last year were automatic. AES scholarships for kids with close-to-mcDermott stats are almost guaranteed. In the same way, Howard’s top scholarships have become competitive but odds are in your favor if you’re on the high end of the criteria (32-33 is what you need for full ride, 34 is full ride plus.)
I’ll go back and check but there’s one 'guaranteed scholarships ’ yola site and one 'competitive scholarships ’ yola site. Safeties can be found on the ‘guaranteed’ scholarships site, then one must check conditions haven’t changed.
That’s what I was doing. But most of the “automatic” scholarships seem to be “automatic” in the sense of “automatically considered” and not in the sense of “automatically awarded” (i.e. guaranteed). How do you decide which scholarships are “safe” when colleges are not explicitly making guarantees?