<p>So basically I have way too many colleges on my list and figured out that I should probably remove some. I have 8 universities on my list and I wanted to shorten it to 6, however I'm having trouble figuring out which ones to remove. I currently have:</p>
<p>-Northwestern University
-University of Richmond
-Georgetown University
-Washington and Lee University
-Iowa State University
-University of Oregon
-University of Wyoming
-Lafayette College</p>
<p>Which colleges should I remove? My basic criteria for picking colleges is:</p>
<p>-A good Computer Science/Engineering undergraduate program.
-Good academics. I don't have a problem with it being selective as long as it's not too selective like MIT or Stanford. In other words, no 10% acceptance rate; anything along the lines of 20% is fine, anything above that is just perfect.
-Financial Aid for International Students. Dad's unemployed, so some need-based aid would come in very handy. On-campus jobs would be nice too.
-No community colleges</p>
<p>Feel to remove more than two colleges and suggest new ones (as long as it all adds up to six). Thanks in advanced!</p>
<p>8 is not too many, and remember that alot of those colleges like Georgetown and Northwestern are difficult to get into.
Make sure you have reach schools, target schools, and fallbacks.</p>
<p>Yup that’s exactly why I’m trying to shorten it. I am currently planning on applying to MIT, Stanford, and Duke so basically those 6 colleges are going to be my target and my fallback schools. In the end I should have around 9 schools, which sounds like a good number.</p>
<p>For schools which are not ABET accredited and not among the well known top schools in CS, look over the CS curriculum carefully to see if it has sufficient breadth and depth of course work for you.</p>
<p>Other schools with relatively low list prices that you may want to consider are Minnesota, Virginia Tech, Cal Poly SLO, and San Jose State.</p>
<p>Make sure that you have a safety school that will admit you and which you can definitely afford. For international students who cannot pay list price to most schools in the US, this is more likely to be in your home country than in the US.</p>
<p>*-Iowa State University
-University of Oregon
-University of Wyoming
*</p>
<p>Financial Aid for International Students</p>
<p>Those are publics…they don’t give aid to int’ls.</p>
<p>What are your stats? GPA and test scores</p>
<p>If you have high stats, there are some school that will give you merit scholarships, but they won’t be free rides…your family would still have to pay some.</p>
<p>How much can your family pay each year? If not much, then your target/likely schools aren’t likely going to be affordable.</p>
<p>Note that some schools have low list prices, even for out of state or international students, such as University of North Dakota and South Dakota State University.</p>
<p>Maybe I’m biased because I live in Oregon, but U of O is seriously in the middle of nowhere. Eugene is just gross to me.
But I’ve been looking to get out of here since middle school, so that’s probably just me.</p>
<p>Actually some public ones do give some aid to international students, it’s just not as much as to US students. International Students usually just don’t have access to the Federal Aid and maybe a scholarship or two. Other than that there are plenty of scholarships (specially at the University of Wyoming, or so I’ve been told).</p>
<p>As for stats, I’m not worrying too much about them right now, from what I’ve been looking at these universities are generally around my level (Note: “around” is the keyword here) and I feel pretty confident about making into one of them. My SAT score isn’t the best at the moment (it’s 1800) but I’m definitely getting that up. I’ve also taken a few SAT Subject Tests and I feel I did quite well on them. As for my GPA, I haven’t calculated it yet but I know it’s something around 3.3 to 3.5, however I expect to possibly get a boost in that since our educational system here is completely different and it’s quite common for students, even the best ones, to get really low grades at times (and I’m talking stuff along the lines of 60%) and I’ve been told they really take that into consideration. Other than that I’ve done tons of extra-curricular activities that I think will really impress colleges even if I don’t get my SAT scores up or get that “boost” in my GPA. So yeah basically, I just want to come up with a good list and I’ll be aiming for those schools.</p>
<p>I’ll be making the effort to pay as much as I possibly can but as I said, my dad’s unemployed so the more financial aid, the better. If I don’t get enough money or scholarships I’ll probably just end up taking a loan anyway.</p>
<p>@Horsey7959: Lol, my mother said the exact same thing. I don’t mind it too much though, taking a short from the city life would be nice, all this noise is really starting to get on my nerves. I’ve also lived in small towns before so I know what it’s like. Oregon is a bit isolate, is it too bad though?</p>
<p>The current SAT score is around the 80th percentile. Low current grades and a need for significant financial aid are challenges. You may benefit from a gap year to allow for stronger senior year grades and an improved SAT score.</p>
<p>* Actually some public ones do give some aid to international students, it’s just not as much as to US students. International Students usually just don’t have access to the Federal Aid and maybe a scholarship or two. Other than that there are plenty of scholarships (specially at the University of Wyoming, or so I’ve been told).
*</p>
<p>I was talking about need-based aid. I wasn’t talking about scholarships at that point. you mentioned that your dad is unemployed, so that suggests that you need a lot of need-based aid to cover all or nearly all of your costs. Merit scholarships for int’ls rarely ever cover all or nearly all of a student’s costs.</p>
<p>Later I said that some schools give merit scholarships. That is different.</p>
<p>* My SAT score isn’t the best at the moment (it’s 1800) but I’m definitely getting that up. I’ve also taken a few SAT Subject Tests and I feel I did quite well on them. As for my GPA, I haven’t calculated it yet but I know it’s something around 3.3 to 3.5
*</p>
<p>I don’t know of any schools that would give huge merit scholarships for an int’l with your current stats. And, it sounds like you’ll also have international travel costs as well.</p>
<p>So again, how much will your parents pay each year??</p>
<p>Yeah, they do out give need-based aid for internationals. As for my parents contribution, I’m not sure about exact values, they haven’t talked to me about that yet, so I wouldn’t really be able to answer your question. All they’ve said so far is that I should look for schools that are either more affordable or that give out plenty of scholarships and financial aid to international students, without compromising too much quality since they still want me to get a good education.</p>
<p>But don’t worry about that part right now, I can deal with the whole admission process later. After all those are results from an old test I took, the GPA’s not exact, and so on. I’m just trying to figure out which of those schools best fit that criteria so I can work on making it into one them.</p>
<p>You will have to get actual amounts in order to figure out what actually is affordable. You don’t want the letdown of finding out next spring that none of the schools you got accepted to is affordable.</p>
<p>XD Please, don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m not asking whether I’ll get accepted or not, I just wanted to know which ones have the best academics, best computer science undergraduate programs, and give out the most aid. Don’t worry about the whole admissions/financial part, really, I haven’t even taken the SATs for real yet and I have plenty of “cards up my sleeve” if you will. Admission is not much of a problem. And if I can’t afford to pay tuition/living costs/etc., I always have the option of taking loans. I just wanted to take the least amount of loans possible in a worst case scenario, which is why I’m looking for schools that give out plenty of financial aid should my family’s situation get worse in the next few years. After all the global economic crisis is not over yet. At the moment I just want to know, which two should I remove from that list?</p>
<p>How would you get loans?? You’re an intl and your dad is out of work. You seem very naive about the financial ends. What public gives intls need based aid?</p>
<p>Would the banks in your country give a young student large loans without a qualified cosigner who can pay the loan back if you can’t.</p>
<p>I agree with mom2collegekids. Your current list of schools is missing an option that will be likely for admission and realistic for financial aid. You have jumped ahead to considering fit or geographic location, but that doesn’t matter if you can’t get admitted or cannot pay the full cost.
Schools on your list like MIT or Stanford that are generous with international aid are not matches with your current grades or projected test scores.
You may find it helpful to look at the financial aid for internationals section of each school’s admissions website.</p>
<p>Rest assured my family and I are taking care of all financial matters and we are able to get the necessary loans if ever needed. However, I’d prefer not to loan money, since any money borrowed has to be payed back one day. And yes, there are public universities that give out need-based financial aid to international students (e.g. the University of Oregon). </p>
<p>But for all intents and purposes, let’s say I have a 4.0 GPA, scored 2400 on the SAT, and can get the necessary loans to pay college: Which two universities of those 8 universities should I remove from that list?</p>
<p>The University of Oregon has 1,750 international undergraduate students. According to Edupass, less than 50 of those international students were given financial aid. Most of the schools on your list gave financial support to fewer than 15 international students.</p>
<p>University of Richmond
Georgetown University
Washington and Lee University
University of Oregon</p>
<p>have neither a high reputation in CS nor ABET accreditation in CS.</p>
<p>Low list price universities with good CS reputations to consider:</p>
<p>University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Virginia Polytechnic and State University
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
San Jose State University</p>
<p>Other low list price universities:</p>
<p>University of North Dakota
South Dakota State University</p>
<p>And if you really do have a 4.0/2400, you can always try the lottery-ticket schools like MIT.</p>