Should I add more safeties?

Student Lounge International Students
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<p>Hi, everyone.
I'm an international from Latvia. I want advice on whether I should add more safeties to my college list. I really wouldn't like to end up having a forced gap year. In other words, could you please chance me for the following schools?</p>

<p>Amherst
Williams
Middlebury
Vassar
Bates
Oberlin
Kenyon
Dickinson</p>

<p>I need substantial financial assistance.</p>

<p>My test scores:</p>

<p>SAT
670 CR
710 Math
700 Writing (essay 6 out of 12, fail)</p>

<p>I could have done it better, especially the math section, but I could only take the SAT once; not all test dates are offered in my country. It was in May and should have progressed since then. </p>

<p>SAT Subject Tests
Biology E 730
Math I 800</p>

<p>TOEFL: 114 (R:30 L:29 S:27 W:28)</p>

<p>I study in a highly selective and reputable high school, which is considered to be the best in my country. I expect my class rank to bet top 10% or even better. My grades are good, but not absolutely perfect as my school is really demanding. The grades have a strong upward trend. I've got no idea how to calculate the GPA since my grades are on a 10-point scale. My recs should be great, though I'm not that confident about my essays.</p>

<p>I also study in the IB Diploma program (in English); my school had a separate IB admissions exam, which I also passed.</p>

<p>I have a few awards in regional Olympiads in math, geography, English, and physics.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>Many years of sailing, participation in national and international regattas with some success
Elected in the student council's board of our school
Selected to represent my country in European Youth Parliament's international session
Some other, less significant activities</p>

2

<p>How much can you afford?</p>

<p>As you might know, internationals needing almost full aid probably don’t have any safeties. What can your parents afford to pay?</p>

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<p>$10,000 a year</p>

4

<p>Emils, what eyp did u attens?</p>

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<p>Helsinki 2009</p>

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<p>“more safeties”? You don’t have any safeties at all on that list. In fact, they are all reaches.</p>

<p>Look at some Tier 2 and 3 schools that give large merit awards.</p>

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<p>^^^
Seconded. I don’t really see real safeties there.</p>

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<p>Of course, all these schools are selective, but I would not be happy to attend a school that accepts anyone with a high school diploma. There is really no point of going to the US if cannot get into a really good institution. </p>

<p>I think I’ll add St. Lawrence to the list. All my scores are above its ranges; however, its acceptance rate is only 34%. Another problem is that only selective schools give a lot of financial aid to internationals. Do you know any other slightly less selective LACs that give a lot of financial aid to foreigners?</p>

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<p>Dickinson is a safety. Some of the others may be too considering he/she is an international student. It is easier to gain admission if international. </p>

<p>Look into Tulane, it would probably be a better fit for you than any on your list. The application is free and Tulane gives good aid.</p>

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<p>^ Thanks, but I’m interested in liberal arts colleges.</p>

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<p>Tulane has a liberal arts department.</p>

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<p>

It is easier to gain admission, but MUCH harder to gain financial aid. The OP explicitly said that s/he needs financial aid. That’s also the problem with Tulane: no financial aid for international students.</p>

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<p>Vassar, Oberlin, and Bates are matches.
You should be able to get into at least one of them.
Williams, Amherst, and Middlebury are moderate reaches.
I don’t really know anything about Kenyon or Dickinson. </p>

<p>Here are the rankings for liberal arts colleges. It shows the tuition fees and admissions rates.
[Liberal</a> Arts Rankings - Best Colleges - Education - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/liberal-arts-rankings/]Liberal”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/liberal-arts-rankings/)</p>

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<p>It’s good to hear that not everybody thinks that I’m only applying to reaches. Fireadrian really freaked me out.</p>

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<p>I am afraid I have to agree with fireadrian. </p>

<p>You have to realize that the international admission rates at these colleges are a lot lower than the general admission rates. Kenyon, for example, has a 12% international admission rate. Bates 10%. Williams 6%. I don’t have the international admission rate for Dickinson, but it is most certainly below 20% as well. </p>

<p>The competition among international financial aid applicants is fierce. The SAT score ranges of international financial aid applicants are almost always above the 75% percentile of the college - being above average does not mean that you can consider that college a safety. I remember a couple of years ago, some college’s website explicitly said that international students need an ACT score of 32+ to be competitive for financial aid. The college’s mid-50% score range was 24-28.</p>

<p>I would not want to bet my education on any single college on your list. None of the selective liberal arts colleges is a safety for an international financial aid applicant. I am not expecting that you will be rejected from every single college on your list, but there is a chance that you will. </p>

<p>And being accepted is not the only uncertainty here. If you are accepted, there is no guarantee that you will get sufficient financial aid to attend. You think you can contribute $10,000 a year but maybe the colleges think you can contribute $20,000? US Colleges tend to have a different definition for “reasonable” college expenses than most college applicants. American families often find themselves in a situation where they have to use retirement savings or take out a mortgage on their house to pay for college. Would you be willing to go that far?</p>

<p>If you have your heart set on studying in the US, I second fireadrian’s suggestion to apply to 2nd or 3rd tier colleges or universities with full-tuition scholarships. Otherwise I would have a backup plan in another country.</p>

<p>By the way, are you male or female?</p>

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<p>^ Sorry for those harsh words. I didn’t mean to crush your hopes of going to college in the States. I just wanted to say that you should have a backup plan just in case, because there are no 100% safeties if you need significant financial aid. No one here - including myself - can evaluate your chances: (a) we are not qualified to do that because we have no basis for comparison, and (b) we do not have access to your letters of recommendation, which are probably going to be the tipping factor.</p>

<p>And I asked about your gender because I have a suggestion for you in case you are female (a real one, nothing dirty), but I won’t bother typing it up if you are a guy. If any other female college applicants out there are interested, let me know.</p>

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<p>^ I’m male. </p>

<p>I appreciate your efforts to make my expectations more realistic :slight_smile: I didn’t know that the acceptance rates for internationals are that much lower. If it is only 6% Williams, then their claims of being need-blind towards internationals are obviously false… I will consider backup options, but I still hope to attend one of Tier 1 LACs. I know Swarthmore and Penn students from my high school who had similar scores, grades and financial situation. As you said, no one cannot really predict my chances, so I will apply and hope for the best.</p>

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<p>Emils, I’d also like to say to not to feel discouraged, if you were. In international chance threads, someone (and especially American moms) always comes up and says “You have no safeties” or something like that. It’s almost a CC law, with a 87.5% chance of happening.</p>

<p>Not to say that such posts are useless though; take all advice with a grain of salt.</p>

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<p>

No, it just means that they get a lot more international applications than they want international students - they probably don’t want 50% of their student body to be international. </p>

<p>Good luck with your applications! Let us know how things go!</p>

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<p>Places like williams have the cash to help out needy internationals, but they dont coz they dont want to “overdiversify”.</p>