Rather than saying you need 75%fa, can you indicate what amount your parents have? Because 75%on 67,000 and 75% on 32,000 are not the same amount at all and indicate vastly different amounts of need.
“Settle for some good lac” is a bit offensive since you’re talking about institutions most students would feel lucky to be admitted to.
Find colleges with merit scholarships such as Temple, UAlabama, etc., and apply to those, too.
Finally, you will apply to A LOT of schools not just one or two, first becauseas an international applicant you have to hedge your bets (expect to be turned down from most colleges) and second because you’ll need to compare financial aid offers.
@MYOS1634 I am sorry if that came out offensive…I didn’t mean it…My parents can pay around 12-13k $ …I am planning to apply to at least 8 universities…
@MYOS1634 and I reason why I don’t want to go for LAC is that they don’t offer Computer Engineering …and I really don’t wanna compromise on that …If I can get Into University of British Coloumbia with the same schlarship…I would chose that…
Okay then. It does reduce your opportunities since CSE programs where there’s also full tuition aren’t too numerous, but check out University of Alabama’s Honors College, Temple, Miami-Ohio, and Howard. You can also try for UMD (College Park).
In Canada, beside UBC, check out Waterloo.
@MYOS1634 I checked UMD …But I could not understand 1 thing that if it that good…Why is its ranking so low(132 on times)…And what are my chances at U minnisota I read that they too have scholarships for international…
@MYOS16 DO carniege and northwestern give aid to international…
So here are my full stats:
Objective:Indian Student from ICSE/ISC board taking gap year.No MUN, Ap in my city
SAT I (breakdown):2150(M-730,CR-710-W-710)
ACT (breakdown):
SAT II:Not given but planned…expecting above 750 in both Math 2 and Physics
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable):Salutatorian
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):
Grades in 9th=82%(5 rank/140)
Grades in 10th=87(8 rank/143)
Grades in 11th=70%(15 rank/145)
Grades in 12th=89.25%(2 rank/145)
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
- Cracked NCO (By SOF and 125 International rank and 4 in city and technolothon ( organised by IIT Guwahati).
2.Won various national Level Robotics Competitions organised by IIT’s in their Technical Festival.
3.Ton’s online courses from Coursera,Udacity and EDx .
4.Did theatre for 2 years in High School.With script writing
5.Android App Developer(not launched any till now.Wil do it soon)
6.Received 8kyu.belt in karate.
7.Represented my school in InterSchool Table-tennis in 9 standard. Haven’t done anything in sports since then
- President of Computer Club at my School.
- I was appointed in my school's student Council twice.
10.Learned german in 9th and 10th(Of course I know remember nothing of it now, school Curriculum)
11.Play Keyboard and did many shows in my city.
Job/Work Experience:
1.Kind of interned with my school’s Counselor for 1 month.She helps students with the psychological problems. (She is NOT College Guidance Counselor,)
Volunteer/Community service:
1.I tutor 2 kids in my building for free(Obviously because they are not able to pay for it)
2…Did community work at my city’s School for Deaf and Dumb
Summer Activities:
Nothing Good
Essays (rating 1-10, details): I don’t know how to rate it but anything between 7-8
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): Very Good.9-10
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yep. can pay around 12-14 k per year
Intended Major: Computer Engineering+psychology as a minor
State : Madhya Pradesh
Country: India
Income Bracket:<25000$
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):Nope
Intrested Colleges:
University of Minnesota
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Brown University
Boston University
Rice University
New York University (NYU)
Northwestern University
Carnegie Mellon University
Tufts University
Purdue University
I know I am not Ivy material but what do you think which colleges are in my reach,safe and match
@tk21769 @TomSrOfBoston @Irreplaceable guys please you too chance me…this is the last time I am bothering you guys…
Texas public universities use class rank to the exclusion of GPA. But you probably have to look at schools other than UT Austin to see if they have scholarships that are sufficiently large and are available to international students (some from Texas A&M and UT Dallas do come with waiver of non-resident tuition).
@ucbalumnus Thanks for replying …I searched the Texas public universities none of them give the tye of aid i need…What do you think of my chance at brown …It gives need-based aid…Is it a match or a reach…
Minnesota does offer need-based and merit aid to international students. The average award amount is only about $3300, which would only cover about 10% of the costs. Maybe your stats would merit a larger award. It’s hard to say, but keep in mind that about ~5500 freshmen enter UM each year. The number of available merit awards appears to be smaller than the number of students with stats as high as yours (or higher). Presumably, Americans (esp. Minnesota residents) would get first crack at them (unless some sum is held off for internationals).
Macalester College is a LAC in the same city. It, too, offers both need-based and merit aid to international students. However, its average award is about $42,000. In 2014-15, Mac granted financial aid to 215 international students (compared to 180 students at Minnesota, a school with about 10X as many freshmen as Macalester).
Here’s a ranking of colleges in Minnesota:
http://www.stateuniversity.com/rank_by_state/score_rank/MN.html
Macalester is #2, Minnesota is #8.
I’d say that among people very familiar with the US college system, it’s a more prestigious school than Minnesota
(although these things are somewhat in the eyes of the beholder).
Compare average class sizes on the USNWR site:
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/macalester-college-2358/academics
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/university-of-minnesota-3969/academics
Brown is a “reach for everyone” school, hence it’s doubly a reach for you.
ANY college or university with an admission rate of 20% is a reach for Americans, and for internationals convert that to 30-35%.
There are no safeties on your list, in part because you need a lot of financial aid.
You should apply to UAlabama’s Presidential Scholarship program.
UNC is unlikely to be within budget, as is Purdue. Carnegie Mellon clearly states it doesn’t have any international aid for internationals and expects you to pay 65K. Boston University is lousy with aid. So is NYU but because they’re trying to prop up their Engineering college, you may get luckier. Northwestern is need-aware. Rice, Brown, Tufts are “reach for everyone”. UMinnesota-Twin Cities would be a match but is a reach for sufficient financial aid; it’s still your best bet on the whole list.
I agree that Macalester would be a great pick if you could consider CS and not CSE, but if that’s a “must” (criterion that won’t budge) then LACs outside of Lafayette, Swarthmore, and HarveyMudd are non starters, and your stats aren’t good enough for Swarthmore and HarveyMudd considering you’re neither first gen nor from a deprived area. Your overall record is good though, as are your ECs, and if you could take the German SAT Subject it’d distinguish you from the many applicants with the same credentials as you.
@MYOS1634 Thanks for the detailed input…So what you are saying is that as of now I might have a shot at Northwestern and UMinnesota-TC…I really don’t wanna compromise on the Major…One thing I didn’t tell is that I have 3 months of internship at a local software development firm and a local Computer technician(This really made m fix my mind on CSE rather than CS,I have a good essay conveying this)…Also I am taking the SAT again this June hoping to increase my score over 2250…That should increase my chances…What do you think…
^ The only thing MYOS1634 said about Northwestern is that it is “need-aware”.
That means high need is a potential negative factor in the admission decision. Northwestern is much more selective than Minnesota even without introducing need as a factor.
You would be aiming for the merit scholarships, not just admission, at the Texas public universities.
UNC-Chapel Hill is very difficult for out-of-state applicants, and I presume even more so for international students. They are required by law to admit at least 82% of their freshmen from within NC. I think your chances of admission with sufficient aid are very low there. Carnegie Mellon’s Computer Science program is probably the most prestigious and selective in the country. It is a big reach for everyone in the world. NYU is famously nasty about financial aid. They might offer you a merit award, but it won’t necessarily bring your cost of attendance down enough for you to be able to afford it. New York is a brutally expensive city, furthermore, where you cannot save money by moving off campus. People keep recommending Temple to you, and I can personally attest to the fact that Philadelphia is a great city, with world-class cultural activities, but much less expensive than NYC, or even Boston. You can save money there by living off-campus. Brown, Rice, Northwestern, and Tufts are all reaches for everyone, and bigger reaches for international applicants requiring sizable aid packages. There is just too much competition, as everybody has indicated here. You might get in, but you should presume that the odds of admission with adequate aid are not in your favor. I don’t know enough about UMN-TC, but knowledgeable parties on this thread seem to think you have a chance there. Purdue is probably an academic match, but I don’t know how competitive Computer Engineering is there, or how much aid they are likely to offer you.
@ucbalumnus Do you think I would qualify for Merit Aid at Texas public universities enough to finance my fees…If yes then I would be more than happy to attend it…
@woogzmama So UNC-Chapel Hill is out of list…and so in NYU…So my best bet here is UMN-TC…I will have to work hard…try to get my scores high…By the way thanks for the reply…
You can find the number of scholarships awarded to internationals, and the average amounts, in each school’s Common Data Set (section H6). Alabama’s averages are much higher than Minnesota’s or Texas’.
Some of them, like Texas A&M and UT Dallas, include non-resident tuition waivers with many of their merit scholarships. So you may want to investigate the scholarships on their web sites to see if they are available to international students. Ask the school directly if you are not sure.
@ucbalumnus Will do…Would be every good if Austin gives it…It’s one of my dream schol…