<p>Hi! I'm an international and since almost all of the colleges which award full scholarships are hard to get in, I'd like to know, which universities could be relative safeties for me and other internationals. I know they all aren't easy to get accepted for students like me, but what do you think, which colleges could be considered as more likely to get in?</p>
<p>For international students, esp. for those who need financial aid, there is no such thing as “safety school.”</p>
<p>I am not sure how any one can you give advice without knowing your stats (GPA, SAT scores etc) and your interests.</p>
<p>There are many schools that internationals can get without too much difficulty. There are very few that give full scholarships for internationals. So if you are looking for admission safety i.e. where you will get admission there could be many (i.e. you are willing to pay your way through). If you are looking for a financial safety, I do not think there are any. Financial safeties are usually state universities and other colleges where the applicant is more or less assured of having lower costs or good aid and also the application bar is not too high. You do not qualify for those types of schools.</p>
<p>Bottom line, if you are international and need full aid from the college, your application should be very competitive and exceptional. There are foundations and your own government that may give scholarships, but I do not think that is your question.</p>
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<p>A college in your OWN country that offers aid would be your safety.</p>
<p>Yeah, I know they all are hard to get in and I know that I should have great stats. But are there any schools that it would a bit more likely to be accepted than the top ones?
I’m going to apply to the top ones, but also I want to have in my list several colleges that I would definitely or most likely get in if I didn’t need any FA, but since I do need FA they will consider it as one of the facts of my application package.</p>
<p>For MOST international students, your financial situation will be taken into consideration. There are, I believe, only six or eight schools that are both need blind (don’t look at finances when considering admission) AND meet full need for ALL accepted students.</p>
<p>The VAST majority of American colleges do not provide financial aid at all for international students. There are some colleges that do provide limited aid…and as mentioned above just over an handful that meet full need for international students.</p>
<p>AND many of the colleges that meet full need are HIGHLY competitive AND are need aware (meaning they DO consider your finances when they consider your admissions application).</p>
<p>When I looked over the website, it does look like UA-Huntsville will give international students who have at least a 1490 (Math + CR SAT) or an ACT 34 and a 3.5+ GPA … tuition, room, board, book stipend and 500 towards course fees.</p>
<p><a href=“http://finaid.uah.edu/scholarships/2011-2012%20approved%20scholarship%20grid.pdf[/url]”>http://finaid.uah.edu/scholarships/2011-2012%20approved%20scholarship%20grid.pdf</a></p>
<p>International Students</p>
<p>UAHuntsville international students may apply for all UAHuntsville scholarships and must submit a scholarship application by December 1 of each year in order to receive priority consideration for academic scholarships. For information on filling out the application, go to the help page.</p>
<p>In order to be considered for any scholarships for which you are eligible, a completed scholarship application must be submitted online.</p>
<p>School website:
[UAHuntsville</a> | The University of Alabama in Huntsville](<a href=“http://www.uah.edu/]UAHuntsville”>http://www.uah.edu/)</p>
<p>Although UAH is not a highly ranked school in overall rankings, it is strong in Engineering, the “hard sciences” (i.e. pre-med students), nursing, and business. It is a very attractive school with nice facilities. An international airport is 5 minutes away…very convenient.</p>
<p>Huntsville is not a “southern city” in the least. Most people in there are transplants from other states/countries because the city is the home of Cummings Research Park…the 2nd largest research pack in the nation. </p>
<p>UAH is located adjacent to Cummings Research Park…so many co-op and internship possibilities.</p>
<p>Thanks for the information, but I already know that. I’ve visited lots of websites and I’ve read ton of information, I’m aware that it’s not a piece of cake. I just want some advice of schools to consider not because they’re famous or highly ranked, but because I would more likely be accepted.</p>
<p>UAH’s average aid for internationals is about 6000 as collegeboard says…</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>You can’t go by that. That includes students with all different levels of stats. </p>
<p>For instance…if I were to look at that same info for my kids’ college, it would say that the average aid is about the same as UAH…yet one of my kid got a free ride and the other got a near-full-ride. It doesn’t matter what the “average” gets…it matters what the high stats students get.</p>
<p>What are YOUR stats? Who cares that some kids’ stats are only getting a couple of thousand dollars.</p>
<p>When I asked this question I meant generally, if there is some student who is going to apply to colleges and he could be accepted because he has suitable stats, but also he would like to have in his list of schools some more likely to get in ones, which colleges would you suggest to consider?</p>
<p>Look at Momfromtexas’s thread on full ride scholarships. She has a great method on how to find schools that not only will accept you but are likely to offer a full ride. You will have to change the criteria to go with you own stats and then check if there are any international student restrcitons.</p>
<p>*When I asked this question I meant generally, if there is some student who is going to apply to colleges and he could be accepted because he has suitable stats, but also he would like to have in his list of schools some more likely to get in ones, which colleges would you suggest to consider? *</p>
<p>Can you clarify?</p>
<p>It sounds like you’re asking…What safety schools can an int’l student get accepted to AND he’ll be given a full scholarship (because he had suitable stats to get admitted).</p>
<p>The answer…there is NO SUCH school. </p>
<p>Look at it this way…American schools can only seat X number of students. There are many multiples of students on this planet who have the stats for even the best schools. If there were schools like you described, they would become so popular that they would soon become too hard to get accepted to because you’d have millions of int’ls who have “good stats” applying and getting full-rides to attend. </p>
<p>So…for instance…if UAH gave a free ride to every int’l accepted (meaning anyone with - say - an ACT 25 and 3.0 GPA), then UAH would soon receive millions of applications and it would soon become very hard to get into that school.</p>
<p>In my question there are words “relative safeties”, by that I meant that I know how hard it is to get accepted and the competition is keen. I just wanted some examples like “Smith has about 50% acceptance rate overall” and some particular information about internationals added, if the person who answered had this information. Or maybe some tips from current international students who came through similar situation.</p>
<p>I think that the question you are asking has been answered by many posters in almost the same way. Let me try</p>
<p>[ol]
[<em>]Scholarships for international students are hard to come by
[</em>]Your ability to get an full ride scholarship is difficult and is based on how competitive you are as an applicant and how desirable you are to the school. For international students, it is even more difficult.
[<em>]Schools like UAH (suggested by M2CK) may be a little less competitive compared to other schools, but they still are competitive.
[</em>]No international student who needs full aid, can consider any US college as safety. For top colleges, no one can count on them as a safety.
[<em>]The question you are trying to ask is “Is there a US School that any international student, irrespective of their profile, can consider a financial safety?”
[</em>]The answer is “NO”.
[/ol]</p>
<p>If you provide your stats, someone might be able to comment on how competitive you are (or are not), but in the absence of that, you are not going to get a specific recommendation.</p>
<p>Even if a current international were to answer, it is based on their profile and situation. A college may consider a student from Afghanistan as more preferable than a student from India or China, even that student may not have the best stats. However, the Afghani student may have preserved under more difficult circumstances. </p>
<p>You need to be aware of the terms “need blind” and “need aware”. Need blind means that the college does not care if you need financial aid when making the admission decision, they make the admission decision first and then figure out if they have aid for you. Need aware means that before they make the decision they verify if they can offer you aid and if they cannot, they will not admit you. Most schools are need aware for internationals. So one persons experience may not be another persons experience.</p>
<p>[International</a> Students | Admissions - Berea College](<a href=“http://www.berea.edu/admissions/international/default.asp]International”>http://www.berea.edu/admissions/international/default.asp)</p>
<p>It is not a safety (they only accept one international student from each country), but you should put it on your list.</p>
<p>The only safety is what thumper said “A college in your OWN country that offers aid would be your safety.”</p>
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<p>^^Hello! Berea only provides it for the FIRST year! The other 3 years are on YOUR tab. Not such a great deal after all…</p>
<p>^^you didn’t read very far.</p>
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<p>by that I meant that I know how hard it is to get accepted and the competition is keen. I just wanted some examples like “Smith has about 50% acceptance rate overall”</p>
<p>Smith is “need aware” for int’l students. </p>
<p>I don’t think a school can be need blind to int’ls, have a 50% admit rate, and meet 100% of need. </p>
<p>Meeting need for low income int’ls is more expensive for a school than meeting need for low income domestic students. Domestic low-income students qualify for federal aid (grants/loans/work-study), so the school can provide less institutional aid…(sometimes as much as $15k+ per year less institutional aid. ) And, int’ls students can have higher COAs because of the need for int’l travel and insurance.</p>
<p>Try looking at Ave Maria University</p>
<p>Thank you guys! I already consider Berea, but I don’t think Ave Maria University is a good way for me, they don’t provide FA based on need for internationals.</p>