<p>Yeah this is also what I heard. MIT and some Ivies are really unique in this aspect. I recommend the op to apply to those universities whose institutional aids(as they are mostly citizenship-blind) are beyond federal aids.
But beware! Institutions with high amounts of finacial aid, are usually the most selective ones and therefore its comparably harder to get in.</p>
<p>Thx everyone for your comments. </p>
<p>MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Williams, Middlebury, amherst are need blind for International students. UMinnesota and Carnegie Mellon are pretty good schools in ChemE; However, they don’t offer aid to Intel’ students. There are some other pretty good schools like Collumbia and Cornell that are need sensitive…</p>
<p>Columbia isn’t pretty good haha</p>
<p>My recommendation regarding UMinnesota was that it probably offers the lowest tutition for international students and still a decent education. Of course, you need to make your own calculations. My belief is that any penny spent on education can’t go wrong however I understand the not-so-bright financial situation you may end up if you don’t play your cards wisely.
On a side note, if you are considiring working while studying, student visas only let you to take campus jobs.</p>
<p>btw Chris, </p>
<p>Will I need to re-send my SAT and TOEFL scores for my new application?</p>
<p>@fromkabul, AFAIK they won’t keep those material from past so you will have to send them all again I think.</p>
<p>Most of the posts above (by mathboy, k4r3n2, Mollie, Chris and Phoestre) are wonderful. I just have <em>a few</em> things to add/re-emphasize because I personally know someone who re-applied after being rejected the previous year and got in the second time around. </p>
<p>
The act of re-applying itself won’t hurt you AT ALL. However, you should expect MIT to have similar admissions practice and standards/criteria from one year to the next. The particular student I mentioned above COMPLETLEY renewed the application–all the essays were re-written (with totally different content too, although 4 of the 5 questions remained the same), all the recommenders changed, and the interview drastically improved. Please spend a significant amount of time thinking about how to best (re-)present yourself and actually making changes from last year’s app.
Also, I strongly suggest that you start with MIT’s application and NOT recycle/tweak essays from other applications to fit MIT’s essay prompts. After you’re done writing 5 beautiful, compelling MIT essays, they become excellent recycling materials for other schools’ apps… </p>
<p>
Completely agreed. Also, it might be helpful to have someone who supervises/employs/mentors you this year to submit a reference letter in order to inform the Admissions of the amazing things you’ve accomplished during your gap year. Of course, you’ll be asked to write about your gap year experience as part of your app too. Make that essay good. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I would rephrase this statement to something like “MIT can only admit a few int’l students OUT OF THOSE WHO APPLY (about 4000 in this admissions cycle).” Remember, as high/low as roughly 8% of MIT students are pure internationals, and there is an additional 3% to 5% of students who are US citizens with foreign addresses. And whether 8% is “really really low” depends on different people’s opinions. I personally feel like it’s definitely high enough for me to become good friends with MANY int’l students from literally all walks of life. There are other top schools with lower percentages of internationals. Also, this 8% is the only Admissions quota at MIT, and it’s NOT set by the admissions office, but by higher-ups. </p>
<p>
… to which OP replied:
</p>
<p>The former comment is so misleading it’s not even funny. Why don’t we just pretend we didn’t see it.
@fromkabul: Don’t be so sure. Do you have access to the entire database of MIT Registrar’s enrollment statistics? (I know you don’t). According to MIT’s Common Data Sets, both race and geographical residence are “considered,” whereas such things as “character/personally qualities” are “very important.” You do not automatically have a higher, or lower, chance of getting in than a white dude from, say, Canada or France, simply because you’re an “Afghan from Afghanistan.”
That said, MIT will appreciate the diversity you can potentially add to its campus if your application is compelling enough to be accepted. There is an essay question that asks for “the world you come from” and HOW THAT WORLD SHAPED YOUR DREAMS AND ASPIRATIONS – answer it wisely (i.e. you might get the hint from my caps that how you answer the second part of the question is more important than a plain description of your community/neighborhood/country). I somehow feel like this is might be one of the questions that many MIT admissions officers enjoy reading most. (Right, Chris?) </p>
<p>
The fact that you need a full scholarship/finaid package is totally irrelevant in terms of MIT Admissions. In fact, neither the Part I nor Part II of your MIT app contains a question asking whether you need finaid (unlike Common App).<br>
Know that this is NOT the case at many other US universities that have aid for internationals. Actually, international aid at some selective universities is directly awarded/administered by their Admissions Offices. </p>
<p>Lastly…
Although I can totally relate to this, I still have to tell you… Please, please don’t let yourself become pre-occupied with self-pity. It’s a dangerous thing. Many MIT students have come a LONG way and achieved something improbable–or even unimaginable–in the context of their respective communities/environments. That you have thrived under such difficult circumstances is for others to appreciate (and THEY WILL), not for yourself to dramatize. At least you can see your computer screen, right? Take a look at this ([MIT</a> Spectrum Spring 2011 Living His Dream](<a href=“MIT Spectrum - Spectrum | MIT for a Better World”>MIT Spectrum - Spectrum | MIT for a Better World)).
*But I do agree that slow internet connections stinks… Oh my gosh, I don’t even have wireless. =(((</p>
<p>OHH! Check out Brandeis, UChicago and Tufts as well. They are all well-respected and well-endowed research universities with international aid available and are statistically less selective than MIT. I would not just shoot applications to all the Ivies.</p>
<p>This is a very good question: </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>International finaid packages are VERY generous. One of my friends from Taipei is entering MIT with a $52,000/year package, and another student (also in Taiwan) was awarded a $50K/year package. </p>
<p>In fact, international finaid award is usually MORE generous than domestic award, and this is because a) MIT meets 100% of every admitted student’s needs, and b) int’l students’ needs are usually higher. (Have you ever checked out the GDP per capita rankings by country?)</p>
<p>According to MIT’s Common Data Set:</p>
<p>“Average dollar amount of institutional financial aid awarded to undergraduate degree-seeking nonresident aliens: $44,651”</p>
<p>v.s.</p>
<p>“Average need-based scholarship or grant award: $35,504”</p>
<p>Another interesting stats: did you know that if you added up the revenues earned by corporations/organizations founded by MIT alum and treated the institute like a “country,” MIT would be the 17th largest economy in the world? (The European Union is the largest, US is the second largest… Taiwan is actually the ~19th lol) </p>
<p>Problem solved. MIT is rich.</p>
<p>Mikalye, great info.</p>
<p>Also, I was under the impression that colleges shred applications (even electronic/projector types) from previous years. Partly because of privacy, partly because of mess 
.</p>