<p>Hi! I just joined today. I'm a rising Senior and I'm studying at the American International School in Bangladesh under a full scholarship for the IB Diploma Program. I started education in the American system just last year and my Junior year has been tough. Adapting to this curriculum has been almost hopeless for me. In my Ordinary Level exams (British curriculum), I received 9 As. My scholarship right now covers full tuition expenses and is both merit and need-based. However, my current GPA is quite low - a 3.2. I have one more semester to improve it, which is not a very long time. Whichever college I apply to, I will need full financial aid. I'm not particularly worried about my extracurriculars, my SAT and ACT scores and teacher recommendations. So I had the following questions:</p>
<p>1) Which colleges provide good (nearly 100%) financial aid to international students? I have my own list but I would love for more information.</p>
<p>2) Is it possible that my ECAs and test scores are enough for me to be considered for acceptance in colleges? Which colleges would consider me?</p>
<p>Thank you very much... And perhaps the two questions sort of the same. I'm having a very stressful time right now because my grades were never so poor as they are now. The transition's been tough but no school looks at that. Thanks again.</p>
<p>Hi, I’m an Australian international and I’ll be applying next year as well. 
This is my college selection thread, some of the advice might be helpful for you too. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1140920-colleges-should-i-apply.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1140920-colleges-should-i-apply.html</a>
As to whether your ECAs and test scores are good enough, we can’t really have any idea without you letting us know what they actually are. ECAs seem to be one of the most important admissions factors, as long as your test scores and GPA are above a certain level. Your GPA does seem very low for international needs blind (highly competitive) colleges. However, if there are specific circumstances that have lead to your low GPA you can explain this in your college application.</p>
<p>hey rummycandy I am from BD too!
I am applying to USA this year as well!</p>
<p>Need Blind Colleges: Harvard Princeton Yale MIT Dartmouth Williams Amherst Middlebury
Need Based Colleges ( but with great aid awards): Chicago Brown Cornell Columbia Penn Duke Stanford Vanderbilt Rice Colgate Vassar Bard Bates Grinnel Kenyon Colorado Lafayette Macalaster (this schools give aid awards to around 10-100 intl students per year) And mind you its very competitive if you want aid</p>
<p>If you study IB I think your IB score will matter as well although I don’t know much about it</p>
<p>^Cornell does not give great aid.</p>
<p>^Cornell does not fund a lot of international students.</p>
<p>International aid is limited yes but those who get it get pretty good aid
You have to note that most internationals who apply to Cornell don’t have Cornell has their first choice and ultimately go for a better college
I am from Bangladesh and I know 3 people who got into Cornell last time all got aid/scholarship but none are going to attend Cornell these fall</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your replies :)</p>
<p>ECAs so far (it’ll hopefully get longer by the time summer’s over :D):
Model United Nations General Secretary (attended the Doha conference; organizer of a local MUN conference)
Debate Club President (2 years)
Service Learning Club President/Officer
SAISA Soccer
SAISA Badminton
Badminton Club member
South Asian Club member
Art classes (out of school; 3rd year student)
Halloween Carnival Organizing Committee
Handball Team Captain (2 years)
Co-founder of an international student organization (Students for Tomorrow; I currently do web administration because the organization is in a different country to where I am)
Swimming Club (outside school; since 6th grade. I need to get my certificate.)
Panorama Zine Master (monthly online youth magazine; I’m a writer for it)
Innovative Students Forum 2010 (wouldn’t really be part of my ECAs)</p>
<p>Awards/certificates:
The Daily Star Award (for 6+ As in my Ordinary Levels)
Full scholarship to the American International School/Dhaka
National Spanish Exam 2011 - Gold honor
2011 Model United Nations in Doha, Qatar - certificate of participation
Scholarship for the Spout Online Project Management Course
UNSW Macmillan Assessment - distinctions in Computing, English, Math and Science</p>
<p>Academics
9As in my Ordinary Levels (under Edexcel - British curriculum)
SAT Reasoning - 2200, PSAT - 97% percentile, ACT - will take it this year
I had all As in my last high school (it was up to the 10th grade). However, at my new school, I have a 3.2 (for Junior year). I expect to get better but it can’t substantially before I apply to colleges. I don’t have my IB predicted grades yet but from my discussions with teachers I have a chance of getting a 7 in English Standard Level, Spanish ab initio, Math Higher Level and Physics Higher Level. I haven’t gotten feedback from my Economics Higher Level and Chemistry Higher Level teachers but I must admit those two subjects are not my strengths.</p>
<p>All of your comments are really helpful but I’m pretty sure my grades aren’t enough to cut it… I’m going to be relying on my predicted grades and ECAs.</p>
<p>Poor GPA results due to:
- Certain stellar ECs actively participating in which causes your grades to deteriorate
- Special personal circumstances
- Your background (coming from a low key region not access to materials etc)</p>
<p>Since you study at ISD ( A school that is acknowledged by many top tier US unis) I doubt last 2 conditions would be held against you. </p>
<p>Your SATs O levels are all fine
Colleges compare holistically so you shouldn’t worry too much about it. However if there is an upward trend in your results and a very challenging courseload it might be overlooked. </p>
<p>Whats your college list?</p>
<p>I had problems when I started school in AIS/D - I was never graded on my assignments before and it was a lot to handle. My school was really far from my home too and it took me a long time to adjust to everything… it’s still tough. My counselor says I test well but that’s not enough.</p>
<p>I’m gonna redo my SAT Reasoning test… I want a higher score and I think I can do it. I have to do all the subject tests too.</p>
<p>Here’s my list:</p>
<p>Duke
Colgate
Smith
Wellesley
Wesleyan
Bates
Vassar
Rochester
Bryn mawr
Fordham
Haverford
Muhlenburg
Lafayette
Oberlin
York</p>
<p>Feel free to bash me if you think I’m being overambitious because my GPA really doesn’t cut it for these colleges… My scholarship allows me to apply to 17 colleges free of cost but it’s hard for me to find colleges which give financial aid (which I really need) to international students. I’m not a US citizen like a lot of my classmates either so it’s going to be pretty tough. The worst part of it all is that my sister’s at Princeton with a full scholarship (she didn’t go to my school) so it’s all very disappointing lol :(</p>
<p>I think I have to mail all my colleges about how much financial aid they provide because none of their websites give enough detail :(</p>
<p>And my family contribution cannot be too high - I wish I could say something like at least $12K but I’ll have to discuss that with my parents…</p>
<p>Oh and my school doesn’t weight GPAs anymore.</p>
<p>^Williams and Middlebury are not need-blind for international students.
You should also take a look at: Swarthmore, Lehigh, Connecticut College, Bowdoin, Carleton, Colby, Wooster, Davidson, Dickinson, Pomona, NYU Abu Dhabi, Johns Hopkins, Oberlin, Trinity College (CT), Tufts, Skidmore, WUSTL, Washington and Lee. If you’re a girl, you could also try Barnard, Smith, Wellesley, Mount Holyoke and Bryn Mawr.
And I would highly recommend you apply to Lafayette (I’m going there this fall). I’m not trying to sell my school to you or anything, but it gives extremely generous financial aid, and its professors and research programs are highly rated. Plus the school has a really nice personal touch with its students (as I saw on my acceptance letter) :)</p>
<p>Thanks freakozoid. I’m not looking at Williams or Middlebury. I just found out that Bowdoin, Carleton, Pomona, NYU, Johns Hopkins and Washington do not provide financial aid 
I’ll look at all the other suggestions. </p>
<p>And I am a girl but Mt Holyoke apparently doesn’t give aid… I use a website called Naviance but I’m not sure if it’s a 100% correct so I’ll go through all those colleges again! Thanks again!</p>
<p>How could that be? I have friends in my school and elsewhere in my country who got into all of these colleges on great financial aid ($50,000+). You should probably check directly with all of these colleges.
Oh, and NYU New York City does not give financial aid, but NYU Abu Dhabi gives huge amounts of aid.</p>
<p>I guess that makes sense I should do some more research…</p>
<p>Mt. Holyoke does give aid, and takes lots of internationals</p>