My (Second) College Search Begins

College Search & Selection
1

Hello,

Here’s the deal: I can no longer afford college. Due to circumstances which have severely diminished my parents’ ability to pay for my education, I have no other choice but to leave Penn State (main), primarily because it offers me no financial aid (international student).

I am therefore restarting my college search, this time with a very different set of criteria in mind. My first priority will be to stay in the States, as any education I get from here will be better than anything my home country has to offer. To that end, I am not above studying in a “less prestigious” college, provided that I can afford it.

While everything else is secondary, in an ideal world, I would prefer a college that offers my current intended major (Geosciences/Geology). Failing that, Journalism and Philosophy are my second and third choice respectively. A reputation for excellence in said fields would be great, though not necessary by any means.

I have no non-academic preferences.

Here’s some background information:

  • First semester in college, and doing pretty decently. Will probably end the semester with a 3.8 - 4.0.
  • I will retake the SAT, and I am confident in breaking 2000 at the very least.
  • I am looking to transfer for Fall 2016.
  • I am not clear exactly how much my parents can pump into my education, though it's not an insignificant amount. For reference, it costs me about 45k/year to attend Penn State.

Colleges that I am currently considering are those that offer full need-based aid, such as Amherst and Trinity, and those that have relatively low tuition, such as BYU and Berea. The goal here is to find a middle ground between affordability and national/international reputation.

All help provided would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thank you.

2

I don’t think you can retake the SAT after you begin college. SAT is intended for HS students, so even if you can I don’t think colleges will consider it. And SAT isn’t as important if you aren’t a freshman because it doesn’t count for the college US News ranking.

So you will have 2 full years at Penn State when you transfer and schools will see transcripts through 1st semester of sophomore year?

3

One and a half, as I started in the spring. If applications are not due until the end of my second semester (Fall 2015), then I will apply with two semesters’ worth of transcripts and credits (at least 30).

4

Bump

5

@dalehu, As an international transfer who needs financial aid you have several strikes against you, so you’re really going to have to do your homework and consider a wide range of schools.

Below is a list of schools that guarantee to meet full need for internationals. Some are need blind; most are need aware, which to me isn’t as important as finding colleges that guarantee to meet full need for international transfers.

Few schools spell out their aid policies toward international transfers on their websites, but a few do. Rice and Duke, for example, are very clear that international transfers do not qualify for financial aid, period. I fear you may find others in this category.

Admissions quotas and accompanying financial aid for transfers are always in greater demand than supply. Amherst, for example, only accepted 33 transfer students for the class of 2018. They don’t breakdown that figure to US vs Internationals, but you can imagine that the number of international transfers is very low.

I would suggest you send out an email blitz to a large number of schools asking about their financial aid policy for international transfers. If they say yes or maybe, add them to your to consider list.

Also, many schools have Spring admissions for transfers. I’m not sure how feasible this is, but if you could only pay for Fall 2015 at Penn State you could divert your Spring 2016 funds at your transfer school.

Guarantee to meet full need for internationals (at least for first year admits):
Please note, this is not an all-inclusive list. I’m sure there are others you can add. Are you sure Trinity guarantees to meet full need for internationals? If yes, add them to the list.

Amherst, Brown, Colby, Dartmouth, Davidson, Emory, Grinnell, Hamilton, Harvard, Macalester, Middlebury, MIT, Pomona, Princeton, Rhodes, Richmond, Stanford, Swarthmore, U of Chicago, U of Pennsylvania, Vassar, Yale, Wesleyan, Williams. If you are female, you can add some of the women’s colleges.

I’m sure this situation is very stressful. Good luck and let us know how you do!

6

Brown is supposed to have a good geology program, and I’m sure there are many others there that do as well.

7

@momrath, Thank you for the thoughtful reply! I will definitely take your advice on the email blitz. Spring 2016 would be ideal, but I doubt I will have enough credits for a large majority of my potential colleges. When minimum credits are specified, does that include credits that I am currently enrolled in, but have not completed at the time of my application?

@BrownParent, I will definitely consider Brown, though admission looks far-fetched to say the least. Unfortunately, this does seem to be the case with most of the colleges that I am presently considering.

8

NO college meets full need for international transfers and most college don’t admit any if they need financial aid. Berea doesn’t accept international transfers (well, “very rarely”, in other words, basically never).
LACs admit very few transfers; some may admit one with some financial need. You’ll need to apply to a lot of commonapp colleges and it’s not certain at all that you’ll get financial aid even if you
(note that some have March 31 deadlines for Fall 2015, others have April 15 deadlines).
Check out colleges such as UMN-Twin Cities, since they do offer some transfer scholarships to top international transfers (you’d probably have to pay 25-30k even with the scholarship); South Dakota School of Mines; Truman State; Missouri School of Science and Technology.
Check out the financial aid forum for the “low, low cost American universities, 25k all included”.
Do you have family somewhere from which you could commute?
Do you have people you could room with (friends) in NYC - the CUNY colleges are not too expensive, but housing + cost of living is huge (15K tuition but expect 12k just for a room in an apartment you share with many others, plus food, plus $112 for monthly subway pass + all incidentals…) CCNY and Baruch are the best colleges, respectively for science and economics/business, but I don’t know if CCNy has geology.
What are your HS stats?

9

South Dakota Mines? Should have good geology, is lower cost, and not too selective for transfer admission.

10

@momrath, Princeton does not accept transfer students:

Princeton does not offer transfer admission. Any student who has graduated from secondary school and enrolled as a full-time degree candidate at another college or university is considered a transfer applicant and is not eligible for undergraduate admission. https://admission.princeton.edu/applyingforadmission/admission-faqs/eligibility

11

I think this is going to be tough. First it is harder for an international to get aid, second it is hard for a transfer student to get aid. I don’t think re-taking the SATs will help a whole lot as standardized test scores for students with over a year of college and these tests are meant for HS students so how you do after some college may not be especially relevant… This isn’t what you want to hear but I’d look hard at the options in your home country.

12

If you are currently in your first semester of college, you need to quickly find out which places would consider you to still be a freshman applicant. That could open up more options on the financial aid front. If there are any likely candidates, you would need to take a leave of absence from Penn State at the end of this year, and not enroll anywhere for next year.

Read through the links in this thread, and see if there is anything that could work for you: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1678964-links-to-popular-threads-on-scholarships-and-lower-cost-colleges.html#latest

13

@MYOS1634, I have family living in Chapel Hill, and will probably apply to UNC. NYC is more or less out of the question, for the reasons you stated. I did pretty well in HS, though we don’t employ the GPA system. Penn State’s average GPA is about 3.5 if I am not mistaken, so my transcripts are decent I think.

@ucbalumnus, I will look into it, thanks!

@GnocchiB, Noted!

@happy1, It’s probably the responsible thing to do, but a last resort nonetheless.

@happymomof1, I always thought you were considered a transfer as soon as you were enrolled in a degree program. Any particular colleges that you have in mind?

14

Using your own example, I think Penn State allows you to apply as a freshman with <30 credits. Look at the thread and start investigating.

15

Each place sets its own policy about who is a transfer. Some will consider you a transfer applicant with just one cedit earned after you finish high school Others will not consider you a transfer unless you have earned the equivalent of a full year’s worth of college credits. And of course, the rest fall somewhere between.

This means that you need to find out whether any of the places that you might like to consider would allow you to be a freshman applicant, and hence eligible for better scholarship money. If they would, then you need to take a gap year next year rather than spending another semester or two at Penn State.

And, frankly, if your family is in a bad situation financially, you have no business going back to Penn State in the fall. What you would pay there for two more semesters would pay for three semesters at a lot of other decent places, and two full years at SD School of Mines http://www.sdsmt.edu/Admissions/Tuition-and-Fees/

16

In addition, go to the transfer forum on this website and start a thread “where can I apply as a freshman with 15 colleges credits?”

17

Check out Colorado School of Mines … Have no idea what policy is on FinAd for transfers … but excellent school and I know they do have some substantial scholarships for freshmen …

18

Colorado Mines is a lot more expensive than South Dakota Mines or New Mexico Mining.

19

Thank you so much for all the replies guys!

I have sent a blitz of emails to about 61 colleges, with varying degrees of prestige. So far, only Oberlin will cover my full demonstrated financial need.

As it stands, I will definitely apply to South Dakota Mines and New Mexico Institute of Mining. I should have no issue affording these two schools, and SDM in particular looks great!

I will also apply to a few more competitive schools, that are need aware, such as Oberlin, Amherst, Dartmouth and Brown. Obviously not going to put too much hope here, but strangers things have happened!

At a stretch, I could also probably afford UMinnesota-Twin Cities. BYU would definitely be in range as well.

All in all, I’m not leaving the country just yet!

20

Great that NM Tech and SD Mines are affordable!

They both have geology majors and/or several related ones:
http://www.nmt.edu/departments-and-degrees/
http://www.sdsmt.edu/Academics/Degrees-and-Programs/

And yes, definitely don’t go back to PSU (at least with a full credit load). Maybe a CC instead if you need the visa?

BTW, in general, the Dakota schools are pretty cheap (and geology likely is pretty big there):
http://www.ndsu.edu/admission/cost_tuition/cost/
http://und.edu/admissions/undergraduate/costs-and-aid/

This will give you more chocies.