<p>hi,everybody,i am a new member here~~ i am an international student who needs pretty high financial aid. i want to apply for early decision to a liberal art college whose rank is above 50. i think i really do need your suggestions. could you read my following statement and recommend a school to me??
i am interested in all liberal art subjects, special interests in communication, social science, history, psychology,writing,international relations and ect. my biggest concern about a school is the atmosphere. i want a place where i could meet very friendly people and make friends with them. i want my college years to be happy instead of depressed. a college with a strong school spirit, unity between students, good social activities would be my favorite. my personality is extremely outgoing, very talktive, not a quiet person at all, not a student who would spend all the time studying either.
so...any recommendations for any colleges which might meed my need? of course, financial aid is important to me.
recently, the schools that i am looking at are middlebury, carleton, sarah lawrence, hamilton....anybody thinks any of them would be a nice option for me?
by the way, i don't care about the chance of getting now, i just want to choose the one which fits me the best. so...any suggestions?
thank you all!</p>
<p>Financial aid for international students varies widely from one school to the next. Your best bet is to go online and look up specific policies for the schools in question. As for what you want out of a LAC, you'll find what you say you're looking for pretty much everywhere, but you'll need to go online to see about particular course offerings in particular areas of study.</p>
<p>thanx for your suggestion Tarhunt, i actually have checked out most school's financial aid policy for international student, so that i found...except for a few schools, most liberal art colleges whose rank is above 50 do provide international student with generous financial aid as long as you are a fit to their school.
as for what i have mentioned, anybody could give me some suggestions about choosing between hamilton and sarah lawrence? still, warmly welcome other recommendations. thanx a lot</p>
<p>See, Williams and Middlebury are need-blind but notoriously difficult to get into. The rest are 'generous', but not need-blind (ie. they may not accept you due to your need). So that's definitely a problem.</p>
<p>Re. Hamilton, you may want to talk to TheOneCurlyFry, who got in for the class of '11. She can probably offer you some insight regarding the fin aid scene over there.</p>
<p>thank you tetrisfan, i will talk to TheOneCurlyFry later....williams is just not my type, however, i considered middlebury at first, but i just feel that Hamilton might be stronger in writing, history, social science while mid is good for languages and international relations. am i having the right feeling? sorry for that as an international student, because America is so far away, i sometimes got some inaccurate information....if i were not right, correct me pleast</p>
<p>I'm international as well!</p>
<p>Well Middlebury is well known for IR and languages, but I'm fairly sure that its other departments aren't shoddy either. I just brought Middlebury up as the aid factor wouldn't really be played up there, since it's need blind.</p>
<p>thank you again tetrisfan, you have been very helpful actually. about Middlebury, is a high SAT score very important? except for that, i think everything else is fine about me. i just don't have a very decent SAT score...</p>
<p>You're welcome!</p>
<p>Anyway, if you don't mind my asking, what's your SAT score? You can always retake or take the ACT, if you like. Here's what Middlebury says regarding standardized tests:</p>
<p>Candidates must submit standardized tests and may select from a menu of three different test options. The requirement may be met by submitting either the ACT; or the SAT I administered on or after March 12, 2005; or three SAT II exams in different areas of study. </p>
<p>So you have myriad options to pick from.</p>
<p>How are the other parts of your application?</p>
<p>lol,sure i don't really mind to talk about my status...i got 1880 last time on SAT, will retake it,but i don't think i could get higher than 2100, probably around 2000 is possible. got 112 on my toefl IBT test. honors, got one national first prize in English-speaking competition, got several provincial first,second, third prize in English speech competition, got one prize on the national Olympics writing competiton( it's in my mother language)...for EC part, long been a reporter at school television station, a volunteer at the local red cross, a owner of my own charity program whose purpose is to help poor schools around my city. a member of a cross-culture program with an American school. had an exchange experience in America for 1 month...special experience, i have been earning my own living expenses since 15, did various work, transilator,teaching assistant, servant at restaurant, library keeper and ect. i have been the transilator and teaching assistant with a foreign traveling teachers' team, so i went to many poor places and taught English or worked as an assistant in my country.
general my status are like that...any clues about the chances for middlebury,hamilton or sarah lawrence?</p>
<p>by the way, my biggest advantage as far as i'm concerned is my personality. am not interested in either money or power, only a person who is looking for experience. i am good at communication and writing....so which school do you guys think i would fit the best then?</p>
<p>I think a 2100 on the SAT would be great, if you can get it. Or check out the ACT. What about the SAT IIs?</p>
<p>You're EC's and stuff are nice, I doubt you'll have an issue there. School grades? I'm assuming they're good.</p>
<p>Now the only things which you really need to beef up on are your tests and essays. Essays and recommendations are the intangibles which can either make or break you. Just keep that in mind!</p>
<p>i can't thank you more tetrisfan! yes i have pretty decent school grades. i will work on my essays and test, trying my best to make it. however, would u mind me troubling u another question? regardless of the financial aid issue, would you recommend middlebury or hamilton according to my interest said before and my status above...atmosphere, the fields that am interested in(writing,history,communication,sociology...)the school spirit...and forget to say one thing, i don't want a school where most students act very aggressive, competitive, i want my schoolmates to be excellent students with modest attitude and nice characters. so...middlebury or hamilton, what's your suggestion? thank you again,it's so kind of you to help me a lot ^_^</p>
<p>middlebury, hamilton, sarah lawrence, where would be my best fit regardless of the chance of getting in and the financial aid ???anybody else has any ideas?? i need your help
thank you all!!</p>
<p>Hmmm...that's a close call, as they're both very similar. Maybe Middlebury? I hear there's a great work hard-play hard ethic out there. It's also extremely well-known (not that Hamilton isn't, but I think Midd may be just a tad more prestigious). Plus there's a lot of outdoorsy stuff going on there.</p>
<p>Close call, but my verdict's Middlebury.</p>
<p>And it's been no problem at all :)</p>
<p>Definitely, other people gotta comment too before you decide Esti. Don't decide based on just what I said...</p>
<p>thank you again tetrisfan, you have been extremely helpful ^_^
anybody else gots a comment?? thank you guys, i want suggestions</p>
<p>If you're looking for a really strong community and school spirit, Sarah Lawrence may not be the best idea. It's about half an hour away from New York City, and, from what I've heard, the strong majority of people go into the city on the weekends instead of having parties or other events at school.</p>
<p>Sarah Lawrence is also different, academically, from Hamilton and Midd. It has a really personalized approach different from many other schools where you really need to be motivated and, to some extent, self-sufficient, to be successful. If you didn't know about that, I suggest you go onto its website and read about this. If you did know about this and that was one of the things that you liked about it, I'd also suggest looking at Hampshire College. It has a similar approach academically, has a really strong community, but is also a part of a 5-college system where you can take classes or go to events at the other 4 colleges.</p>
<p>Hope I helped, and best of luck :]</p>
<p>Between Hamilton and Sarah Lawrence, I think Hamilton has much more the school spirit, upbeat atmosphere that you are looking for.</p>
<p>I applied to Sarah Lawrence and originally thought it was going to be my first choice, but frankly I didn't go largely because of the social scene. I heard from several sources, and then also felt it on my visits, that it was kind of an unsocial, if not unfriendly, campus. It may just be the city ethic, of not really talking to people you don't know. That was another thing that didn't appeal to me, the fact that it seemed like the campus dumped out in to the city on weekends. I wanted more of a campus culture. I know there are many people who are happy there, this is just my two cents.</p>
<p>I have a very good friend at Hamilton and she loves it there. She is also a very social, extroverted person and has made many good friends.</p>
<p>teenage<em>cliche, thanks for your suggestion. i do understand that slc is different and that's where i really love. however, campus culture is more important to me...i've heard about the atmosphere at slc a little bit and i do agree with you on that. thank you so much for replying! all the best^</em>^</p>
<p>for allthosethings, thank you too!! thank you for sharing your own feelings and the fact about your friends. all of you have been very helpful!! thanx a lot. by the way, anybody here could compare hamilton with middlebury a little bit only on the case of campus culture, atmosphere and school spirit?? thank you all</p>