<p>my name is Aviv and i'm from Israel. i'm 20 and i just got released from the IDF. i'm looking at some school options in the states for 2011. i'm a chill, laid back and very social guy who likes to have fun - but i also like intellectual challenging stuff. </p>
<p>i'm looking for a few things in a school. firstly, a good, fun party school with cute girls. that means somewhere not extremely competitive and somewhere really fun with fun people. secondly, somewhere that will provide me with a decent education and that will be somewhat challenging. and thirdly, somewhere that ill get financial aid - i'm can afford around 7 or 8 thousand dollars a year. </p>
<p>Here is the list of schools the i compiled - all give out some sort of financial aid to international students (though some more that others). Please comment on the schools and help me narrow the list down!</p>
<ol>
<li>Bowdoin College</li>
<li>Bucknell University</li>
<li>Carleton College</li>
<li>Colgate University</li>
<li>Dartmouth College</li>
<li>Duke University</li>
<li>Grinnell College</li>
<li>Middlebury College</li>
<li>Rice University</li>
<li>Vanderbilt University</li>
<li>University of Pennsylvania</li>
<li>University of Miami</li>
<li>Cornell University</li>
<li>Stanford University</li>
<li>Davidson College</li>
<li>Wake Forest</li>
<li>Sewanee</li>
<li>Depauw</li>
<li>University of North Carolina</li>
<li>University of Florida</li>
<li>University of Wisconsin</li>
<li>Union College</li>
<li>Lehigh College</li>
</ol>
<p>Before we can give you sensible advice, we need to know your grades, SATs, and extracurriculars. Also, we need to know what you’re looking for in a school: large? urban/rural? The schools on your list are all over the board. Many of them are also very selective, and quite a few of them public (which don’t give much aid to International students, unless that student is clearly exceptional.) And in your situation, being able pay only $8,000/year - you will need almost a full ride.</p>
<p>i haven’t taken the SAT yet - i’m taking it in December. my high school GPA is 3.7 and my TOEFL is 112. my extracurriculars are good, i guess - i’m 20, served in an elite unit in the corps of intelligence in the Israeli Defense Force, worked for several high tech companies since i was 16 as a software developer / CTO, traveled around the world, got a pilots license in the states, and so on… as for the type of school im looking, it doesn’t really matter to me as long as it is fun. the reason that the schools are all over is because im applying widely to up my chances…</p>
<p>All of the schools you list will offer you a “decent education.” And I don’t know what you mean by 'fun," because even at the highly competitive Stanford students still report having fun. </p>
<p>It’s good to apply to a range of schools – but the selection in your list is bizarre. Some of the schools on it absolutely NOTHING in common, and appeal to very, very different types of students. I can’t imagine more different schools than Bowdoin (small, selective private LAC in remote Maine) and University of Florida (large, less selective public in a hot climate) or Rice (southern, tends to be more conservative and appeals to techy types.) </p>
<p>You need to consider ‘fit’ – would you be happy if most of your classmates were more conservative/liberal than you? If your school is many miles/hours from any city? Or if the students were highly competitive academically, focused more on studying than ‘fun’? If you’re 20 now, you’ll be a fairly worldly 21 year old by the time you start - being in a small, remote little college, surrounded by relatively sheltered 18 year old freshmen who are years from being able to drink legally, may prove to be a rude shock. </p>
<p>By and large, there is little or no aid for International students at public schools - which would make schools like Florida, Wisconsin and North Carolina financially questionable. Being an international who needs a full ride may also count against you in the more prestigious schools attractive to many well-to-do foreign students (Dartmouth, Penn, Cornell) Smaller schools like Union College or Middlebury may not be able to offer you enough financial aid.</p>
<p>i probably prefer a school with people more liberal rather than conservative. as for the rest of the parameters - i could be equally happy in both a small LAC and a big party school. i would like to leave myself an option to select from a variety of schools and up my chances by applying to as many schools as possible. i’m not worried about how i will fit in socially with 18 year olds as i’m very social and i get along with all sorts of people… as for the public schools, i am counting on merit and need based scholarships, however i do know that these are not very easy to receive. what are my chances at admission and/or financial aid in the small schools and in the bigger schools?</p>
<p>I think you will get more results after you post your Dec SAT scores, but you should post a new thread with schools that are still accepting applications at that point. Also, it might help if you post a thread using what you can afford (“full ride?”), assuming no aid. That is what a lot of US students are contending with. I think the is a " full ride" thread, but maybe not a “international full ride” thread. That sounds really uncommon.</p>
<p>i can afford around up to 10 grand a year, give or take. about my SAT scores, im probably going to be looking at 650 on the reading and on the writing and somewhere around 800 on the math. my TOEFL is 112. does that help?</p>
<p>There is not enough info for anyone to really help. We don’t know whether 3.7 put you at the top of your class or not. And being a CTO at 16, well, that one is tough for me to buy as a consultant to tech companies. If any of them were successful, tuition should be no problem.</p>
<p>Also, what you think you can afford and what colleges think you and your family can afford are often far apart. For you to only pay $10K at these schools you would all have to have not made much money or have any significant savings or assets.</p>
<p>In the end from what I’ve seen, many internationals are not being realistic about what it takes to get into US schools and the cost. Education here is wildly more than in other countries, and unless you’re wealthy or a very top student, most will decide to stay home.</p>
<p>If you will only get 650 on 2 SAT sections, the ivies may well be out of reach. The state schools are highly unlikely to give you enough money. So are the privates that don’t meet need.</p>
<p>So first, use some calculators to estimate your EFC. If it’s under $10K, choose some need based aid schools where your stats are high. If your EFC is more than you Dan afford, focus on schools that have big merit aid available to internationals. Good luck!</p>
<p>2college2college - thanks for your response.
i’ll elaborate a little bit on my grades - my 3.7 GPA is unweighed and it includes 4 “hardest level” subjects (i don’t know what it equates to in IB / AP / Honors in the states). hence my grades are probably top 5% of my class…
as for my work experience, i work for two years as a software developer and then when i was 18 i was assigned CTO for 6 months before i got drafted to the army. while i was serving in the army i closely developed a solution with an entrepreneur for about a year. now im working as a developer again.
about the sat, ill try my best, it’s hard to be compared to students who speak english natively - no matter how good my english is… ill planning on taking the SAT II in math 2 and chemistry and hopefully ill get pretty high grades.
i will definitely estimate my EFC. which schools is my list then are likely to accept me, will meet my demonstrated need / give out a decent amount of scholarships for international students?</p>
<p>“which schools is my list then are likely to accept me”
– if you do well on your SATs, many on your list might, particularly the less selective schools </p>
<p>“which will meet my demonstrated need / give out a decent amount of scholarships for international students?”</p>
<p>That’s impossible to say. It’s a bit like asking which lotto numbers to play. </p>
<p>But to narrow your list, I’d suggest eliminating all the publics (North Carolina, Florida, Wisconsin) and Stanford & the Ivies (Pennsylvania, Cornell, Dartmouth) – the publics don’t give aid to international students, the Ivies/Stanford are highly competitive, for them your grades seem low and you’d have to have absolutely stellar SATs. </p>
<p>I would also question applying to LACs - schools like Middlebury or Bowdoin. It sounds like your strenghts/interests are in technical/computer areas, and those fields are more limited in LACs. Before you spend money applying, check out carefully the majors and selection of classes they offer. </p>
<p>That leaves schools like Vanderbilt, Duke, Rice, Colgate, Lehigh and Bucknell. If you want to apply for next fall, you need to check which schools have rolling admissions (accept applications past January for winter/spring semester). Then research how many foreign students they have and average financial aid awarded.</p>
<p>But like I said, it’s very, very hard for international students who require extensive financial aid. Most who succeed in getting it are fairly exceptional academically.</p>
<p>i used this: <a href=“http://www.oacac.com/docs/IntlFinAid.xls[/url]”>www.oacac.com/docs/IntlFinAid.xls</a>
to compile my list. all the schools on my list (other than the public, which ill probably not apply to) offer significant amount of aid to most of their international students. is this document reliable? im actually more interested in business / entrepreneurship areas so a school lacking a strong technological is not a disadvantage for me. im applying for regular decision which is 1/1 for most schools so i don’t need rolling admission…
are there any other parameters i should consider in narrowing down my list of LAC’s?</p>
<p>Your post makes it sound as though you are not interested in working very hard. If so,
you should eliminate almost every college on your list on that basis alone. I don’t like the idea of other people paying for your education so that you can party.</p>
<p>If you are interested in undergraduate business, LACs are not a good choice.</p>
<p>greennblue - im sorry thats how it came if, its definitely not true. allow me to elaborate. i want to go to a good school, that will provide my with good educations. however, i don’t want to go to a school where people don’t leave their rooms for 4 years (thats the impression i got of some schools like williams and amherst). thats just not what im looking for, im looking for a school with fun kids who know how to study hard and also to have fun… as for my major, i am still not sure, and anything is an option - biochemistry, business, computer science, international affairs. i don’t know, and i care more about the school and the people than the major…</p>
<p>giaviv, many liberal arts colleges do not offer computer science or business. </p>
<p>There is plenty of “partying” at Williams and Amherst – it’s just that the students ALSO study a lot. That is also the case at just about every school on your list.</p>
<p>About that list: what a school considers “significant aid” and what you consider “significant aid” may be two different things. As I said before, your grades seem low for many of the schools you showed us. If you’re taking the SATs in December, you may NOT have the scores in time for 1/1. Also, many of those schools require SATII tests as well. Have you taken those?</p>
<p>i understand. i will be taking the SAT II in January, which will be the last test taking date for several schools. other than the SAT II, to which schools in the list will be a good applicant?</p>
<p>As I already told you in an earlier reply, many liberal arts colleges do not offer business and/or computer science. Since you list both as possible majors, that is something you need to check out first.</p>