Suggestions for Safety Schools [Biology, international student, needs financial aid]

In this topic, are you searching for safeties literally, or are you simply seeking suggestions for desirable colleges that may be easier to get into than those mentioned in your original post?

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If a University offers admission but less financial aid than expected we will consider it. He is also applying to UK schools. So it will be comparison and selection based on financial and reputation based factors.

Just remember, to get a student visa here, you will need to complete a certificate of finances documenting that toy have the money to fund college at the ready. This can include awarded financial aid from the college. It cannot include loans that are not yet approved, money from family that hasn’t been received, or potential other sources of income not yet on the books.

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Looking for LACs which have strong Biology programs and will have 80%+ admission probability for him. Completely understand that in a need aware world those probabilities may not actually pan out.

My guess is Visa should not be a problem.

You may be able to achieve this collectively. That is, by applying to, say, five colleges offering fairly high chances of acceptance and funding, the chance of at least one desirable (including with respect to strength in biology), affordable acceptance could be quite high.

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Yes. We can apply to 5 more LACs surely. However, how does one judge chances of admission + aid for an international? Would endowment per student be a good indicator?

Even the common data doesn’t seem to provide international applications number.

Look on their website for info about international student financial aid. If you see the words “limited”, or anything like that
your need is not likely to be met.

In terms of acceptance
at some colleges, it’s suggested to divide the acceptance rate in half for international students, and especially for those needing funding.

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Excellent suggestions! Would use these ball park estimates.

All you can do is apply and see where your S is accepted and what the FA packages are. You’ve received many good school suggestions on this thread and your other ones.

Is your S also applying to universities in India in addition to the UK unis? I know he is applying ED to Grinnell
so that is his number one choice not only in the US, but over schools in India and the UK?

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Colleges with limited financial aid budgets for international applicants may nonetheless meet the full, demonstrated financial need of all international applicants that they do accept.

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Yes, but all those schools would be reaches, there are no highly likelies/safeties in that group. There are more schools that don’t meet full need, but may meet full need for the students they really want (which can include internationals).

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This year he is not applying in India. Only USA and UK. I suspect he will surely get in UK surely since their evaluation is primarily based on GPA and he has high GPA for Cambridge curriculum.

In the worst case scenario may do a break year with a few research internships in India.

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What is his plan after his bachelors? Where does he plan to work? An international student getting a bachelors in biology will very likely need to return to their home country after graduation. Yes, he could stay for grad school
but then what?

So
what is planned after he gets all of his college degrees??

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That is too far into future. Right now the plans are to do MS/PhD. After that Academia, research or start-up who knows
 Will depend on various internal and external factors.

If you have some suggestions or pointers do let me know.

I don’t know that they will be affordable, but check out Eckerd in FL. I know they’re quite good in the sciences, and the stats are solid to be accepted.

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I don’t have anything beyond what posters have shared so far. Have your S do his best on the applications (especially the Why Us? essays at the schools that have those), apply, and see where he gets accepted and what the FA offers are. It’s difficult to handicap where merit aid offers will come in at some schools.

Why Us? essays should be very specific to the school
talk about an intended major, classes you would like to take, a prof you’d like to do research with, clubs/orgs you would be involved with. You should not be able to just change the name of the college and insert the same Why Us? essay
if that’s the case it is too generic.

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Thanks for the suggestions. Yes we are trying to follow these guidelines. Let’s see how things pan out.

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Great. Thanks for providing a new suggestion.

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