New here...help me choose please! :)

College Search & Selection
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<p>Hi, I'm new to CC as a member, but I've been poking around the site reading discussions for a while now. Great forum, by the way. Helped me a lot in the past couple months. ^^</p>

<p>I'm from Canada, going into senior year in September, and I've a list of 5-6 colleges I'm considering.
Here's some info:</p>

<p>-Average for past 3 years: 92.8, last year's average: 94.0
-top 5 in class of 300+
-SAT Reading: 800 Math: 760 Writing: 680 (essay 8)
-Lots of ECs/Volunteering/leadership roles
-Will definitely need financial aid to may off most of tuition
-looking at a pre-med type program, or a biology major.</p>

<p>Considering:
-Harvard
-Princeton
-Yale
-Cornell
-UPenn
-JHU (maybe...)</p>

<p>I know most of these are a long shot with an average and SAT scores like mine (I'm taking the SAT II in October), but I'd like to apply to one early decision and one regular decision. </p>

<p>Which colleges would you recommend I apply to? </p>

<p>I know Cornell's got an excellent pre-med program, but I've heard they recently cut how much they give in financial aid to international students, so that might be an issue. And they don't post SAT Writing scores, so I don't know if I even meet the requirements.</p>

<p>PS: I know I only got an 8 on the essay, I took the SATs twice and my essays aren't that great, but I can usually write better than that, but a lot of colleges use the essay as a "validity check" on the application essay. Can someone explain how they do that? Do they look at style, quality or diction, or is it just if the application essay sounds too good to be written by someone who got 8 on the essay?</p>

<p>Thanks for all the help!
~V.</p>

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<p>My impression is that most schools still don’t pay much attention to the writing score. U.S. News still just compares them based on the CR and the math added together. Your combination for those two is excellent! However, you need to think about more schools that are not such reaches. Hopkins is a good idea. Maybe Tufts or Wash U.? Even those 3 are not especially easy! Maybe University of Rochester. You might want to add in a few smaller schools for comparison. I think I have seen that liberal arts colleges in the mid-west (Grinnell, Carlton) and Davidson give more merit aid than the northeastern liberal arts colleges. For your early choice, Yale is the only one that has non-binding early action, so maybe you should try that?</p>

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<p>Also maybe Boston University, Pittsburgh and Case Western (OH/good with merit money). Best of luck!</p>

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<p>Thanks! </p>

<p>I might look more into the ones around New England, I don’t want to go too far (hometown: Toronto).
Would you recommend NYU? How are they for fin.aid?</p>

<p>@Hitch123: I’d like to give Yale a try; you’re pretty sure they don’t look that much into the SAT writing? That’s actually my biggest concern for admissions, I think I’d be able to pull everything else together Ok. I’d actually really like to apply to Princeton, but they use the SAT essay for a lot of things, so now I’m not so sure…</p>

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<p>The suggestion of Rochester by Hitch is a good one. It is a very good school that is also good with merit money. I don’t think NYU is that good with aid but I’m not sure.</p>

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<p>Cornell recently infused $400 million into their life sciences programs. They have a new bio building. Are you sure they cut back on aid to international students? Where did you hear that? I would apply to Cornell and see for sure what they offer you.</p>

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<p>Then I shall most definitely check Rochester our. Thanx (:</p>

<p>From what I heard (from a family friend and a classmate) that Cornell, up till this year, considered Canadian students as American students when they applied for financial aid, but because of the economy or something they now consider Canadian financial aid applications as international apps. And from what I’ve read on several websites (can’t recall which) Cornell only has a limited amount of aid money for international students each year, regardless of merit or need.</p>

<p>I could be wrong though (:</p>