<p>I'm looking towards chemical engineering, but that may change to computer science once I start on a college computer s class at my city college next semester. So I'm thinking on probably colleges that has both great chem e as well as com s programs. (in case I want to switch when I'm a freshmen)
Also, my family probably won't be able to offer much, so I will need to have financial aid.
I live in Iowa so ISU and UI are given for me.</p>
<p>Here's my list. please help me shake it down in the manner so that I will have some safeties as well as reaches and above:</p>
<pre><code>* Cal Tech
* Carnegie Mellon U
* Columbia U
* Cornell U
* Georgia Tech
* Harvard C
* Illinois Inst Tech
* Iowa SU
* Johns Hopkins U
* MIT
* Northwestern U IL
* Princeton U
* Purdue U
* Rice U
* Stanford U
* U Calif Berkeley
* U Calif Los Angeles
* U Illinois Urbana
* U Iowa
* U Michigan
* U Minn Twin Cities
* U Southern Calif
* U Texas Austin
* U Wis Madison
* Washington U St. L.
* Yale U
</code></pre>
<p>btw, yale, harvard, and princeton are needblinds, we don't have a lot of money, so might as well.</p>
<p>also, I've been in the U.S. for 9 years, but we don't have a green card. So even though I'm pretty American, I'll be in the international pool</p>
<p>Do you know what environment you're looking for? Do you want a city or a rural college town? A public school with 20,000+ students or a small private school with 2,000 students?
Also, stats would help to determine which ones are reaches and which ones are matches/safeties. You could narrow it down like that, too.</p>
<p>3.8 gpa uw, most challenging courses, committed extracurriculars (although not spectacular), SAT II math2-800 chem-740</p>
<p>ACT score is coming</p>
<p>I'm not really sure how the financial aid for international students work. Because when you think international, you tend to think someone outside the U.S. Do they ever measure the amount of fin aid they give based on the family income or the residential situation
(in my case, 9 years in the U.S.) OR is it solely based on merit and qualifications in terms of admission?</p>
<p>You live in Iowa so Wisconsin and Washu would be good bets, but it depends on what you want. Do you want to have a college experience with 40,000 kids or 3,000? Do you want to be far from home or in the region? Once those questions are answered your search will be narrowed dramatically.</p>
<p>Location: preferably somewhere NOT flatter than Iowa. Coast works too.
Population: idc, more people would probably fly better with me. Yes definitely more people</p>
<p>Cost/Education: MOST important. Looking for great engineering program and lots of financial aid, especially for internationals (again, idk if they would reconsider an Americanized immigrant as more American than immigranty). I bet this alone narrows the list by at least one half. Only I'm too lazy to do all that research when someone might already know</p>
<p>If financial aid is a priority you should probably go to ISU since they have a pretty reputable computer science program. Being an immigrant will help with admissions at colleges. Since you would rather go to a large school you should check out the big 10 universities as most of them have a pretty good academic standing. The best schools in the big 10 would be Northwestern (probably would be hard to get financial aid from them), Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan.</p>
<p>This issue comes up frequently for students in California. Our local high schools have a number of students who have lived in this country for years, but are not documented.
They are often stunned to find that the doors to college are not open to them in the same way that they are for their classmates who are citizens or legal residents, because they cannot get federal and state financial aid.
Some choose to attend community colleges for the first 2 years instead, so they can keep their costs low, and then transfer.
You will find that is pointless to apply to any school without doing your research and understanding how they will view your status and whether school-based financial aid is available to you instead.</p>
<p>I don't think UCLA or Berkeley would be able to offer much in terms of financial aid, and it already is extremely to difficult to get in without being in-state. USC will also be very expensive because even if your financial aid package is great living in LA will be an incredible expense. U Michigan is also pretty expensive for out of state.</p>
<p>i think:
1. you are eligible for in-state tuition at the public U in iowa (please check however)
2. you won't get any federal aid, not until you actually become a PR</p>
<p>for schools outside of Iowa, they are either need-blind/need-aware for internationals. very few schools are need-blind for internationals and as far as i know, they are the top-Ivies and Stanford. </p>
<p>the need-aware schools only provide FA to limited number of internationals and you can bet how many internationals are competing for them. so schools that are otherwise safeties/matches could reject you because of your need for FA. this makes admission very difficult to predict.</p>
<p>The most realistic I would say are Minnesota-TC, Wisconsin-Madison, and the two Iowa schools while you should still try for the need-blinds and the schools that meet 100% need (such as Cal Tech).</p>
<p>1/4 of the entering students at USC have merit-based scholarships. your status doesn't affect your chance to get them. so you should take advantage of it.</p>
<p>apply to schools that give merit-based scholarships. apply to any of the HYPS. also, when you say your family doesn't offer much? do you mean they are poor? if they are not but just don't want to help, then even the need-blind schools won't do you any good. your only options would be the ones that are cheap enough to begin with or those that throw lots of money at you based on merit.</p>
<p>another option is to have your family to get on top of Green Card application and wait until you have it (take a gap year if needed). these days, depending on your status/situation, it may not take long to get one. I got my green card within 3 months of filing it. it's employment based; those from china/india would have to wait MUCH longer. including the pre-filing activities, the whole thing took just under a year.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Cal Tech
* Carnegie Mellon U
* Columbia U
* Cornell U
* Georgia Tech
* Harvard C
* Illinois Inst Tech
* Iowa SU
* Johns Hopkins U
* MIT
* Northwestern U IL
* Princeton U
* Purdue U
* Rice U
* Stanford U
* U Calif Berkeley
* U Calif Los Angeles
* U Illinois Urbana
* U Iowa
* U Michigan
* U Minn Twin Cities
* U Southern Calif
* U Texas Austin
* U Wis Madison
* Washington U St. L.
* Yale U
[/quote]
For your situation and interest in Chem E, I would apply to the following:
University of Iowa
Wisconsin-Madison
Minnesota - Twin Cities
Northwestern
Rice
Washington University in St. Louis
Princeton</p>
<p>^i would pick USC over WashU because USC's scholarships are easier to get and it has better engineering program esp. in computer engineering. WashU engineering school was a mess not long ago and i am not sure what the situation is now.</p>