int'l students who have gotten finaid - plz read

<p>Yes, Bucknell offers aid to internationals. But one has to at least pay USD 13000 a year before you are allowed to apply there.</p>

<p>what about law school?
are intls in bad situation like med school?</p>

<p>Both law and med schools do not give out grants because graduates from these schools will be earning loads and loads of money and thus it doesnt make much sense to give them grants. law and med schools will give you loans and they expect you to return it. =)</p>

<p>^^^ that makes sense... but med schools in the US don't ususlly accept intl's anyway, right? is it easier for intl's to get into med school or law school?</p>

<p>I need your advice on one more thing :) From what I can see, the only schools that are need blind for intrnational students or who even offer substantial need based aid are usually ultra-competitive (HYP, Williams). However, I have been looking at a bunch of LACs and less competitive universities and I noticed that many offer some need-based aid (maybe around 20 to 50 scholarships) and merit scholarships to international students. Unfortunately it's obvious that these are hard to get and that the competition for them is really intense.</p>

<p>So basically, what I would like to know is how good you have to be to qualify for this aid. Would good grades, SAT above 2200, SAT IIs above 750, several good but not amazing ECs, some research (probably published in a journal), and going to TASP be enough to get a good scholarship somewhere?</p>

<p>By the way, this thread is great and some of you guys have really amazing scholarships at awsome schools XD</p>

<p>Green<em>day</em>fan, you seem very qualified and it appears that you would be a successful applicant in most of the "ultra-competitive" schools. One great part of your app would be your PUBLISHED RESEARCH (wow). Don't underestimate yourself. GO FOR BROKE!!!</p>

<p>Try Oberlin if you are looking for a school outside the spectrum of HYP but just as good. They give great aid to qualified applicants.</p>

<p>green<em>day</em>fan -
apartfrom HYP +Williams, other top LACs give very good aid and believe it or not in some non need blind schools your financial need acts as an almost negligible factor in your final admission decision. </p>

<p>Some schools which guarantee to meet need (but are not need blind) if accepted are - Vassar, Swarthmore,Amherst, Wellesley (if you are female), Bowdoin, Colgate etc. In those schools, your ability to pay does not have a great impact in the admission decision. </p>

<p>Dartmouth is a non need blind ivy which gives good aid to ints. </p>

<p>Usually a college which gives a lot of aid is in a very good financial position. Put simply - the richer a college is, more likely it willgive aid to ints. It's quite easy to figure out an intangible estimate to how rich a college is - find out the market value of it's endowment and then divide the endowment by the number of students to find the endowment per head. A simple rule of thumb is - higher the endowment per head, richer is the college. </p>

<p>Hope this helps, best of luck!:)</p>

<p>^^ Thanks a lot!! I was looking into Vassar, Swarthmore, and Oberlin earlier and it's nice to know that they have decent financial aid. I didn't know Darthmouth offered good aid though!! </p>

<p>Oh, and does anyone know about finaid at Middlebury, Richmond, or Bates?? Also, are there any universities (maybe ranked lower than the top 20) that offer good financial aid or merit scholarships to intl's??</p>

<p>I really appreciate everyone's help!! XD</p>

<p>Yeah my impression about Bucknell is right. It shouldn't be the place you should look at if you are looking for financial aid. </p>

<p>Green<em>day</em>fan, I think your credentials look good enough to be in running for those top places. But LACs are good places to apply to if you are seeking aid as well. It's definitely easier to get into top LACs compared to top Ivies and the like if you are seeking financial aid. For the simple reason that most internationals who are going to Ivies and the like are either damn rich, or they are sponsored by some agencies. So it's much harder for finaid-seeking applicants to compete with these people, some of whom have no less outstanding credentials as you. Whereas the case is very different with LACs. I dare say 80-90% of the internationals applying to LACs are seeking financial aid, so that more or less makes it an even playing ground for us aid-seeking internationals. So my bottom line is, it's much much easier to get into top LACs if you are seeking financial aid. And alot of them offer very very generous finaid packages to intels, no less generous than HYP indeed (if you get in that is). </p>

<p>Here's a list of top LACs which are known very generous to internationals (i.e. Meets full aid + offer a significant number of awards, and not like say Pomona or Bowdoin which offers to less than 4 a year): Amherst, Williams, Connecticut College (Ranked rather low, but that's because of it's pathetic financial strength, which makes it even more commendable that they are so committed to financing internationals! Okay I should stop this shameless advertising), Colby, Wesleyan (if you are Asian, you should look at the Freeman Asian Scholarship), Middlebury, Bates, Colgate, Mount Holyoke, Smith, Vassar.</p>

<p>woebegone: that's a very good list!:)</p>

<p>haha thanks! :)</p>

<p>green day fan:</p>

<p>Bard is a LAC which ranks lower than 20 and gives merit aid-(distinguished scientist scholarship award). It covers your full tuition. Bates, Colby and Lafayette also gives excellent finaid. </p>

<p>Word of advice - you might want to consider applying ED/EA to a need blind college (HYPW). This can increase your chances of getting accepted and you have nothing to lose. That said, always keep in the back of you mind that you should apply ED to your first choice college that is the college you want to be in themost. Being in a top Ivy or a top LAC does not necessarily translate to being happy in college. Therefore it is advisable to delve into some serious college research asap. The Fiske college guide and the Princeton Review are two excellent sources and both helped me to find the right college.</p>

<p>Could anyone help me out; I've narrowed my school to where i want to apply ED for 3 places (i like all of them the same). But since its not always finding the "perfect match" for international students asking for aid, we have to look for chances of admissions too. I have ~ 1400+ for SAT I and very good A level grades ( 5.5 A's predicted). So here it goes:</p>

<ol>
<li>Brown</li>
<li>Penn</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
</ol>

<p>plzz help .. could you rank them in order of easiest to get in.</p>

<p>Penn ummm its not famous for being generous</p>

<p>waleedk87:</p>

<p>Your predicted A levels is excellent and should make up for your SAT. But do try your best to score 1450+ ish (crit reading +verbal) and remember an even score (eg 720 CR, 720 math) carries a lot more weight than a somewhat polarised score (eg 620 CR, 800 math). </p>

<p>If you are not applying for finaid then the order of difficult is -</p>

<p>1.Penn (college) (easiest)
2.Dartmouth
3.Brown
4.Princeton (most difficult) </p>

<p>If you are applying for a lot of aid then the order of difficulty (inmy opinion) isa bit controversial and not everyone will agree with me on this. Here goes -</p>

<p>1.Dartmouth (easiest)
2.Princeton
3.Brown
4.Penn (most difficult) </p>

<p>Basically, Princeton is need blind to ints and Dartmouth, although not need blind, gives very little importance to finaid need. Brown is underresourced and Penn is just stingy with aid. </p>

<p>However, dont rely too much on this info as i am no expert.</p>

<p>i second noxiousNirvana.</p>

<p>d i t t o !</p>

<p>on second thoughts, it also depends on the applicants from your fellow country. if you happened to be from a place like Singapore where less than 10% of the applicants ask for aid, you better be incredibly good to make them choose you over a sea of applicants who don't need aid. on the other hand if you come from say, some under-represented super poor country, it might not hurt as much to apply for aid. but i believe you're from india, so that falls into neither category...</p>

<p>no im from pakistan! thanks guys!!</p>

<p>I think ill go with Dartmouth then.. but im not sure how good it is for engineering..but i love the place otherwise</p>

<p>Don't hope to get much finaid from Brown or UPenn, ED or RD. Your best bet is either Dartmouth or Pton. I have friends who got in both places ED with huge aid. My own impression is that Pton is richer, but DM isn't short of $$$ either. Now it's down to your personal preferences, b/c this is the place you're willing to commit to for your all-important college education. DM is super-liberal and Pton is conservative, so yeah, it's up to you.</p>