Hi,
I would like to let you know my situation before I start talking about the real problem:
I am a high school senior at the deadline to decide which colleges to commit to. I have applied to nine private schools, 3 UCs, and 3 CSUs. And I got into most of them except for private schools. I am an international student from Japan, meaning I am not qualified for financial aid from UCs, CSUs, and Community Colleges.
Although I have gotten into a couple of schools, I have to get a pretty big loan to attend them, including community college. I have been pretty depressed about not getting into the schools that were most likely to give me more money to attend their schools since I have done my best in high school and my GPA is above 4.0 with a class rank in top 10 percent. The only factor that probably played a huge role in decline of admission from the top colleges that I applied were SAT and ACT. They were a little more than average, but not good at all for those top colleges.
So, I was thinking about not going to college for a year and try applying to those schools again with a new test score and new experiences like volunteer and internship.
The only concern about it is that I have never heard of anyone taking those tests after high school. Even if I am allowed to take the SAT/ACT after high school, would those top tier colleges accept those scores?
I also would appreciate it if you can recommend some private schools that offer good financial packages for international students.
Thank you so much for your help!