Pls help me out (Chinese, WUstl,Columbia, Pr/Ya, LACs )

Student Lounge International Students
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<p>Hi, this is Ben from China, I am currently studying in Singapore and want to get into a good university in the US with good financial aid(FA)in 2006. If the tread is too long to read, go to last part directly.</p>

<p>My intended areas of studying are: Engineering(industrial/electrical), Computer Science, Business. I am also pretty interested in taking courses in psychology/sociology/economics/political science/urban studies/public policy etc. I hope the university I am going to will allow me to studying one or more of the things above. </p>

<p>About my personality: Definitely not into drinks and excessive parties. I like intellectual discussions, friendly interaction among students regardless of nationality. I think the people is one of the biggest factor in college decision . I will be socially active and try to know different people who are serious about their passions.I hope people are also interested in knowing others.
I would like to travel and do new things and charter new areas. Mugging whole day is not my style. A bit altruistic, idealistic.</p>

<p>About my stats. I hate this part because I believe essentially it is what the person values and what he perceives himself and the world that matters most. Perfect SAT Score does not tell how great or successful the person will be 10 years or 20 years down the road. My scores are nothing spectacular but I believe I have the potential to make a difference on a large scale in future....</p>

<p>SATI M800/V710/W640
SATII (not taken yet)
TOEFL CBT 260-280
Extra Curriculum Activities:
class monitor
Boarding House blk chair
Involvement in community projects and a couple of other school events.
Harmonica Player/ some other clubs
A couple of national olympiad medals.No big deal. Did a science research project on Carbon nanotudes.</p>

<p>Because I am from the most competitive school in Singapore. My school transcript is average and above other than physics and maths for which I get high marks all along. Econs and chemistry always B. </p>

<p>About my choices( Most important! cause I need to integrate the FA factor)</p>

<p>Washington U in St Louis: its engineering not best but ok.WU covers my other interested majors too. have a few full scholarships so i can try my luck. Anyone knows how likely it is to get full FA or scholarship?</p>

<p>Lafayette: I took the interview, feels quite safe to get in. Offers Engineering. I take take business courses also. Just heard that the student body is a bit homogeneous. Int'l students don't mix well with locals. Any comment about this school?</p>

<p>Swarthmore: I missed its interview. From my research, it is excellent in all areas. offers engineering. very selective. Anyone can assess my chances? Do you think Swarthmore will like me? </p>

<p>Brandeis: A big school with graduate departments and business courses. But its ranking and rating seems to be average. One more thing. 2/3 of students are Jews. Will it make a difference? Are Jews any special in their beliefs and likes/dislikes? I have not known any Jews before and I don't want to feel wierd there.</p>

<p>Princeton: Reach school. I am not applying ED because I wanna EA Yale. Does it decrease my chance greatly? I have known a senior who is average but got in on ED. </p>

<p>Yale: Not very good in engineering. But I suppose if I get in, I can surely find some other subject I like. I believe the teaching quality and high student calibre is something worth looking for. Do you think I can get in?</p>

<p>MIT: every year 2 students from my school get there. I suppose there are many people having better portfolio than me. Should I try? Do I need it'l olympiad medals? </p>

<p>Stanford: I know it is hard to get full aid from Stanford. Can anyone give me some ideas? Like how spectacular a student should be to get there.</p>

<p>Columbia/ U Penn: Can anyone tell me if U Penn is more generous in giving out full FA to int'l students then Columbia? I will be happy to get in either. But I have to choose one of them. （Max 8 schools we can apply） </p>

<p>Among other LACs, I am also considering Oberlin, Macalester, Williams, Middlebury. Do you think they will make good match for me？Anyone of them is particularly generous?</p>

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<p>need some comments!!</p>

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<p>"I would like to travel and do new things and charter new areas. Mugging whole day is not my style. A bit altruistic, idealistic."</p>

<p>Would you marry me? (just kidding :))</p>

<p>It's difficult for me to evaluate internationals' chances but I know some things about the schools you mentioned. At Princeton it's easier to get admitted ED (25-30% acceptance rate) than RD (9-10% acceptance rate). If your school is known for sending students to MIT, it increases your chances and it won't hurt if you try it (unless you want to stick to the 8-college-list). Both Columbia and Upen give limited finaid to intels unlike Swarthmore and Oberlin - they're very generous.</p>

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<p>Thanks!!! :)))</p>

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<p>there are a few chinese students previously studied in singapre and received scholarships at wustl. good luck!</p>

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<p>Thank you tangsdaily...
strange that I have not heard of any such cases...at least not from R**
BTW, are you from Singapore?</p>

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<p>"Stanford: I know it is hard to get full aid from Stanford. Can anyone give me some ideas? Like how spectacular a student should be to get there."
It's admission is quite random. You can just be an average person to get in. I'm from a high school in Shanghai. And this single year, we have two students getting full aid from Stanford.(more than 44k)</p>

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<p>Oberlin cannot assume full aid to many students, but it does give a few. When I was having the visa interview in Beijing, the boy behind me was going to Oberlin. And his family contribution is 0. He's Chinese but also studying away at high school overseas.</p>

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<p>i'm not from singapore. check out chinese thread, just for some random fun.
stanford.......sigh........i'm just one of millions stanford rejects........</p>

<p>can'r help, sorry........</p>

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<p>hey i'm from singapore, and applying this year too! i'm sorry it's a little hard to tell from your stats whether you stand a good chance since you didn't elaborate very much on your awards. i'll take that you're from rj since you don't sound like any of the scholars in hc.
olympiads help quite a bit, judging from seniors who were accepted into the top american colleges. my senior who was a scholar too was accepted by MIT because he had a multitude of national olympiad gold medals, though he didn't have any international ones since he can't represent singapore. (and MIT is very popular in singapore, might be even harder to get in than princeton and yale given the sheer number of applicants)
as for research, did you take part in any competition? ssef? awards make a difference...
don't worry about your SAT IIs :) most scholars get 800s on all.
and good luck for your applications! i do hope everyone of us gets into a school we love!</p>