<p>hi i<code>m a junior in highschool. i</code>m an international student and i don<code>t live in the U.S. i hope you can give me some opinions. i would appreciate it very much.
I</code>m currently interested in applying to some very competitive schools such as the Ivies. One of the reasons is because of their well known names(I know this isn<code>t a very good reason..)But I</code>ve recently been wondering if an Ivy education(and other non-Ivy schools such as MIT/Stanford,..) is really beneficial for me. This is because I<code>m pretty sure what careers I want to do in the future-and all of them require further education than a Bachelors. I</code>m considering going to vet school or other health related areas. And obviously, this will cost alot of money.
And those top notch colleges cost ALOT of money too.My parents are willing to pay, however, I thought it would be a better choice to go to a school that doesn<code>t cost as much money ( such as a state univ. or other univ. that arent as prestigous) and save up so I can do graduate study at those prestigious colleges after 4yrs of college.
Is a top-notch college education really worth it if your planning to do a master</code>s? For example, if I go to Yale for undergraduate study, would it enhance my chances of doing graduate study at Yale and other competitive colleges? Would going to a not-so competitive college hurt my chances when applying for graduate programs at Yale?(this is just an example!)
Sorry this has gotten very long. Thanks to anyone who replied.</p>
<p>Some state colleges are expensive if you aren't a resident getting instate tuition. Some Schools with high price tags have generous financial aid, but I don't know how this applys to your families situation. For example, some need blind colleges, have limited the amount of loans they expect their students to accumulate and will give grants to cover amounts over that limit.</p>
<p>I believe Princeton (an Ivy) limits undergraduate debt, but this is related to need based financial aid. You would do well to call some schools and get a sense of costs vs merit or need based financial awards.</p>
<p>There are many great schools out there, some less known than others. You are smart to consider future impacts of debt, but weight that concern with quality of education. </p>
<p>Financially, it wouldn't make much sense to go to an Ivy League school and accumulate a massive amount of debt if you wanted to become a public employee where a certificate from any school does the trick and where pay is a set scale.</p>
<p>Intellectually, a great school can restructure the way you think, expose you to ideas you never knew existed and reward you for life. Go to the best school you can afford. It might be a liberal arts college or a public University or it might be an Ivy with an adequate financial aid package.</p>
<p>Hello, I'm an international student at U.Va.</p>
<p>From what I've heard, Ivy (or other private) schools are more expensive than state schools even for international students, with the difference of about 10000 bucks.
Although some 'very prestigious' private schools say they offer need-based financial aid, it is still harder to get in with the aid than not (and I think it is pretty obvious).
An international student applied to some prestigious private school (I don't recall the name of the school) requesting an aid, eventually got in but with no aid.
You've got to remember those private schools you are considering are ridiculously hard even to receive an admission offer.</p>
<p>As for cheaper schools with less prestige, including state schools, it will not hurt your chances into prestigious grad schools if you manage to get a close-to-perfect cumulative GPA and high grad admission test scores.</p>
<p>It all comes to down to how you perform at college.</p>
<p>However, if your parents are rich and able to pay for your tuition at an expensive school, then I don't see any reason to avoid it.
All I wish to say is that going to a prestigious yet less prestigious school will not hurt your chances if you do well there.</p>
<p>As an international student, I would not count on financial aid, or merit scholarships. I believe you can get a great undergrad. education at some excellent schools, for a much more affordable price. Many of these schools are well respected, and getting into medical programs would not be a problem at all.
Take a look at RiceUniversity,(Texas), Bard College (New York), Baylor University (Texas), which also has a well-known medical school, SUNY-University at Buffalo, (New York), Wake Forest (North Carolina), University of Texas at Austin,
William and Mary (Virginia), McGill (Canada). </p>
<p>I am sure you will get lots of suggections from others too.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Thank you very much for all who replied! That was very helpful for me.
Umm one question-if my parents can afford at an expensive school,why shouldn`t I advoid it?Do they often give better education than not-so expensive schools?</p>
<p>o and also one more last question(sorry!)
say if you wanted to become a doctor(just an example): would you have more employment opportunites if you graduated from a more prestigious school? does it really matter where you graduted? thanks so much for your help everyone</p>
<p>For medical school, the med school matters, not the undergrad school. Some very small LAC's have exceptional med school admit rates. Also some top schools that may not have the overseas reputation are exceptional good values and about $10k per year less than other schools. Rice and Grinnell come to mind. You won't have any problem with grad admissions from these outstanding schools. Look at Kalamazoo College, I bet you've never heard of it, but it's ranked around 17th for grad school admit rates. St. John's is an unusual school that also ranks very highly for grad school admits. Look up Colby in Maine. </p>
<p>Many state schools will give you a very fine education, U Mich-Ann Arbor, UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UVA, UNC-Chapel Hill come to mind.</p>
<p>japstudent12,
I believe it is not a matter of the quality of education, since all top schools offer a similar level of education. The prestige, I believe, is the big reason. Consider a Harvard student. The general public would almost automatically consider one to be extremely bright and talented if he claims to have gone to Harvard (and this would be true in many cases).
Like I said, go to a school like HYPSM if your parents can pay for your tuition, since the prestige thing is not to be overlooked. But then again, even the very top students are often rejected from these schools, so this is a matter to be worried after you get in.</p>
<p>Also, are you aware that an international student with no citizenship or the green card has virtually no chance of being accepted into a med school? Only about 1% of all int'l applicants are accepted into a med school, as far as I'm concerned.</p>
<p>Thanks evryone!! </p>
<p>bettina: thanks for the useful information. do alot of people consider grad school admit rates when selecting a college?would it be good to?could you maybe give me any links or info about the grad school admit rates (i would like to see a ranking if possible)thanks! </p>
<p>Int<code>l_85:thanks again for your reply. no,i</code>m sorry i didn`t know that the acceptance rate for international students was that low,i shud do some more reason. thanks for the info tho. why is it that international students have such a low chance?is it because of academical reasons?(that theyre not capable of doing it presumably because of for example, english profiency)or does it have to do with their international background?is this low accpetance rate same for other med-related schools such as dentist schools,veterinary schools, etc?</p>