Please help me choose 8 colleges from this list

International Students
1

<p>Hi. I'm an international student.
My stats and ECs:
SAT I (single sitting)--> CR-740 W-740 M-720 (2200) :'(
AP Physics C: Mech: 5(could only afford one)
SAT-IIs--> Due in October.
ECs:
1. Founded this astronomy club in school. I think it is my strongest EC, as I have a lot of compelling stories to tell about it. Basically personal challenges, overcoming stage fright and taking a leadership role, lobbying school for funds/perseverance etc etc etc
2. Scored a perfect CGPA in this 10th grade national exam(CBSE board in India, if you've heard of it).
3. Was awarded one of the most prestigious scholarships of our school.
4. Regular member of the school quizzing team. Won a national and finished 3rd in a regional quiz.
5. Other small competitions blah blah blah.
6. Some research work in physics.
I haven't had a lot of opportunities come my way. I've made the most of which did. Giving IPhO in November, hoping for the best.
Percentile-5%(school doesn't rank- and class size is VERY small, about 60 kids only).</p>

<p>I need about 90-95% aid, so I have no real safeties. I made this elaborate point system according to which I awarded points to schools on the basis of the majors they offered(which I wanted), fin aid offered and the no to which it was offered. Apart from the 5 colleges listed right below, I graded others and now I am pretty confused.
These are the colleges that I am considering:</p>

<p>Definitely applying to:
MIT
Yale
Princeton
Dartmouth
Cornell</p>

<p>Considering as (relative) safeties:
Skidmore
Reed</p>

<p>Confused about applying to:
Trinity, UChicago, Wesleyan, Vassar, Colgate,Columbia.</p>

<p>I am confused because:
1. I can't decide whether I should apply to Columbia. My list already has 5 very selective schools, and further I have a feeling Columbia will reject me anyways because they are need aware and I feel I don't stand out.
2. I really like UChicago, and it really feels like "home", but again, I feel the same issues as stated above for Columbia. Also, it's as selective as Cornell, so I am not sure whether I should spend time on applying to yet another selective school or whether I should apply to a safety instead.
3. In case of Trinity, Wesleyan, Vassar, Colgate, Skidmore and Reed, which ones do I have the maximum chance of being admitted to <em>and</em> receiving generous aid? My SAT scores are either on the higher side or higher than the upper limit of the SAT scores for these colleges.
4. I have a feeling I might be missing out on some college that could be a better safety+fit. Any suggestions on additions/deletions of colleges from this list are welcome.</p>

<p>Thanks for your time. I really appreciate the help awesome CC members offer for which education counsellors charge hundreds of dollars. Thanks again.
(PS- What I consider as a "relative safety"- A school with an acceptance rate of over 30% and an average fin aid package exceeding 40k for internationals)</p>

2

<p>

Careful. A high overall admission rate does not translate into a high admission rate for international students. Up until a few years ago, Peterson’s reported the admission rates of domestic and international students separately. Berea had an overall (combined) admission rate around 30% but an international admission rate of 4%. A representative from Colby posted on this forum that they received around 900 applications from financial aid seeking international students, but had only 10 financial aid packages to distribute among them. I recall Reed having one of the highest numbers of international applicants too. (I don’t recall the actual number but I do recall not applying there for that reason.)</p>

<p>My best advice to you is to apply to as many “relative safeties” as you can. I applied to 8 of those and got admission offers from 2, of which only one was affordable. (Both met my “full demonstrated need” but they estimated my need very differently.) I didn’t get into any of my Ivy-league-type universities. </p>

<p>My application in a nutshell: I had a 34 on the ACT, perfect scores on my SAT IIs, near-perfect scores on the TOEFL, graduated first in my class, won an award in the national math competition, was in a gifted program that let me take university classes in lieu of high school classes (standard in the US, rare in Europe), was the head of our student newspaper, worked a 20 hour/week job, did low-key athletics and organized summer programs for middle school students.</p>

3

<p>Are you Asian, by the way? Be aware that most of Wesleyan’s financial aid goes to Asians (through the Freeman Asian Scholarship Program).</p>

4

<p>@b@r!um
Thanks. That really made me think again about all my choices. I can’t find anything on the international students admission rate anywhere. Should I not apply to these “relative safeties”? I don’t know of any more, in fact. Could you please suggest some?
Yeah, I am an Asian. I guess I’ll look in Wesleyan.</p>

5

<p>And I can only afford to apply to 8 universities in total. What do I do? Now after what you said about the int’l admit rates, I don’t know what to do.</p>

6

<p>FYI, Indians don’t qualify for Wesleyan’s Asian scholarships.</p>

<p>Do you know that you can ask for application fee waivers? Would that allow you to apply to more schools or did you already take that into account in your 8-school-limit?</p>

7

<p>I did. I could push it to 10, depending on how successful I get with the app fee waivers. That’s still far fetched.
Indians don’t qualify that scholarship? :open_mouth: Sad. Why? Something to do with us spreading like the plague?
I’m out of ideas, except for the colleges I mentioned in the OP.</p>

8

<p>Well, they say “Asian” but really mean East Asians. There’s a list of countries that qualify (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Korea, etc) and India’s not on that list. </p>

<p>I am not sure what advice to give you. The best I can do is this: reflect on what you want. If your #1 priority is to study in the US, your best strategy is to apply to liberal arts colleges. If your #1 priority is to study at one of the best universities in the world, apply to MIT, Princeton and the like and have a back-up plan in your own country. (If you had a few more financial resources, I’d also point you to merit-based scholarships. There are academic scholarships covering tuition, room and board, but those won’t cover your airfare or health insurance. I assume that you’ll need assistance with both.) </p>

<p>One word of warning about liberal arts colleges (Reed, Skidmore, Trinity, Colgate, etc): you will run out of classes to take if you are very focused on a single major. For example, graduate school-bound physics majors at bigger universities often take graduate classes in their junior and senior years. That’s not an option at a liberal arts college. Only apply to them if there’s at least one more subject that you want to study in depth (or if you want to sample courses from a dozen different departments).</p>

9

<p>Colgate is free to apply to for needy internationals</p>

10

<p>Thanks moneyp and b@r!um.
I can cover airfare with some difficulty(~800 USD), obviously if I do make it to a good college I’ll try to do at least that much from my end. Don’t know about health insurance. I do intend to double major in computer science or astronomy. I’m also interested in a minor in music. I don’t mind LACs, I don’t think I’ll be getting bored there. I’ll try to get some application fee waivers(I need them badly anyways). One more thing: Do I necessarily need to discuss my financial situation with my school counsellor/principal and embarrass myself by asking them to write an application for a fee waiver?</p>

11

<p>

If that’s what colleges want to grant you a waiver, yes.</p>

12

<p>Just apply to the ones which you really feel “like home”, your essays will reflect that. No point playing the “number guessing game” anymore — international admission rates with full financial aid are so low that there’s no point splitting hair. Some LACs with good physics programme are Williams, Carleton, Harvey Mudd, etc, though they are no easier to get into (for int’ students with full financial aid) than others.</p>

<p>If your aim is just to study abroad, you may consider continental Europe as well, since tuition fees are low or even free, and there might be some form of government or university scholarship to subsidise your living expenses. The catch is only a few of them(mostly in the Netherlands) offer programmes in english. Otherwise use your remaining time to pick up German/French/Swedish etc. Alternatively, some Asian universities also offer international scholarships, such as HKU and HKUST (in Hong Kong) and NUS and NTU (in Singapore). KAIST in South Korea also provides full scholarship and monthly allowance for admitted students. If you are willing to learn Japanese, you can also try for the Japanese Government Scholarship (Monbukagakusho). </p>

<p>It all depends on how determined you are and how far you are willing go.</p>

13

<p>forest_sky, thanks for that information! Interesting. Could you tell us a bit more about the European options?</p>

<p>That’s a topic I would love to learn more about! I know many European countries that subsidize the living expenses of their own students and a few European programs that subsidize the living expenses of exchange students, but none that subsidize living expenses of foreigners for a full Bachelor’s degree.</p>

14

<p>I am no expert on this, hence my hinting at the possibilities. There are some university financial aid/scholarship (Utrecht, ECLA, Jacobs, though the latter two are not exactly cheap) and governmental funding (Swedish Institute, Nuffic; DAAD may not have full subsidy, but some lump sum here and there). The actual prospects of getting full living subsidy might be far and few between, but there is hope.</p>

15

<p>Apart from NUS and NTU, I haven’t heard of any other university giving aid to international undergraduates. The very few that do don’t give enough or the procedures for getting aid are complicated. I can’t think of a better place than the US to get aid.</p>

16

<p>Thanks a lot guys. That really helped and gave me a quite few pointers about the next steps that I’ll take.</p>