Looking for colleges as a domestic but actually international student

College Search & Selection
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Hi everyone,

I’m looking for schools to help “pad out” my list. Due to my visa status, I am considered an international student by most colleges (currently waiting for green card final action date); however, I have lived in the US for over 10 years. I also hold Canadian citizenship.

Demographics:

Asian male, senior

Top public school in state

No hooks

Intended majors: Political Science or International Relations + Pre-law

Academics:

ACT/SAT: 36 ACT, 1590 SAT, likely NMSF at least

UW/W GPA and Rank: 4.00 UW, 4.40 W, school doesn’t rank

Coursework: AP Seminar (3), AP US History (5), AP Lang (5), AP Micro (5), AP HuG (5), AP Calc BC (5), AP Research (5), AP Gov (5) + taking 4 dual enroll & AP Lit/AP Psychology/AP Statistics/AP German this year. Taken all honors/AP classes where available

Awards: NHS, “highest distinction scholar” (school district award), outstanding senator award from state Youth in Government, AP Scholar and AP Capstone Diploma/AP Scholar with Distinction, nominated for school academic related award by a teacher, couple first place awards in local piano competitions, top 1000 in state 3 times for math competition

ECs: Varsity cross country (3 years), PTA committee co-chair (3 years), robotics team lead (“varsity” + 7 years), president of Model UN club (4 years), Delegation Leader/state Attorney General for state Youth in Government (3 years), developed some web applications + my blog with around 100k monthly visits total (between all of them), cryptocurrency lecturer (?) for school’s investing club (2 years)

Current schools list:

Reach:

  • UChicago
  • Columbia
  • Pomona
  • UPenn
  • Yale
  • Stanford
  • Harvard
  • WUSTL
  • Amherst
  • Wesleyan
  • Georgetown
  • JHU
  • Swarthmore
  • Brown

Match:

  • Emory
  • UMich (in state)
  • Occidental

Safety:

  • Macalester
  • UToronto
  • UBC

I prefer small to medium schools (i.e., below 10k students), a more urban environment, and cooler weather/cold winters. I especially prefer schools on the east coast. These are merely preferences and not requirements, however.

After running NPCs, my EFC is about $35k.

Given my stats and the international student issue, does my list look reasonable? What schools should I consider adding and/or removing? I’m especially looking for schools that will be generous enough with aid.

Thanks in advance!

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Not sure the net price calculators are always accurate for international students.

Can your family pay $35,000 a year for for you to attend college?

My opinion…you need to reduce your reach schools. You have 14 on the reach list. I’d reduce that list to maybe five or six at the most.

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Based on your interests, these sites may offer you ideas for refining your choices:

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Macalster is not a safety, it is a high match for you or a low reach. Occidental is a high match.

Emory is not a match, it is a reach (acceptance rate around 15%).

Check whether you are in-state for UMich, since you are still an international student.

You don’t need to pad out your list, you need to narrow it down, at least the reach list. Your matches could do with a couple of additions.

As @thumper1 wrote - get rid of most of your reaches. It is extremely difficult to produce that many good applications. Moreover, you may be underestimating the emotional impact of getting rejections of 15 or 16 of 20 applications. While you are not likely to be rejected rom all of them, it could happen (there have been students with similar profiles who have been rejected from all of their reaches.

I recommend that, in general, don’t have more than 4 colleges with accepatnce rate lower than 10%, and only one or two with acceptance rate 5%-6% or lower.

Do check our George Washington university, and check out colleges that would give you some merit funding.

You are looking to go to law school, and that is expensive. It is unlikely that your parents will be able to support you, and taking out loans for law school is a bad idea. So you should not be thinking about whether you can be accepted to a college, but which colleges are both affordable and are good for pre-law undergraduates.

SInce you will likely be an NMSF, you should also look at colleges which have good scholarships for NMSFs.

I know that you are thinking about things like prestige, or the “best colleges for Pre-law”, “Best collegs for international relations majors”, etc, lists. However, those lists are only good for kids who do not have to owrrk about the cost of law school.

Talking about costs, just because your EFC is $35,000 does not mean that this is the amount that will be charged by every college. Many colleges on your list are not full need met, so they can very definitely charge you more.

Furthermore, until you get your Green Card, you are an international student, and, except for a handful of colleges, all colleges are need aware for international students.

You are a competative applicant for any college, but some 90% of all competative applicants who are “unhooked” are rejected by the reaches on your list.

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I’m very grateful to be in a position where the answer is yes.

What schools might you recommend for me to add/cut besides GWU? I know some of the schools on my list are stingier than others w/r/t aid for international students but I’m not sure which…

The reason for the length of my list is that I’ve always been told that international students should “shotgun” schools (even by my own guidance counselor) because the acceptance rate for international students needing aid is so low. Plus, it seems like the schools of that caliber are among the few that can offer 100% demonstrated need aid to intl students. Is this just incorrect advice?

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Here are the in-state tuition rules for Michigan:
http://catalog.umd.umich.edu/undergraduate/registration-records/guidelines-qualifying-in-state-tuition/

You may want to check if you qualify based on “II. Establishing Eligibility by Attending Michigan Schools”.

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Do you qualify for in-state tution at UMICH and when applying for aid will you apply as an American or International student?

If you are not eligible fill out FASDA and do not qualify for in-state tuition, there are unfortunately only a few schools that are need blind for international students (HYPSM). Besides that, applying for merit aid, and looking at Canadian schools is your best bet.

If you qualify for domestic aid, schools on the reach list like Wesleyan and WUSTL will be easy to get into ED1 or ED2. Additionally, Georgetown EA has a good chance of working out. After that, Harvard Yale Stanford will most likely be a no early and the other seven schools on the reach list depend on fit as well as supplements etc. Finally, JHU, Pomona, Chicago have ED2 w Chicago having EA as well.

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As a Canadian citizen, you would pay as a Canadian at any university in Canada. There are a small number that have “in-province” costs which are different than “Canadian” costs, but you still are going to be way under US$35,000 per year at universities in Canada. Your GPA of 4.0 plus a high SAT means you will almost certainly be accepted wherever you apply in Canada (assuming good references, and ignoring the handful of schools that teach in French).

However, if you prefer a small to medium sized school, I am not sure if you should limit yourself to two of the four largest universities in Canada.

For example Mount Allison (in New Brunswick) and Acadia (in Nova Scotia) are both very good small universities. Queen’s (in Ontario) is mid sized, and is very good and is also better known than the smaller universities. Carleton and/or Ottawa might also be worth looking at.

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Actually…those aren’t the five schools that are need blind for admissions…AND meet full need. Remove Stanford and add Amherst.

There are lots of colleges that are need blind…for everyone…but they don’t all meet full need for all accepted students.

@unixfy for safety schools…would you consider places like University of Alabama or University of New Mexico? Both would give you excellent merit aid.

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I’m pretty sure UAlabama is free for National Merit Finalist

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Alabama does not meet OP’s search criteria. Although, with 30K undergrads, neither does UMich

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Yes, luckily I qualify for in-state tuition at UMich but I would be an international student when applying for aid. The in state tuition at UMich is not too far from the $35k mark however.

I’ll definitely take a look at these - thanks!

I’m not really sure about applying to other states’ public flagships, mostly because of how large they are (as @skieurope mentioned). I’m only applying to UMich because my high school is known to be sort of a feeder school for it.

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Ummm say again? Yes, ED1 acceptance rates to Wesleyan are 43%. However, of the 450 or so ED applicants who are admitted, from the 1,100 or so who apply, 10 are Posse Veterans, 20 are QB, about 150 are recruited athletes. There are also 140 direct legacies, though there may be some overlap with recruited athletes.

That means that fewer than 30% of the ED applicants who does not belong to one of those groups are accepted to Wesleyan. Better than the 18% or so RD acceptance rate, but not “easy to get into” by any stretch og the imagination.

As for WashU, their admissions processes for recruited athletes are even more opaque than those of other colleges, but it is pretty clear that the 36% acceptance rates for ED applicants is not the ED acceptance rates for ED applicants who have no hook.

So, while these colleges accept a substantially higher percent of applicants like the OP who apply ED than who apply RD, it is not close to be a high enough percent to claim that either of these colleges are “easy to get into” for ED applicants, even highly qualified ones like the OP.

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UNM is more of a financial safety for you than your all-around favorite pick. As an international student, you may not receive enough FinAid from UM for it to be affordable. Because of UNM’s merit-aid structure, it should definitely be affordable. The purpose of applying there is not because it’s one of your top favorites, but because it is guaranteed to be affordable.

Getting into UMichigan/Purdue/etc doesn’t matter if the cost is outside of your families budget. You need a couple of financial safeties that offer your intended major. UNM is one, but if you don’t want to attend there, you should definitely work to find other guaranteed financial safeties. Your situation makes that a necessity.

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@unixfy You should also look at liberal arts colleges that have low numbers of Asian students. So, while 18% of Swarthmore’s students (and 22% of their class of 2024) are Asian, Only 10% of Carleton’s students are Asian, and 9% of their class of 2024.

You should look at Tulane, as well.

Here is a list which may help:

https://www.chronicle.com/article/which-highly-selective-colleges-have-the-highest-and-lowest-percentages-of-asian-undergraduates/?cid=gen_sign_in

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How about Reed, Lehigh, or CC? I’m surprised to see those schools have such low numbers of Asian students, plus they also meet my search criteria. Maybe Reed or Lehigh would be ok match options?

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No school is a total match/safety if it is not guaranteed to be financially affordable. You’re not looking only for academic stats matches, you’re looking for total matches and total safeties

In your situation that means a school where you can look at the merit-aid structure and virtually guarantee the COA is within your family’s budget. Or a public school where you qualify for in-state prices - apparently unlikely at most colleges in USA but easily attainable in Canada.

Reed College and Lehigh are both need-aware. That means neither is a financial “match” for you. If you really love both schools, you should apply and see what happens. However, you should ensure you have actual safeties on your list. UNM is definitely a financial safety. Find others.

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You are going to be an international student when applying for aid and admission at all US schools (no federal aid). Michigan just gives you the advantage of instate tuition. A few other schools will give you that advantage too because of your stats (New Mexico, FSU).

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Weselyean ED1+2 Acceptance rate was 55% this year. (488/888). At my old prep school, we had scattergrams of students who applied ED(some were athletes others non) and the bar to get was significantly lower. RD is a ■■■■■■■■ there but there was no one with higher than a 30 ACT and a 3.7 GPA who didn’t get in ed.

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WASHU ED with interest is not that selective unless for architecture. They take a huge chuck ED and if interest is shown as well as having a strong application which the OP has they should get in.