Hey! My name is Luis, I’m a Brazilian wanting to attend college in the US.
I’d like you to help me with my college list. I picked colleges that offered a great amount of financial aid to international students.
My stats are:
GPA: 3.33
SAT: 1500
TOEFL: 100
SAT Subjects
✓ Math 2: 790
✓ Bio M: 760
✓ Chem: 730
Extracurriculars:
✓ Founder and captain of the basketball team
✓ Captain of the Volleyball team
✓ Started a project about strokes
✓ Teach Math to elementary school children using games
✓ Promoted a campaign about suicide in public schools
✓ Promoted a campaign about breast cancer in public schools
✓ Started a project to collect and donate books to public's schools
✓ Have a club to watch movies and develop the world view
✓ Started developing a virtual library
✓ Started a site to help people with math
Honors:
✓ Invited to the International selection for the astronomic international Olympiad
✓ Gold medal on Brazilian Astronomic Olympiad
✓ Bronze medal in Math Kangaroo
✓ Silver medal in State Chemistry Olympiad
✓ Bronze medal in State Chemistry Olympiad
Now, finally, the college list:
Dream:
✓ Yale University
✓ John’s Hopkins University
✓ University of Notre Dame
Match
✓ Reed College
✓ Macalester College
✓ Wheaton College at Massachusetts
✓ Dickson College
✓ Providence College
✓ Earlham College
Safety
✓ Hampshire College
✓ DePauw University
✓ University of Evansville
✓ University of Alabama at Huntsville
✓ Minerva Schools at KGI
So, what do you think??? Ahhh, I’m planning on major in biology and do pre-med.
I’m not familiar with the financial aid so I’ll assume you did your research. you list in general looks quite balanced. More than most seen on this forum (including my own Ds.) For the public schools check and see if Biology is an “impacted major” as this will reduce your odds as an out of state student. Bio is impacted many places-- not sure about your list specifically though.
I suggest you take a look at Denison University as a match. My son just started there as a first-year, and I happened to read yesterday that the school has committed to meeting demonstrated need for international students. Denison has a good pre-med program, and it’s a wonderful school for student athletes. My son is a runner but when we did the tour last year I was most struck by the basketball court - most beautiful basketball court I’ve ever seen! I think your well-rounded interests and experience would appeal to Denison.
I think that is a wide range of schools with a broad range of environments, and a lot of them place a lot of focus on an applicant’s “fit.”
I recommend that you really research each place and carefully consider the differences and what attracts you to each one.
Also, check to see if the environment diverse/international enough for you to feel comfortable living there?
Also – it is advisable to look at outcomes for each school. For example:
What are their grad school placement rates?
What internship programs do they have?
What is their internship placement rate?
Is it the same for international students?
Do they offer board/housing aid for international students over breaks?
etc…
(When dealing with a list like this… there are a lot more questions you will want to really consider beyond if they have your major and if they offer aid to international students. )
Personally, of your list, I would favor Earlham for the above reasons I named, and then I would recommend you take a look at Grinnell, and possibly Oberlin.