My friend needs your help

Parents Forum
1

<p>Hi!</p>

<p>I'm writing this message on behalf of a friend of mine, who cannot post at the moment. Needless to say, he is looking for college options in the us and would appreciate your suggestions.</p>

<p>He is a junior in high school where he is concentrating on mathematics and computer science, and he is interested in pursuing a degree in computer science in college. He has had numerous awards from math and informatics competitions; he is currently at a team which prepares high school students for informatics olympiads and contests. A computer science and a math professor will write recommendations for him. Also, he has been seriously involved in football, and his coach also agreed to recommend him. He has designed web sites, and has some accomplishments in the area of programming.
His family can contribute approximately $6,000 towards his education, so he needs substantial financial aid. Can you recommend some colleges that are not from the Ivy-range, but which can accept him and offer him some money?</p>

<p>Unfortunately, I cannot give stats for him because he hasn't taken the TOEFL and SAT tests yet. But on TOEFL practice tests he scores in the 270-290 range, and I believe he will do fine on the exam. As for the SATs, he is definitely scoring above 750 on math, and for SAT IIs he is taking Math IIC and Physics. My math teacher (who is also tutorign him) said that he cannot score less than 750 on any math test. However, this is only preliminary information.
At school, his gpa is around 5.70 out of 6.00. I advised him to raise his gpa as much as he can, because most Bulgarian who apply have higher gpas.
As for extracurriculars, he is volunteering at a Youth Organization, student government, and he is designing the school's web site.</p>

<p>Thanks for reading this rather long post:)</p>

2

<p>Macalester, Grinnell, and (maybe) Carleton are three very fine colleges that offer substantial financial aid to foreign applicants. Williams is probably the best of the LACs for math, and is need-blind for international applicants, but is extremely, extremely competitive (takes about 7% of international applicants), and there is no merit aid.</p>

3

<p>Some other possibilities in addition to Mini's recommendations: KEnyon,
College of Wooster, Lawrence U. In terms of Universities, he might try the University of Arizona, University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin and possibly Tulane but getting nearly full aid will be tough.</p>

4

<p>Thank you for your suggestions!</p>

<p>He is going to take the TOEFL and SAT tests soon and I encourage him to prepare well and eventually do well on those exams, so that he can increase his chances of admission. Mac, Grinnell, Williams and Carleton are indeed pretty tough to get in, and I doubt that he was serious chances up to now. That is why I am first going to recommend some safeties, and after he has taken the tests and improved his gpa, he might consider schools from the top range.</p>