Recommend me a college?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi, I am more a lurker on these forums than a poster, but I couldn't find a post that could properly match my credentials and situation, so I decided to post by myself.</p>

<p>I just recently applied ED to Brown, but I figured it is high time I started looking at other colleges because I'll most likely be looking at a deferral or a rejection weeks from now. I have decided most of the big colleges (most prestigious and most picky) that I am applying to, and my list stands as so:</p>

<p>-Princeton
-Williams
-Caltech
-Reed</p>

<p>I have not decided any safety schools to fall back on, mostly because I am preoccupied with the standardized tests and I really don't know how to go about searching for a suitable school. I am from a low-income family so I need LOTS of aid, without which I probably cannot attend any college in the United States.</p>

<p>My expected major is Applied Math and/or Physics</p>

<p>Here are my stats:</p>

<p>Ethnicity: Nepali (from the little country between India and China)</p>

<p>GPA: 4.0 (there is not an accurate method of determining the GPA where I went to high school, but this is because I got all A*s)</p>

<p>Class Rank: 1st out of some 200 students</p>

<p>SAT: 2000 (620 CR, 730 Math, 650 Writing) Gravely disappointed, retaking in Dec</p>

<p>SAT IIs: taking the Physics and Math II tests and expecting 800s in both</p>

<p>School: a recognized A-level schools in Nepal.</p>

<p>Honors:
-School Science Fair Winner: 1st Place
-Regional Science Fair: Honorable Mention
-CIA's Outstanding Young Scientist Award (lived in the USA from 2006 to 2009)
-Best Across Four Cambridge International AS Levels: First place in Nepal (topped my country by achieving the best aggregate marks during my first year.)
-Best Academic Performance: Physics (School)</p>

<p>Extracurricular:
-Chess (winner of annual school tournament '10; created chess club in school '10; president of club '10, '11; organized tournament in school '11)
-Tutoring (tutored students in the school, interned as an assistant teacher for practical physics in another A-level school after graduating) [~250 hours]
-Visual Art (Scholastic Art & Writing Awards of 2009: Silver Key; a bunch of other competitions and certificates; skilled in sketching, painting and collage)
-Dance (Danced for Charity; skilled in metro and somewhat in bboy)
-Debate/Speech (Varsity Debate Team; a couple of wins and involvements)
-Worked (unpaid) under Ascent: Research, Training & Consultancy Pvt. Ltd. (Guidance Counseling; Career Counseling; Coordinated and Presented a presentation on Ivy League Schools: "The Road to Ivy League & Beyond")
-Health Nepal Foundation (HNF): Executive member (volunteering; Organized a sanitation awareness campaign in which we visited public schools in Kathmandu and taught kids in elementary grades)
-Journalism/Publication (Writer and Editor in the School Magazine; wrote a couple of articles and a music review column)</p>

<p>Essays: Pretty good. Nothing heart-melting or groundbreaking, but I have written about my international life and how it has shaped me. I focus on my passions and talk about the time when I first discovered them and what I felt. My friends say it's good, and I spent a lot of time fretting about it, modifying it every time I opened the document. I was satisfied with the end-result, but I'm not sure if the admission officers will say the same.</p>

<p>Recommendations: I'm guessing they are good; I was not a bad kid and I worked really hard in school.</p>

<p>Anyways, I hope my thread is not an eyesore, and I hope you will leave reasonable replies as to which colleges I should/should not apply to. Please comment on the colleges I have chosen and say so if you think there are better alternatives. Once again, I absolutely NEED financial aid and cannot hope to study if I receive anything less than a 80-95% scholarship.</p>

<p>Thank you for your attention and have a very pleasant day.</p>

2

<p>You have some GREAT aspects to your resume and I think you’ll do very well in admissions. Your CR and W scores are a bit on the low side for this list. Keep taking practice exams from the college board blue book and make sure you don’t fall for the same types of “bait questions” in the CR section. Look all through Xiggi’s method in the SAT/ACT threads pasted at top. There’s a ton of good advice in there for you. But you certainly have a good chance at many of the schools you’re interested in applying even if you don’t pull up the scores.</p>

<p>I think you have a good list so far. I’d also consider Vassar, Wesleyan, Oberlin, Whitman, Bard. What state are you located? I’d suggest an in-state safety, and Hampshire?</p>

<p>You need to do an EFC forecaster on the FAFSA.gov site. Sometimes students believe that they will receive more need-based aid than they really do. So do that this weekend, then you can start narrowing down by likely FA.</p>

3

<p>Look at the midwestern LACs that provide generous financial aid to internationals: Macalester and Grinnell in particular - more match than safety, however. Others to consider: Hendrix and Rhodes. Take a look at some of the southern LACs too. You need to find schools that value Asians and diversity.</p>

4

<p>If financial aid is a concern, I strongly suggest you add the University of Southern California to your list. It is a great school with signficant scholarship opportunities, including a new program that provides 100% tuition, room and board to top applicants. Also offers many full tuition and half-tuition scholarships. The school values diversity and has a huge international enrollment. School is also more willing than some to overlook lower SAT scores.
But, for scholarship consideration, you must have your application in by DEC. 1. So you need to apply soon! Even if you think USC is not your first-choice, having it as a back-up is a good strategy if you are worried about affordability.</p>

<p>Other great schools to consider-- Northwestern Univ and Univ. of Chicago. Both great schools, although I am not sure how much aid they would give you. Certainly worth applying.</p>

5

<p>jkiwmom, it sounds like the OP is FROM Nepal, based on his descent, and the part how he/she said that he/she couldn’t attend colleges in the US without lots of aid. Anyway, here’s an old list from 2006…I’m sure some have changed, but by looking at these schools, you’ll be led in the right direction. </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/151609-international-student-aid.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/151609-international-student-aid.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Schools that you should consider looking at are ones with more merit aid scholarships, which will be colleges that tend to be lower in standard, which will fit your safety issue. Out of the ones offering the most scholarships to international, if you’re female, I’d put my vote on Mount Holyoke, since I’ve heard that they have a pretty significant international student population, and the stats to get in aren’t as high as, say, Brown, but it’s still a fantastic college.</p>

6

<p>Oh, I am gravely sorry for not mentioning clearly that I am an international applicant. It seems that posts cannot be edited on this forum so I know that the first post may be misleading for you and other readers.</p>

<p>However, I looked carefully at your posts and I did some research on the colleges you had mentioned and they look rather appealing. Although I am not sure if state colleges will award international students with financial aid, they are solid choices on paper. As for the Liberal Art colleges; they have always been the main targets of applicants from Nepal because they offer the most generous financial aid packages and are more likely to accept us regardless of our great financial need. I guess for me there aren’t really any “safeties” per se, just the liberal arts colleges that love diversity and give generous aid.</p>

7

<p>Northeastern in Boston is very proud of it’s diversity (& is thus more willing to assist financially) & sounds like a good fit for you. Also, could you look into taking the ACT? You might score higher on it.</p>

8

<p>OP, it was clear in your post, I just totally missed it! There just aren’t many schools that will offer you 80-95% in financial aid as an international applicant. Go through the links that everyone posted for you. There are some schools known for merit aid for international applicants, but you may have to let go of some of your ivy dreams. Ohio University will offer you instate rates with your stats, Denison U. may offer you enough to attend (I love this school and it’s now in top 50 LAC’s), and Ohio Wesleyan all come to mind (known for FA for international students). These are all great schools, but I’m afraid you may miss some fantastic options by narrowly focusing on the known ivy’s and top LAC’s (who aren’t as likely to offer you merit aid). Go to the international applicant threads and I think you’ll get some really good suggestions. You are such a smart and talented student, you can find good scholarships…but you have to be open to lowering the bar you have set if aiming for that much aid. </p>

<p>[International</a> Students - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/international-students/]International”>International Students - College Confidential Forums)</p>

<p>Definitely apply to Whitman College (FA for interna’l!) and similar types of students to Brown, and academically what you are looking for:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.whitman.edu/content/admission/apply-to-whitman/international/finaid[/url]”>http://www.whitman.edu/content/admission/apply-to-whitman/international/finaid&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

9

<p>Oh, and yes, forget for the most part what I said about state colleges. I was asking what state you were from when I still didn’t realize you were an international applicant. Ohio U. if not the norm in that they offer the instate rates for international students with certain GPA and test scores. Your stats qualify you for the scholarship (Gateway).</p>

10

<p>Apparently, there is a distinct line between the colleges that offer merit based and those that don’t. It occurs somewhere between colleges with 30% acceptance rates and colleges with 20% acceptances rates. I could be wrong, but that’s the trend I observed.</p>

<p>Right now, I’m looking at less popular LACs because they seem to embrace international students pleasantly and provide sufficient aid. My list is probably going to include the colleges I have already chosen (except maybe Caltech; they are not really known to be friendly with internationals) and LACs ranging from Middlebury to Coe. I’ll probably apply to 15 colleges or so as long as the application fees don’t stack up to a large sum. Thanks for all your advice!</p>

<p>Among all of them, Macalester and Grinnell look particularly good. Well, a long winter awaits me. Wish me luck!</p>

<p>I am still open for more advice, so please don’t hesitate to post if you can think of something that may suit me.</p>

<p>Again, thank you all!</p>

11

<p>Hey, I know this thread has been dead for a long time, but there have been a couple of changes in my resume, so I was curious how my choice of colleges should be changed to fit it.</p>

<p>Firstly, my December SAT yielded a score of 2310. Second, I scored a 800 on the Math Level II and a 800 on the Physics SAT Subject tests. Also, I recently started working as a physics tutor on a website, so I plan on including that too.</p>

<p>My list of colleges stands as so:</p>

<p>Brown (applied ED, got deferred)
Carleton
Grinnell
Macalester
Princeton
Reed
Trinity
Tufts
Vassar
Whitman
Williams</p>

<p>Please recommend me colleges and comment on whether or not I should apply to the aforementioned colleges.</p>

<p>Thank you a lot in advance! :)</p>

12

<p>Looks good to me, for a given value of good. I mean, these are all reaches, but at least they’re reaches that make sense, and as long as you realize you may well get rejected from all of them, I think you should be fine. (I don’t actually expect you to get rejected from all of these schools, though, because your profile looks really solid. I’m just warning you because it has to be said.)</p>

<p>I wouldn’t hold out much hope for Whitman and Trinity (you mean Trinity C., not Trinity U., right?) if I were you, though, based on recent application cycles. I don’t think they’ll cover your full need even if they accept you.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

13

<p>Can you recommend me any reasonable safeties that can meet up to my financial need? I can probably pay 3 to 8k each year but that’s probably it. Although the thought that I may get rejected from all of them really sends shivers down my spine, I am slightly confident that the SAT score boost and the art supplement may help. Thanks for the insight, and yes, I was talking about Trinity C.</p>

14

<p>Congratulations on your 2310!!! M’sMom had it right in the beginning of this thread, Grinnell would be a good fit and also more likely to offer you merit aid as an intern’l. I’d also suggest Oberlin, and Wesleyan. Good luck to you! Do read through the link that a couple of us posted a while back to the international student threads. You can ask there for more suggestions for a couple safeties.</p>

<p>[Top</a> 15 Merit Scholarships Colleges in US for International Students - Desperate Guide: Undergraduate College Financial Aid, Scholarship](<a href=“http://www.desperateguide.com/us/top-15-merit-scholarships-colleges-in-us-for-international-students]Top”>http://www.desperateguide.com/us/top-15-merit-scholarships-colleges-in-us-for-international-students)</p>