I am from India. My SAT score is 1480, subject test Physics and Maths level 2 scores 800 each.
Class 9- 9.6 Cgpa
Class 10- 9 cgpa
Class 11- 91%
Class 12- 80.2% (Scored 58/100 in Maths due to communal riots and typhoid. However, my maths teacher would mention this in her recom)
I am the 4th ranker of the world’s largest inter-school quiz, Aqua regia. Have been teaching poor and underprivileged children from 2 years, Maths and Science Quiz champion for 2 consecutive years at school level, school prefect for 3 years, special award by principal for excellence in Physics, debate champion at school level, worked on a research project on Electroceramics with a college prof. Collected a fund of 20000 INR for Nepal Flood relief,organized a peace rally after communal riots in my city and delieverd a speech in the rally, founder of StarGazers Club in my society.
First student from my school to write SAT and apply for US universities.
Very strong recom letters. Expecting a “once in a Life-time student” sentence from both Physics and Maths teachers.
Preferred Major- Physics with Computer Science
Earlier I was trying for Cornell, but then I realized how tough is it for an international to get into ivies. that’s why I shifted my mind towards liberal arts colleges. I need lots of FINANCIAL AID.
Currently I would be applying ED for Colgate, but I am afraid that I will get rejected due to my financial background.
Please suggest me decent colleges which provide decent aid.
Don’t know how your GPA percentiles translate into US GPAs, but I think that you shouldn’t worry about the financial aid at Colgate. You seem to get good recs and have scored well on subject tests, so I think Colgate would be a good option for ED
Apply for Cornell - it’s not any more difficulty for an international student to get into than an American student. You have a shot.
Apply for Colgate too. It’s impossible to know how much aid you’ll be offered until you apply and see.
I honestly don’t know which universities offer the most aid to international students, but applying to top private colleges is a good strategy as they’ll have more aid available than big state schools (UC, UIUC, etc.).
Other options to try: Grinell, Rice, Vanderbilt, RPI, CMU (you probably won’t get into CS but you could do physics with a minor in CS).
RPI and CMU offer zero aid to internationals.
Colgate ED is a good choice, but do apply to some full tuition or full ride scholarships for stats.
If you can retake the SAT and score 1500+, apply to McDermott Scholars at UTD - competitive, but a full ride.
Scholarships are college-dependent.
McDermott is very competitive but is open to internationals. It’s worth a shot.
You can apply to Lawrence, St Olaf, Rhodes, UAlabama Honors, perhaps Temple Honors (scholarships not yet posted), Miami Ohio, Dickinson?
That’s an interesting twist.
F1 holders are allowed to work on campus so they may be eligible for the stipend, but not other visas??? Something to inquire about!
It looks like you will need a full-tuition merit award (or more). Colgate probably won’t get it done.
If you’re going to ED anywhere, take a flyer on one of the schools that meet full need for internationals: Amherst, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Yale. Your odds are incredibly low, especially with a respectable but not outstanding 1480 SAT (compared with other competitive internationals) and a final year GPA snafu. These are likely the only schools that will meet your significant need (without any merit awards). Your essays would have to be terrific, and you’d really have to highlight your ECs if you want more than a ghost of a chance.
Find schools where:
a.) your stats make you very competitive for the largest awards, where you are perhaps in the top 5% of applicants;
b.) a full-tuition award is offered to internationals (this will require some research).
EDing to one of these big merit schools likely won’t help you because you’d be at the very top of the applicant pool, so they’d want you regardless. The ED won’t increase your chances for merit.
@Dunboyne : that isn’t correct. Those schools you listed are the only schools that are need-blind for internationals, but there are lots of universities that meet need for the internationals they admit. These universities are need aware, but full need met, and Colgate is one of them.
28k a year is a lot for internationals so op would actually be favored in a need-aware process.
Yes they do. They consider need - so that, if a student can contribute $5,000 and another one can contribute $20,000, the one who can contribute more is more likely to be admitted. But if they choose to admit the kid who needs a full ride, they cover what s/he needs. That makes admissions wildly unpredictable and highly competitive for internationals who need financial aid (kids with Harvard - profiles aiming for Skidmore and Dickinson.)
