<p>hello guys. im an indian residing in india(obviously) and am currently in my junior year at high school. i wanna do my undergrads in us. so guys anyone can you post a list of some good colleges out there which offers complete financial aid for international students? both need based and merit based. its not that my mum and dad wont pay. they are quite willing to...but it sickens me to thing about wasting all their hard-earned money into my stupid college education. so i decided id better choose this method. any sort of help would be appreciated very much. </p>
<p>p.s. and i already know about the 6 need blind us universities. ill apply to them for sure. i have some pretty good credentials, but given their unpredictability i acceptance......so no need to tell me about them.</p>
<p>p.p.s. and id like it very much if the universities you will be talking about are...well at least a little bit acclaimed.</p>
<p>thanks for your help(if anyone at all cares to help me. lol.)</p>
<p>The most “acclaimed” universities in the U.S. give only need based financial aid. The six that are both need blind for admissions AND meet full need are in that group. They do NOT give merit awards. Many of the other “acclaimed” universities in the U.S. give very limited need based financial aid to international students. </p>
<p>If you have great stats (GPA and SAT/ACT scores), you might want to post those here. There are some schools that DO offer good merit awards for international students.</p>
<p>Any need based awards will be based on your family income and assets in U.S. dollars, so if your parents have the means to pay, you will not receive need based aid.</p>
<p>* its not that my mum and dad wont pay. they are quite willing to…but it sickens me to thing about wasting all their hard-earned money into my stupid college education. *</p>
<p>If your parents are able to pay (meaning that they have the income/assets to pay), then you won’t likely qualify for much/any need-based aid.</p>
<p>As Thumper mentioned, the top ranked schools do not give merit-based scholarships (Ivies, Stanford, MIT). </p>
<p>There are some lower ranked schools that give merit scholarships to int’ls.</p>
<p>However, if your parents are expecting you to go to an elite school, then they will likely have to pay for it.</p>
<p>Wait, you think it would be a waste of your parents’ money to use it to pay for your education? Do you realize that most college scholarships come from money someone’s parents donated to a college? I personally can’t think of anything I’d more enjoy using available money for than an education for my children!</p>
<p>dont worry guys if i get into an ivy, im likely to get a lot of support. i dont think my parents would qualify for anything more than 15% of their income. i can live with that. ill be looking forward to repay them whenever i get a worthwhile job.</p>
<p>and as far as my credentials are concerned, no need to worry about them. my ECs are good too. hope the schools consider 10 years of piano and 7 years of guitar and 2 years of varsity soccer at ECs.</p>
<p>@mom2collegekids can i get to know some of the “lower ranked schools that give merit scholarships to int’ls”. help will be appreciated.</p>
<p>@waverly you are a typical parent wanting to spend all his life’s income on his children. i wont even comment on your remark.</p>
<p>@susgeek what is this berea thing? is it worth attending?</p>
<p>p.s. and i forgot to mention that we have got some cool colleges in india too… check IITs, IISc, ISI, et al. but their course curriculum is pretty much narrow minded. and apart from that i have my personal reasons for not attending there. anyway guys if ivies are my last hope, i guess ill have to prepare for them too. plz try and help me with some institutions which offer merit or need based scholarships. plz. plz.</p>
<p>For competitive schools the ECs you list are a dime a dozen. Unless the piano or guitar got you a contract with a major studio. Two years of soccer won’t impress either.</p>
<p>I suggest you do your homework. On another thread you were surprised Asians have a tough time getting into HYP. This tells me you are applying without knowing the basics. You need to know what schools want and how financial aid works. It’s all here for the reading.</p>
<p>And we can’t help with schools without your grades and scores. Would
you get into IIT? For aid we need to know parent’s income and assets. If they could afford to pay for a USprivate, it’s unlikely you qualify for need based aid.</p>
<p>hah im a junior and am not applying this year though.</p>
<p>and what specific ECs are they asking for anyway? In my country the academic competitions are so high that i pride myself(sorry for bragging) for excelling in both ECs and academics. most people here dont even give a 2nd look at ECs. they are way too busy to study. sorry to hear that though. and 2 years of varsity soccer is i meant. schools here taken in for varsity soccer from grade 10. im in grade 11. and i was in my jv team too. and anyways i wanna go for science not soccer.</p>
<p>and plz help me out with the ECs. exactly what are they asking for?</p>
<p>The competition among international for the few seats allotted them at top schools is brutal, particularly among Indians. The top colleges are looking for the very top students in the country. Those who’ve won national competitions. A great, world class athlete would get a lot of attention too.</p>
<p>The few schools that are need blind for internationals get thousands of applications for a handful of seats. At the others, strong preference is given to those who are full pay. Last year I had 2 students from India who could pay in full, were very top of the class and had perfect SAT scores and top US math accomplishments. Both were rejected from every ivy, Stanford, MIT and Caltech. They ended up at top schools (Chicago and Amherst), but their ability to pay helped a lot at those.</p>
<p>You will be competing for admission to U.S. schools with ALL other international students, not just those from India. Agreed with a poster above…there are many students applying to elite schools with years of piano study (or violin or another instrument) and sports. I’m not sure that will help you stand out from the crowd. </p>
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<p>They aren’t “looking” for particular ECs. The ECs you have should be those that are of interest to YOU…not just to pad a resume for college application purposes. </p>
<p>You might want to do a search here…it’s something like 50,000 students apply for admission to elite colleges. That is a TON of students. These school typically accept 10% or LESS of those who apply. Of those who are not accepted, MOST have excellent qualifications to attend. There just aren’t enough seats. The %age of international students accepted is likely MUCH smaller…perhaps as low as 5%. </p>
<p>Make sure you have a number of options available to you BESIDES the elite top schools in this country. They are a crapshoot for almost everyone who applies.</p>
<p>hey @thumper1 you think admission rate of 5% is bad. well in india for entrance into the IITs 500000+ students apply out of which 10000 are accepted. you do the math. anyways even in case of the IIT im sure i can get in because you have to give the IIT entrance test to get in and you are accepted rankwise. the tests way way way (many more times) way way tougher than the SATs or any AP courses offered. just try it from the internet. get sample papers. still im sure i can get in IIT as it accepts rankwise. however in the ivies there is no specific criteria. this is what troubles me. thanks for the help anyway.</p>
<p>The Ivies and most every other U.S. college…are trying to build a CLASS…so they are looking at what each student brings to the freshman class they are trying to build. </p>
<p>The reality is that the VAST majority of students who apply to the tippy top schools here ALL have excellent GPAs, SAT/ACT scores, ECs, essays and letters of reference.</p>
<p>Good to have options. There are some some schools in the U.S. that do give merit awards to accepted international students. You might want to look into those too.</p>
<p>could you plz plz provide me with some examples of “some schools in the U.S. that do give merit awards to accepted international students” ??? plz plz plz</p>
<p>I hope Mom2collegekids sees this. She can tell you if U of Alabama offers its awards to International students. I honestly don’t know.</p>
<p>You need to look ON the websites of every school to see. </p>
<p>If you give folks here a little more in terms of criteria, perhaps they can make better suggestions (e.g. intended major, SAT/ACT scores with CR/Math breakdown, desired location, urban/suburban/rural, size, smaller school or large research university).</p>
<p>There are dozens of threads on this topic here and in the international students forum. Keep scrolling down and you will find them.</p>
<p>You also can run the college-matching search engine here and the one at collegeboard.com to search for international financial aid.</p>
<p>There is no one easy list that we can point you to because no such list exists. Each institution sets its own policy about scholarships, and can change that policy at any time. You really do have to do the research yourself. On of the regular posters in the international forum has written that she investigated three hundred (yes, 300) colleges and universities in order to fine the ones where she had the best chances of receiving aid.</p>
<p>*You will be competing for admission to U.S. schools with ALL other international students, not just those from India. *</p>
<p>Right…you’re not competing against US students. You’ll be competing against int’l. However, you will ALSO be competing against students from India, since those univs don’t want all their int’ls coming from just China and India…they want diversity amongst their int’sl as well. </p>
<p>Yes, Alabama does give merit scholarships to int’ls who qualify.</p>
<p>edited to add:</p>
<p>Those with ACT 32+ or SAT 1400+ M+CR and a 3.5 GPA will get free tuition if they apply by Dec 1st and submit the scholarship appl</p>
<p>i feel elated to be helped by so many experienced moms.</p>
<p>make no mistake. this comment is to be regarded as the highest levels of sincerity and gratefulness i can offer. this is no stupid sarcasm or idiotic insult.</p>