Hello!
I’m an Indian IB student applying to the US. These are a few of the universities I have in mind: Stanford, Harvard, MIT, CalTech, Johns Hopkins, University of Southern California, UCLA, University of Rochester, University of Illinois - UC, Florida Institute of Tech, University of Connecticut, UT Austin, Uni of Washinton, Ohio State University.
SAT (superscored from two takes): EBRW - 720/800 and Math - 800/800
Took the IB program: Phy, Chem and Math HL, English L&L, Spanish and Business Management SL (Predicted about a 40/45)
Essays: truthful; whether they’re impressive is rather subjective 
Extracurriculars:
- Founder and President of Debate Club and Founding Member of school’s editorial team.
- Been part of the school band in all the schools I attended in the past 10 years.
- Blogging for 7 years
- Organized fundraisers and lead a team for G4 project. Also attended two MUNs.
- Trained hundreds of students through the Debate Club.
Hooks: that I love English, something that is uncommon amongst Indians, and I’ve demonstrated that through the blog and the editorial team. I know four languages, though I don’t know if this counts as a ‘hook’. Plus, I’ve won numerous academic awards in my school.
I’m planning to apply for Engineering, with financial aid.
I feel like my list is quite unbalanced - it would be great if somebody could give me their suggestions for universities that offer generous financial aid and friendly to international students.
Thanks in advance!
Hooks=Recruited Athlete, URM status -African-American, Native-American, Pacific Islander, Mexican-American, Legacy, Family endowment to the university (MONEY), international or celebrity status, a specific university need (olympic athlete, tuba player, sculptor, etc.). Hooks are not something that you create or make-up. You are generally born with it.
If you need financial aid to attend a US university, as an international student from India, you will be very limited by the schools’ inability to fund you and the competition from your countrymen.
While your list may be a little top heavy (Harvard, Stanford, MIT, CalTech), I don’t think it is unbalanced. You do have matches and safeties. The issue is with respect to financial aid. If you get into one of the top schools, you can automatically get aid, as long as you qualify for need-based aid. That’s the good part. But, public colleges like UCLA, University of Illinois, University of Connecticut, UT Austin, Uni of Washington and Ohio State University don’t offer much aid to international students, if any. If you have no way of supporting financially, I would replace some of the public colleges with private colleges. You can search this forum or google for schools with financial aid to international students to find some private colleges.
Gpa? You gotta tell us about your grades if you want an educated guess on your chances.
Also like Bea said if you need financial aid to attend a US university, as an international student from India, you will be very limited by the schools’ inability to fund you and the competition from your countrymen.
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