Please, please recommend some colleges for me.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Junior in high school - I'll be a senior next semester
Class Rank: 1
GPA (Unweighed): 3.97
GPA (Weighed): 4.33</p>

<p>SAT Reasoning:
1. Reading 730, Math 720, Writing 680 = 2130
2. Reading 680, Math 790, Writing 730 = 2200
Super Score = 2250</p>

<p>SAT Subject Tests:
1. Math Level II 800
2. Biology 740
3. U.S. History 720</p>

<p>ACT:
1. Composite Score 34</p>

<p>AP's:
1. AP Euro - 4
2. AP Bio - 5 (expected)
3. APUSH - 5 (expected)
4. AP English Language and Composition - 4 (expected)
I will be taking AP Calc, AP Chem, AP World, and AP Lit next year</p>

<p>Honors Courses
Honors Algebra 2, Honors English 10</p>

<p>E/C's:
Student Council Class representative 9th - 11th grade; Student Council President 12th grade; 3-way translating (English, Korean, and Indonesian) for a team of doctors from Korea for about 100 hours; 3-way translating for Korean college students for about 30 hours; Small island homestay/service project for about 180 hours.</p>

<p>Sports:
Swim Team 9th - 11th grade, received the Christian Testimony Award in 10th grade; Varsity Basketball 9th - 11th grade, received the Most Improved Player Award in 10th grade; Varsity Soccer 9th - 10th grade; Volleyball Club 10th - 11th grade; Academic Athlete of the Year Award - 11th grade</p>

<p>Swim Times:
1. I.M. 200 meters - 2:49
2. Breastroke 100 meters - 1:15
(They're not great, but maybe I can get some scholarship from it? I know the pools are in yards in the States, so my times might not make much sense)</p>

<p>Financial Aid: My parents don't make much money, so I have to apply for financial aid (I'm an international student). Probably will be able to pay $10,000 ~ $12,000 a year at max.</p>

<p>Considering Majors:
I'm considering several majors:
1. Civil Engineering
2. Mechanical Engineering
3. Political Science
4. International Relations
5. Business/Management
(I know, wide range of interests)</p>

2

<p>Make a new thread at parents forum or college search forum.</p>

<p>International student looking for FA is a tricky one.</p>

3

<p>Hi unfathomable,</p>

<p>I suggest you look into the UC system; they are great for all of your interests, especially civil and mechanical engineering, although they are not known for giving great financial aid. However, if they award you with a Regents scholarship (which is probable, based on your ranking and stats), your tuition will be reduced to somewhere between $25,000-17,000 a year.</p>

<ol>
<li>UC Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford University </li>
<li>Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, MIT</li>
<li>For a prospective political science major and interest in finance or business, I highly recommend Williams College. </li>
<li>Tufts College–I believe it has the best IR program in the nation</li>
<li>University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business</li>
</ol>

<p>Best of luck!
Flamingo4</p>

4

<p>I believe UCs have cut financial aid for international students due to their own budget deficit. Look at east coast schools or LACs instead.</p>

5

<p>Thanks guys. I had initially given some thought on the UC colleges (plus a few more Californian Colleges like USC and Stanford), but I’ve been hearing some people say that the UC’s will start lowering their financial aid because of their own budget problems, as melody10511 explained. What about CMC, Swarthmore, and Colgate? Do you think I’d have a decent chance?</p>

6

<p>and @20more, you are right. My sister got a perfect score on her ACT and had wild E/C’s but she told the colleges that she’d only pay $4,000 a year. She got rejected by like all the colleges, but the ones she made offered free rides. It’s really hard to find exactly what amount is acceptable (obviously not $4,000/year). Shows that society is actually biased for the rich after all.</p>

7

<p>“Shows that society is actually biased for the rich after all”
You are from another country and your sister was offered a free ride somewhere here?</p>

<p>What a wonderful opportunity, but there is “no free lunch” anywhere in the world. Your sister’s “free” ride came from the product of someone’s taxes or a donor to the school in exchange for some quality your sister contributed to the school community. Instead of being bitter, I would hope that she and you would recognize the generosity. School is not “free”. In some countries it subsidized by taxes- and admission to such a program is highly regulated by the government- after all- the government entirely finances the school. Here, in the US, the educational system is less regulated. Perhaps this is why so many people want to come here for school. But that does not mean it’s “free”. Someone pays to build and maintain the buildings, utilities, teacher’s salaries and so on. That is where “tuition” comes in. If you went into a restaurant and said “give me a free lunch”, the owner would refuse- not because he/she is biased toward the rich, but because he/she needs to earn a living too.</p>

<p>I welcome everyone who wishes to come here and contribute. I am also the descendant of immigrants to this country who were seeking a better life, I don’t know what your country is, but I doubt that I could expect any school there to give me a free ride. I don’t expect it either. Neither I nor my family has spent a dime in taxes to your country.</p>

<p>The USA is a generous country, but we are also having economic difficulties. Many state budgets are in crisis and funding for education at all levels has been cut. Colleges have less money to give out as they need it to maintain what they have. It’s not bias, it is survival, and perhaps the rich will have an advantage, but nobody will be educated if our whole system goes broke. Also, many students with perfect scores get rejected for many reasons, not just finances, and many schools offer need based aid to the extent that they can.</p>

<p>Please recognize that the wonderful opportunities the US offers is a result of our taxpayers and commitment to a free and open minded world. You have excellent stats and grades, but so do many US students and they also need an education too. I hope you find a college here that is generous to you, but please, as JFK said it best: “ask not what (this) country can do for you, but what you can do for (this) country” before you come with a critical view.</p>

8

<p>@Pennylane 2011
But wouldn’t you agree that for a possibility of a successful life, or even admittance to an elite university, all is based on the amount of capital one starts out with? There is no equal opportunity for the poor. The rich are more liked because of their riches, and so in turn, the rich become more successful and richer while the poor suck their thumbs and are forced to turn to loan sharks or what not. While you are right that someone does pay for the colleges to keep it functioning, it is unfortunate that equal rights and opportunities, which is the basic ideal Ameirca is built upon, are granted only under the fact that all parties commit to a certain amount of payment.
I’m not complaining that my sister got a free ride; I’m complaining that the financial aid bestowed unto the poor are infinitesimal from many renown colleges.</p>

9

<p>“But wouldn’t you agree that for a possibility of a successful life, or even admittance to an elite university, all is biased on the amount of capital one starts with?”</p>

<p>No. </p>

<p>To be fair you’re mostly talking about public schools, which are notorious for giving little aid to anything but in-state students, let alone international students. </p>

<p>And besides that if you are really that bad off financialy then why are you going to another country for college?</p>