Washington University in St Louis is a great school but it is need-aware for international students. Therefore, it is not a financial match or safety for this student. He should certainly apply if it is one of his favorites, but WUStL should go in the reach category. That means this student needs to identify more true safeties and matches.
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What about MSU or ASU as safeties? I qualify for in-state at MSU and ASU seems to have generous (guaranteed, it seems) scholarships for NMSF/NMF. Maybe graduating early is a possibility there too.
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The application rounds of of the 2020/2021 application season do not reflect regular ED application and admission rates. You should not use these admissions statistics to generalize for anything.
Many prep schools have connections to colleges like Wesleyan. The OP is not a prep school, and unless they are from a NE state, there is little likelihood that their high school will have that connection. Moreover, prep schools also have substantial numbers of legacies and have the sports for which private colleges recruit. Since you have no idea which of those points on Naviance was an athlete of legacy, it is difficult to figure that out. In addition, some prep schools have grade compression, so a 3.7 would be the equivalent of a 3.9 in “top” public schools, which, unless they are magnet schools, tend to have grade inflation, sometimes extreme grade inflation.
I also do not know when you attended high school - in 2013-2014 (the last year it was recorded), more than 40% of the students who were accepted to Wesleyan had GPAs of under 3.75, when their acceptance rate was just below 20%. According to their CDS, Wesleyan considers GPA to be “important”, same as it ranks LoRs, Application Essay, Talent/Ability, and Character/personal qualities. Only class rigor is considered “very important”. So the fact that a large proportion of students with GPAs of over 3.7 from a private prep school were being accepted only indicates that GPA was not the strongest determinant.
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Arizona State University as well as University of Arizona have guaranteed merit aid for stats. But really University of New Mexico flies under the radar screen and is worth considering.
@WayOutWestMom what would the aid be for this student with these stats…and what additionally if a National Merit Finalist?
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
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@WayOutWestMom what would the aid be for this student with these stats…and what additionally if a National Merit Finalist?
National Merit Finalists get a full ride scholarship–tuition, fees, housing and meals.
The scholarship applies to both in-state and OOS students.
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And international students?
I believe all NMFs are eligible.
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After doing some more research wrt intl student financial aid, I’m thinking of cutting JHU, Macalester (didn’t realize the intl acceptance rate is like 15%), Emory, and WashU.
Adding Villanova, UNM, ASU, MSU, Queens, and maybe Drexel. At least most of these schools don’t require supplemental essays so I can save some time.
Does this seem reasonable for my safeties/matches at least?
Why Drexel?
I visited their campus a few weeks ago and liked it. Also, their Global Scholars scholarship looks pretty enticing.
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Could UK or Australian colleges be a good option for me? I’m not entirely opposed to leaving the US for undergrad (nor are my parents), plus being a Commonwealth citizen might help with immigration procedures in those countries…
Being a commonwealth citizen won’t help with tuition, and the COA for international students is over your limit-BUT if stick to an IR/Politics type course in England (not Scotland), those courses are 3 years, so your annually amount would be closer to $40/45K, but your UG total would be lower than the US. UK admissions are much more stats driven and you could be quietly confident of getting offers from most unis (except Oxbridge & LSE, and you would be in with a chance there, but for Oxbridge you need to get your skates on b/c deadline is Oct 15, and for many courses there is an admissions test that you would need to get registered for before then, and then sit on 4 Nov). Worth looking at UCL, Durham and (especially imo) King’s War College, which has some great partnerships.
(re: the post above about Georgetown EA- that poster is mistaken. Georgetown EA is harder than Georgetown RD).
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You need to reduce the number of reach schools. That list is very long.
Australian university tuition is set by one’s undergrad major. For an international student enrolled in liberal arts or social sciences, the annual tuition/fees are about AUS$ 45-48K/year. Plus an international student health insurance fee, an international student amenities fee and, of course, room & board.
So over your price limit, though undergrad degrees programs are largely 3 years, not 4. And you may qualify for PR (domestic) status for your final year of university.
Being a Commonwealth citizen may help you if you want to apply for permanent residency in Australia. PR status will allow you to pay domestic student fees at the university. However, you won’t be eligible for PR status until you have completed at least 2 years of studies at the university in a field listed on Skill Shortage Occupation List issued by the Australian government.
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Apply to various universities in Canada - look at what their degrees in political science/IR require since there’s a more extensive list of major-based requirements (fewer/no gen eds though). Look into Queens but also Lethridge or New Brunswick. Your stats would likely qualify you for UToronto and their “college” system may help make the university feel smaller?
Michigan state + honors+ James Madison would be a low match and you’d get enough merit to make it very affordable.
What about Kalamazoo?
Once you have 2-3 Canadian universities, Michigan State, and UMich, you can apply widely at colleges that the NPC shows are affordable.
Do you have any idea when your green card will be processed or when you can expect a temporary number?
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Yup, I really like the college system!
My final action date is still a few months away according to the Dept of State’s visa bulletin, plus processing times at my local USCIS service center are quite long. I think I’d be lucky if I got it within the next year.
Look for “Reject train going full speed” by HKimpossible to understand what a diference a green card can make. (I think it’s in “Hindsights” ? Defintely pinned at the top of a forum on this website).
However, unlike HKim, you have Canada - there are worse fates than attending UToronto 
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Yeah, I’ve read through most of that thread. Although my situation isn’t perfect, I’m grateful that I’m not too far away from PR and I can afford more than many other intl students I know. And I guess his thread shows that everything does turn out fine in the end :’)
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@unixfy I’m curious to know where the figure of 15% international acceptance rate at Macalester came from? It doesn’t sound out of line to me, but I’d be interested to know how it was calculated as LACs don’t often publish international admission statistics.
My general advice to internationals who need substantial aid and are interested in small LACs is to spend some time looking at the colleges’ Common Data Sets. As noted, very few LACs release full data on international admissions, e.g., how many applied, how many were admitted, how many requested aid.
However, by extrapolating the information on the CDS we can identify those schools that are more (or less) international friendly. The key data points are the percentage of enrolled nonresident aliens, the total dollars spent on international aid and the percentage of internationals that receive aid. These are budgetary figures that don’t change much year to year (unless the school deliberately revises its strategy).
LACs admit both rich full-pay internationals and aid-needing internationals. I wouldn’t get too hung up on the need-blind, guaranteed full need list. Even those that are need-blind have a pretty good idea from the applicant’s background of the degree of aid required and the net price calculators are for the most part not reliable for internationals.
The LACs that score highest on percentage enrolled, total aid spend and percentage receiving aid:
Macalester, St Olaf, Trinity (CT), Amherst, Grinnell, Middlebury, Dickinson, Colgate, Williams
Mt Holyoke and Smith for females.
Those that are among the lowest in total aid spend are:
Hamilton, Kenyon, Carleton, Davidson, Bowdoin, Reed, Haverford
These schools do admit internationals even those needing aid, but fewer and less than the first list.
The others fall in the middle. As always with LACs fit is an important element both for the school and the applicant. For example, you should submit a piano supplement and indicate that you will continue to pursue musical performance even though you will not major in music.
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See here: International First-Year FAQs - Admissions & Aid under the “What does Macalester look for…” tab. Their website indicates that it was actually 11% for CO2025. I believe it was higher in the past - I was looking at a set of data from CO2023 (IvyAchievement 2019 International College Admissions and Financial Aid Guide | IvyAchievement).
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