Is this a reasonable college list?

Applying to College
1

<p>Hey guys! I am an international student from an asian country (not the korea, india types) needing a LOT of financial aid. Do you think I have a reasonable college list?</p>

<p>SAT I : 2230 (800M, 680CR, 750W) , December scores yet to come.
SAT II : 800 physics, 800 chemistry, 800 math II, 770 math I, 740 U.S. History
GPA : 3.7 UW (I have given A-levels and although my final grades are almost perfect, I have few Bs and even two Cs :( in my transcript.)</p>

<p>Rank : top 10% (barely)</p>

<p>EC's are not that great except a few international awards.
Asian pacific mathematics Olympiad - Gold
International Astronomy Olympiad - Bronze
President of a club, Vice-president of one
Few volunteer works (~100 hrs)
Amnesty International
School soccer team for 3 years (does that mean Varsity???)
few other not-so-notable ones
I have traveled a lot (7 countries, most of them sponsored :D , don't think that helps)</p>

<p>Work experience: none
Essays : Pretty good.
Recommendations : average at best</p>

<p>So, here's my college list:
Williams, Cornell, Upenn, Georgetown, Hamilton, Kenyon, Reed, Richmond, Dickinson, Oberlin</p>

<p>Are there too many reaches? Is there a high probability that I would end up getting denied (admission and/or aid) from all of them? Any suggestion would be highly appreciated :)</p>

2

<p>There are unfortunately no safeties for an intnl needing a lot of aid. Are you from a country sending few applicants? Do have a good backup at home.</p>

3

<p>Thanks. I do have backup at home and yes, very few from my country apply to colleges in the US. What I mean by ‘a lot’ is that I can pay around 20k per year. Do I have a good chance at any of these colleges?</p>

4

<p>This is a good list from an admissions standpoint, but you need a lot of safeties- as an international you probably won’t get much if any need based aid, so unfortunately you need to focus a lot more on schools that you’re overqualified for that will will give you merit aid.</p>

5

<p>Thanks smwhtslghtlydzed (whoa… nice user name :stuck_out_tongue: )
Well, I know it is my job to do the research but still… can you please suggest some of such schools ? Unfortunately, many of them had Dec. 1 deadline in order to be considered for the merit scholarships. :(</p>

6

<p>Being from an unusual country helps a lot, colleges always want to add another country to their list. I’d literally go onto websites looking for a college that has no students from yours. </p>

<p>Being able to pay $20K also helps. Is this reflected on your FA forms? Often intnls are able to pay more than their computed EFC, if this is your case make sure to tell the colleges how much you can pay.</p>

<p>I think you have a fairly good shot at the non top schools that get fewer intnl apps overall.</p>

7

<p>Sure, I can try :slight_smile: Just going off what you have on your list, you might like Gettysburg if you like Dickinson- they’re about on the same level and I think you would have a shot at merit aid at both. Goucher might be a good option too- they’re very internationally focused so they might be into attracting international students with aid. I can give you better advice if you tell me a little about what you’re looking for in a college and what you want to study (if you know that yet) but based on Georgetown, if you want to be in DC you might want to consider American. Another interesting idea that I’m just throwing out there is Howard; it’s in DC (if that matters to you) and it’s historically black, so if that’s something you could be ok with, they’d be likely to want to admit you and give you merit aid to add diversity to the campus.</p>

<p>A fairly easy way to do some research on your own is to use the College Search tool on this website and put in everything you want, but edit your stats to lower than what they actually are; that way, hopefully you can find schools that you like where you’re above average. Good luck in your search! :)</p>

8

<p>Thank you so much waverly. :slight_smile:
And smwhtslghtlydzed, you are awesome. \m/ Thanks a lot.</p>