Match Me: International Student for Psychology & Art; 3.7 (92%) GPA

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics

  • international student ((will enroll next year, due to a two year mandatory military service.))
  • Type of high school *: public regional high school
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional): female middle eastern
  • Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.):

Intended Major(s) psychology / dual degree in psych plus anything art related

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.7 ((92%)) (on a 4.0 scale)
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): my school does not offer a weighted grading system
  • Class Rank: my country does not offer class rank

Coursework
(AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores for high school; also include level of math and foreign language reached and any unusual academic electives

(highest is 5 units.) 4 units math, 5 units english (finished one year earlier)
in my country, you can only take 2 advanced classes - i took three (music theory + music history + band, art history + visual arts, psychology + sociology - social sciences)
on 9th grade i took an additional 5 units of arabic, intro to biology and chemistry, and on 10th grade i took 10 units of computer science.

Awards

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)

  • during school, i took three advanced and difficult classes (music theory, music history (music), art history, psychology instead of two - which is maximum amount of classes that is allowed to take.
  • during summer i helped my local school library organize books
  • as part of being in my school’s student council, i led and helped organizing an autistic representation day at my school, which had multiple stands full of activities for all students to participate in and enjoy.
  • during summer i was assisting a first-grade teacher with her special needs students during class - helping them write and solve math equations while being there for the teacher as they went on a field trip.
  • i write research essays for my own entertainment and knowledge. for example, i wrote a 45-page research paper discussing the development of serial killers from multiple perspectives and history, using respective sources and my own knowledge.
  • passed the exam to enter an advanced five unit english class, and finished one year earlier than my class
  • as part of my country’s national student council, and my school’s student council - helping presenting ideas for positive change and turning those into projects. one of the projects we’ve managed to bring to life was a project that helps girls and attempts to prevent the lack of menstrual essentials in bathrooms, and forming a larger defense system against sexual assaults in schools.
  • during my mandatory military service, i served as part of the adjutant corps. my job was to visit injured soldiers at home and in hospitals, while providing them mental, psychological help and turning them to the rightful authorities if they haven’t received financial or any sort of mandatory help.
  • during high school, i took part in a medicine project destined to create a prototype to eventually assist people in need once fully developed. the project didn’t get to reach it’s goal due to the school’s tight budget
  • formed a band

Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below)

i will be aiming to getting a merit scholarship from all the colleges i plan on applying to.

i would appreciate it if anyone could bring up some colleges that i would be able to easily get in / that would fit my stats that are not mentioned here, and also give me an overall view on which ones of the colleges listed below could accept me. as i am an international student i could always use some knowledge and opinions from people who know better :,)

  • depaul
  • MCNY
  • uchicago (highly doubt i would get in.)
  • parsons (DD)
  • fordham uni
  • berea college
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You seem to be a well accomplished young lady. Congratulations on your achievements.

I see that you’ve used 92% of 4.0 to arrive at 3.7, but I know in many countries a 92 is equivalent or better than a U.S. unweighted 4.0. So it’s not a direct translation. If you specify your country (If you don’t mind doing so), @MYOS1634 may be able to opine.

I don’t believe any of the schools on your list will provide sufficient merit aid (or any at all). What you need is financial aid, if you have demonstrated need. What is your budget? How much are you comfortably able to afford?

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@DadOfJerseyGirl thank you for commenting! :slight_smile: i’m from Israel if that helps. when it comes to my budget, i haven’t been given any financial limit or know my parents’ budget when it comes to my college fund or anything of that sort, so i wouldn’t know what that would be. all i know is that if there was any kind of financial struggle when it comes to the cost of my studies, i would’ve been informed. i assume i won’t be eligible for any financial aid, which is why i compensate for any kind of merit scholarship. while it won’t cover my whole tuition, it could help lift some weight off my shoulders :slight_smile:

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That’s what I guessed :slight_smile: but didn’t want to assume.
Unfortunately, I am not familiar with the schooling system there to assess the relative strength of your academic profile but other posters might be able to comment.

It’s very important you have this conversation with them. Education in America is very expensive. The cost of attendance at UChicago for example, is about $90,000 per year. $376,000 over 4 years assuming a modest 3% annual increase. And that does not include the cost of your flights back and forth from your home country. So please ask them explicitly if they are willing and able to pay this amount. If yes, that’s great news (and you can always seek merit $$ if available, to reduce their cost). If not, you will need to find schools that will provide sufficient financial aid to international students like you.

So, have that conversation and let us know.

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There are some significant differences between the schools on your list. If you don’t yet know about it, I’d recommend familiarizing with the College Navigator website produced by the U.S. federal government that provides a lot of information on the colleges in the U.S. General Information indicates if there’s any religious affiliation or if it’s a women’s college, HBCU, etc. There’s also information about the costs, financial aid, enrollment (including demographics of the student body, what percentage attend part-time, etc), admissions rate, graduation rates, the number of people in the most recent graduating class who majored in a particular field, etc.

For the schools on your current list, I’ve provided the College Navigator link, the number of undergrads, and the admissions rate.

  • DePaul: College Navigator link…About 14k undergrads, 70% admissions rate

  • MCNY: College Navigator link…. 426 undergrads; no psychology or art programs appear to be offered here. 65% admission rate.

  • U. of Chicago: College Navigator link…about 7600 undergrads. 5% admission rate.

  • Parsons: College Navigator link…about 7200 undergrads, 57% admission rate for The New College, but I strongly suspect that depends on the program that you’re applying to, and Parsons’ rate is probably lower. I also don’t know how easy it is to mesh psychology with art here.

  • Fordham: College Naviagor link…about 10k undergrads, 54% admission rate

  • Berea: College Naviagor link…about 1400 undergrads, 25% admission rate

In looking at your list you seem to have a strong preference for urban cities, but the inclusion of Berea seems to indicate that you’re open to non-urban options as well. As you have schools ranging in size from 426 undergrads to more than 14k, it doesn’t seem as though size is a big consideration for you.

With that in mind, I’ve come up with a list that appear to have fairly strong/popular art programming as well as offering psychology, which in the U.S. tends to be a bread-and-butter department that tends to be fairly strong across a gamut of schools. Since budget is still a bit of a question mark, I focused on schools that might be less expensive than some other options (like U. of Chicago).

At most public schools, you should not expect to receive any need-based financial aid, and those make up the majority of this list. Private schools, however, will often offer need-based aid to international students. You could receive merit-based aid from any of the schools on this list, apart from Hamilton. The schools in bold are those that are in definite cities, whereas others are in smaller cities or more isolated. I’ve sorted them based on my guesses for your chance of admission.

Extremely Likely (80-99+%)

  • College of Charleston (SC): About 10k undergrads and about $49k before any aid.

  • Flagler (FL): About 2600 undergrads at this private school. About $38k before any aid.

  • George Mason (VA): About 27k undergrads and $52k before any aid. Virginia publics tend to be stingier with merit aid than other public schools.

  • Grand Valley State (MI): About 19k undergrads and about $30k before any aid.

  • James Madison (VA): About 20k undergrads and about $43k before any aid.

  • Salisbury (MD): About 6400 undergrads. About $34k before any aid.

  • Temple (PA ): About 24k undergrads. About $52k before any aid.

  • U. of Cincinnati (OH): About 30k undergrads and a co-op focused school. Students can also get a certificate in art therapy, should that be an interest. About $41k before any aid.

Likely (60-79%)

  • CUNY City College (NY): About 12k undergrads. About $33k before any aid.

  • Drake (IA): About 2800 undergrads at this private school. About $60k before any aid.

  • SUNY New Paltz (NY): About 6100 undergrads. About $34k before any aid.

Toss-Up (40-59%)

  • Binghamton (NY): About 14k undergrads and about $46k before any aid.

  • CUNY Hunter College (NY): About 17k undergrads and about $27k before any aid.

  • Mount Holyoke (MA): About 2200 undergrads at this private women’s college. Part of a consortium with Smith, Amherst, U. of Massachusetts, and Hampshire. About $76k before any aid.

Lower Probability (20-39%)

  • Macalester (MN): About 2200 undergrads at this private school. Can also take classes at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design. About $77k before any aid.

  • Skidmore (NY): About 2800 undergrads at this private school. About $79k before any aid.

  • Smith (MA): About 2500 undergrads at this private women’s school. Part of a consortium with Mt. Holyoke, Amherst, U. of Massachusetts, and Hampshire. About $79k before any aid.

Low Probability (less than 20%)

  • Hamilton (NY): About 2100 undergrads at this private school. About $79k before any aid.

ETA: Fixed a school that should not have been bolded and clarified that merit aid is possible at all of these schools apart from Hamilton.

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If you are a full pay student do not include Berea on your list. Unless their policies have changed there is a need component for international students to be offered admission since they are seeking students that will benefit most from their free tuition and on campus work requirements model.

“international students—who are required to be low-income by the standards of their own countries—make up another 7 percent”

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How did you come up with your list? What makes them attractive to you?
If your parents make more than 65k a year Berea isn’t likely.
Budget is the #1 component for an international so you need to run the NPC on uChic and DePaul wih your parents.

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Sending you a private message. Look fir tge green circle in the upper right hand corner of screen.

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If your scale is what was typical when I was in high school, translate each 9 or 10 to a 4, each 8 to a 3, each 7 to a 2, each 6 to a D, and each 5 or lower to a 0. Do that for each grade and calculate the average.

If your high school uses 0-100, 90-100 = 4, 80-89 = 3, 70-79 = 2, 60-69 = 1, and anything under 60 = 0.

Why are you interested in studying in the USA? What do you want to do with a psychology degree? If you want to work as a psychologist, with a degree from the USA be any better career-wise than a degree from Tel-Aviv, Hebrew U, or Ben-Gurion?

You should also think about whether you would fit in a college. College in the USA is a very different experience than in Israel, and the students are very different than the people around you, especially by way of age and life experience (you’ll be 20-21, after military service, and they will be 18, just having graduated high school)

As for finances - remember that college, for the most part, is far more expensive here than in Israel. I think that annual tuition at Tel Aviv University is under $9,000 a year. Have you looked that the tuition for the colleges on your list, the chances of merit, and the amounts of merit?

Room and board are expensive, especially if you are going to be in NYC or Chicago.

I just want to make sure that you really have an idea as to what you’re getting into.

PS. how does your Bagrut look?

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The value attributed to a number varies. For instance, in the French-patterned system, 6.5-10= A, 5-6.5=B, 4-4.9= C, under 4=D, under 2.5= F.
In Israel, AFAIK, 55-64= US C, 65-74= US B, 75+ US A with 88 national honors. So US colleges would know a 92 average would mean a nationally competitive scholar.

@pistcl: beside the questions above, wondering why Brandeis is not on your list. Dickinson and Clark may also be of interest.

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Thing have really changed since I went to high school…

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