I have a 2180 SAT score, a decent profile, and I know I’ll get into good colleges.
But the problem is…I am too rich for need based aid, and too poor to pay for college.
I am an International student, who lives in India. Got a call from Cambridge for an interview. Family already has loans to be cleared.
Now, need blind colleges won’t take me. Maybe they would.
When I was told ‘you need a lot of certificates to apply to US and other unis abroad’, I wasn’t told, ‘umm…just a sec, you need a lot of money too.’ I was 15 back then.
All this while, I’ve been working my ass off to get certificates. Then somebody tells me SAT is required too (I don’t come from a very developed city which has many counselors, or sends many students abroad. Hardly 2-3 pursue UG abroad every year.). I study for that.
I have already dreamed of being in a good college like UCLA, UCB, Cambridge, Oxford, and the Ivies. I tried contacting various counselors, and all of them say I have good chances of getting into them. Most of them won’t give me aid.
Out of the unis I am applying to, 30% are those, which I think will give me (but are very difficult to get into).
Is it my fault? How do I face this situation? What do I explain to myself? That I should compromise? and for what?
Is there any way out? Thank you so much.
Going to be honest – I am not sure why any student would expect to get a low cost or free education from counties where they are not citizens. And you need to go to reliable sources for information – any college website will tell you that standardized tests are required for admission.
You also need to get your terminology straight. Need-blind means you can get admitted without regard to the aid you need. But few colleges then “meet need” for international students. There are only 5 colleges in the US that are both need blind and meet need for international. You can easily Google to see which those are. You say you have some resources – how much can you pay?
Go to the international students threads and look for schools that offer merit aid.
Many American kids fall into the same circumstances. There are thousands of smart students who cannot afford to attend college or have to settle for ones they can afford. The U.S. is not the land of free opportunity that many think.
@firetruck - You need to find a university in your own country to use as a back-up plan in case none of the international options prove to be affordable.
In the US, there are a limited number of institutions that guarantee admission and significant merit-based aid to students based on their grades and test scores. Here is the list. Read through it and check each website to find out if the scholarships are also awarded to international students. http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/ There are other institutions that offer competitive merit-aid. Check the websites on this list to find which offer money for international applicants: http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/
@4kidsdad, given what US kids and their parents have to pay today, it doesn’t make sense any more. I think it is fine that some very high performing int’l students get aid to study here at top colleges, and some of the schools that are not need blind but meet need will give enough aid to a small number of very qualified kids as well. But US colleges can’t provide an education to every kid from abroad who wants to study here and can’t pay for it.
Both then and now, international PhD students studied for free at US universities. Not so much for undergraduate (except for a tiny number of highly selective schools with need-based aid for internationals or a tiny number of schools with big merit scholarships for internationals), although US universities were significantly less expensive a generation ago.
Yes, I would have to agree that it IS your fault that you can’t pay for college because you didn’t check anything.
** You have to quit playing the whiny blame game trying to blame someone, for your lack of proactivity.
You relied on piecemeal information coming from others. All of the college information about SAT’s, GPA’s and college costs/fees is posted on each and every college website. It is not a mystery. Anyone can look up requirements for admissions, online.
I know India has computers and the internet. Plus: Lots of your countrymen, living in small villages, have figured out the process and currently attend US universities.
How did you plan on getting to the US? How did you plan on getting permission to get into the US-we have a complicated visa process? How did you plan on paying for all of the travel, books, fees, local transportation?
So you worked hard to get the certificates, but you didn’t bother to look up admissions issues, including fees, for your dream? You didn’t bother to check that your current SAT scores won’t get you into those UC’s and the ivies? You’ve picked elite schools.
You won’t get much sympathy expecting US taxpayers to fully cover your education. The UC’s are public schools that are paid for by California taxpayers. International students get to pay full fees of $55K per year, since neither they, nor their parents have paid one cent in taxes.
Guess what? Most domestic students don’t receive aid either. Many go to community colleges then transfer after 2 years to save money.
You don’t need to compromise anything; your country has good educational opportunities.
To be fair, US taxpayers don’t foot the bills for all the internationals that get aid. In fact, the most generous colleges to internationals are private. So it is full pay students (their parents, really) and alumni donors who are footing the bill for that aid.
The world has changed since your int’l friends studied for free in the US. Back then, a filling station attendent would come out and pump gasoline for u. And an airline ticket included a meal and checked bags.
How much can your parents pay? If they can pay $12,000 a year, apply to University of Alabama…NOW. It’s possible you will get a decent merit award. However, without knowing your CR/Math SAT scores, and your GPA, it is hard to give more precise information.
Need blind schools do not consider your ability to pay when they are reviewing your application for admission. This has NOTHING to do with financial aid.
Schools that guarantee to meet full need for all is probably what you mean.
You don’t have the money to attend a US college. Neither do lots and lots and lots of American kids.
You weren’t given the correct information. When did this become about “giving”?? Is it seriously the responsibility of each and every one of the 4000 or so US universities to get their information out to each and every child on the face of the planet? or just India? or just you?
The first hallmark of an adult is someone who is capable of taking care of him-or-herself. That means YOU find out the information that YOU need. If you’re capable of finding College Confidential, then you’re capable of using google to find out the information you need.
Quite a few of the kids I teach will be going to the local community college because they can’t afford to go away to school. That’s no one’s fault; it’s a fact of life. I have no idea how we’ll pay for our 3 kids to go to college; that’s another fact of life. But when we began my son’s college list, we looked for:
a) finances
b) ability to get in
c) whether or not they have his major and
d) distance from home.
A school that did not meet ALL of those requirements simply did not make the list.
But before you even began to look at colleges in another country, I would imagine the very first question should have been “can we afford this???” Not “where do you dream of going?” but “What can we afford?” followed by “where can you get in?”
No one OWES you a free education, much less a school in another country. Your economic status is not their FAULT.
Are you an Indian citizen, or a resident of India?
In any case, if you don’t qualify for aid at colleges that offer need-based aid, it means your family makes MANY MANY times the average Indian salary.
Some colleges offer need-based aid to their top international applicants.
Other colleges offer merit-based aid, often based on test scores, to their best applicants or to all their applicants to reach a certain target score.
Your question and OP come off as whiny so that explains the responses rather abrupt responses.
Americans don’t like “whiny” people - oh poor me, what has fate handed me, etc. They’re “can do” people who believe in individual actions, not in destiny and fate. It’s an important cultural fact you have to understand if you want to function here.
The key question is: what is your parents’ budget, per year, for your studies?
Have you taken either the SAT + subject tests, or the ACT?
– what do you have beside SAT 2180?
Can you list your IGCSE results + predicted A Level results?
