My Journey - international student seeking financial aid

College Search & Selection
1

Hi everyone, since my previous thread has been closed, I’m starting a new one to update as promised all the wonderful people that have helped me on CC last year as I was trying to come up with a college list - @momrath @MYOS1634 @Itisatruth @AlmostThere2018 @TTG and all the others who pitched in with suggestions and advice.
This is also to try and help a little all international students who, like me, dream of studying at a US college - work hard and give it a go guys, we can do it!

So my final stats:
SAT 1460 (RW760, M 700), IB diploma student (38-39/45 predicted), 11/11 As (equivalent) in IGCSEs before the IB. Bilingual. Western European.
ECs very varied, from environmental to various community services and writing projects (with a few prizes) and involved in all sorts of multicultural events.
EFC 15/20k depending on school, so I need large amounts of Aid.

As I got a couple of acceptances from UK unis I would be happy with (well before December), I could afford to aim higher and narrow my choices to more reachy schools. I looked for colleges that are generous with Internationals, mid-size and relatively near, or in, Cities. (In the end I didn’t want too rural, or Female-only). So here’s my final list, in no particular order:
Bucknell
Macalester
Tufts (Ed2)
U. of Richmond (EA)
GW
Brandeis
Connecticut College

As advised here, I tried to demonstrate as much interest as I could- wrote to all the colleges in the summer, sort of introducing myself, interviewed, met them at my school, kept in touch- they were all very nice and helpful! And then I worked on my essays, hard, pretty much on all of them.

So far I was accepted at Richmond, with a generous merit scholarship!! (I still don’t know the full aid package, but I’m still stoked!). Go Spiders!

Thanks to everyone that helped, I’ll keep anyone who’s interested udated as the other decisions roll in…

2

Thanks for the update and best of luck!
Brace yourself, because the process is rarely kind to internationals who need financial aid, but good surprises always happen :slight_smile: Let’s hope you’ll be the good surprise :slight_smile:

3

Richmond is a great school. Congratulations on the acceptance and merit award. How much is your family willing and able to pay?

4

@cptofthehouse pretty much in line with what comes out of the NPCs for us (though I realise they’re not very reliable for internationals) - around 20k including insurance/flights. Plus a 10k external scholarship, which is certain. So I need very generous need-based packages, for sure. Fingers crossed!

5

hi @MYOS1634 @cptofthehouse @Itisatruth @AlmostThere2018 @momrath etc etc!

Final update! Thanks so much to everyone who’s popped in with advice and suggestions across this and the previous thread. All results are finally in:

Accepted - Richmond, Macalester and Brandeis with very generous merit/need based scholarships, making them all affordable for my family.

Waitlised - Bucknell and Conn College

Denied - Tufts, Pitzer

So happy, now a tough decision to make in the next few weeks…
Keep well all.