Hey, help. I am looking for a college that has to fulfill four criteria: be academically rigorous (selective, elite, whatever you want to call it), fiercely liberal, have a good (great) party scene (alcohol over drugs), and give plenty of financial aid to international students. I think that for example Brown and probably some LACs(?) meet all the criteria. I would like to work hard and party hard, but with cool, not preppie or snobbish, people. Any tips?
“Plenty of financial aid to international students” may be the long pole in that tent. FA to internationals is limited nearly everywhere. Average awards at some selective colleges are quite large (> $40K/year) but the number of internationals rarely seems to go much higher than around 10% of the student bodies.
Very few colleges claim to be need-blind for internationals and also meet 100% of demonstrated need. They include Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, and Amherst College (which are some of the USA’s most selective schools). About 60 colleges (including those 5) claim to meet 100% of demonstrated need, while also being need-blind for U.S. applicants:
https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/2017-09-21/colleges-that-claim-to-meet-full-financial-need
Most of those schools also are very selective and tend to be liberal (if not “fiercely” so). The ones with the strongest Party School reputations seem to include:
University of Pennsylvania
Vanderbilt
Colgate
However, none of these 3 seem to be among the most liberal of the “full need” schools. If you want to prioritize left/liberal political leanings, then Brown, Oberlin, Reed, Swarthmore, Vassar, or Wesleyan might be better choices. Maybe Macalester College, too. If you like winter sports and other outdoor recreation, consider Colorado College (which is quite liberal but located in a conservative city). Occidental (President Obama’s first college) is another urban LAC that might work. If you’re female, consider Smith College. Keep in mind that highly selective, lefty/liberal LACs often have no (or understated) Greek scenes (fraternities and sororities) and no (or few) Division 1 sports teams, which seem to be two strong elements of the classic American “party school.”
You can find information on institutional grant aid to international students in each school’s Common Data Set, section H6. You may want to avoid state universities, just because they usually give little or no FA to international students (although they do tend to have much lower sticker prices than private schools).
Good luck!
Correction: strike the second part of that sentence (after the comma). Not all those 66 schools are need-blind even for U.S. applicants.
Grinnell meets all those criteria.
Not sure about financial aid for international students, but McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada might be of interest to you.
Academically rigorous
Fiercely liberal
Good party scene
Plenty of financial aid to international students
I agree with @citykid, sounds like you are describing Grinnell
definitely grinnell, lmao.
Colgate: “Colgate meets 100 percent of demonstrated financial need for all admitted students.”
Wesleyan: Ditto, I believe.
Grinnell has already been mentioned.
“give plenty of financial aid to international students” – if you’re serious about studying in the US, AND if you need significant financial aid, you have to be open to schools that aren’t necessarily elite, “fiercely liberal” or big on parties. For example, I’ve known international students who received very good financial aid from lesser-known Catholic colleges and universities. In other words, beggars can’t be choosers 
Thank you so much for all the responses, @tk21769 in particular! I will definitely look into the colleges mentioned, and especially Grinnell and Colgate look very promising. Also, I absolutely agree with you @katliamom that “beggars can’t be choosers”, and I expect to have to make major compromises along the way. It’s very hard cuz the colleges that actually give out significant amounts of aid to international students are usually also astronomically hard to get into, even as a high-achieving student. When applying to highly selective colleges that are not need-blind for internationals (say, Brown or UPenn), does indicating financial need severely reduce one’s chances? Is it practically impossible to get into schools like that with financial aid, without being a superhuman?
We don’t know how much you can afford or what your SAT/ACT, grades, ECs are like – so we can’t really advise you. Some of the schools listed in #1 are still very hard to get into, especially if you need EXTENSIVE financial aid. But there are good schools that will offer you SOME financial aid especially with high SAT/ACT scores. So first, take one or both of those exams. Then have a frank conversation with your family to assess exactly what they are willing to pay. Without these two crucial pieces of information – your annual budget and your test scores – this will be a very theoretical discussion likely not to help you much.
So you are looking to come from overseas, get a ton of financial aid AND one of your most important criteria is attending a good party school? Seems to me like your priorities may not be quite in order.
I’m not sure about their international financial aid, but Reed might interest you.
I won’t need a full ride. I am from a wealthy European country and my family will probably be able to pay around $25k/yr. I am simply not able to pay for a college that doesn’t meet 100% financial need, as $50 - 70k is way too much to pay (huge loans) for an education that I can get for free in my home country. Also, I consistently score around 32 on the ACT and will take it in October. I think I will be able to score 33 with sufficient prep. My grades are also some of the best in the country (only a handful nationwide get my GPA every year) and I have some very impressive international extracurriculars. By the way, does anyone know if standardized test scores are more or less important for international students? I don’t mean to be rude by assuming that I can simply handpick whatever college I want and get it for free - I absolutely don’t assume that (@happy1). I am prepared (expecting, even) to not get into any of the schools I will apply to (let alone with “a ton” of financial aid), but I still want to try because what if…?
–I never intimated that you assumed you would get into US colleges. Please do not put words into my mouth.
–The cost of attendance at private colleges is hovering around $70K/year (not including international transportation, insurance and likely some other things). So needing $45K/year or upwards IS a requiring ton of financial aid (n my book at least). Very few state schools give significant aid to out of state students (although there are some exceptions).
–I think every aspect of an application is critical, especially for an international requiring financial aid.
–Certainly apply to schools in the US but I’d also apply to the free options in your home country.
“my family will probably be able to pay around $25k/yr.”
That is likely to be the issue at many or most schools in the US. Even for schools that meet full need for international students, you would need to run the NPC to see whether their definition of meeting full need brings the price down this low. A school’s definition of full need and a parent’s definition of full need are sometimes the same, but often not.
Someone above mentioned McGill. McGill is indeed a study very hard, play hard sort of place. However, I would be surprised if you can get enough aid to get it below US $25k per year. McGill (and every university in Quebec) used to be quite a bit less than this for students from France, but I am not sure whether the cooperative agreement is still in place. Admissions at McGill would be able to tell you for sure. There are lesser known schools in Canada where the full price of attendance for international students is on the order of US $25k per year without any aid, and a bit of aid might be possible also.
Wesleyan?