<p>Cornell is not that great for internationals…unless they get that TATA or some other merit/need scholarship from your own country. I know a person who got in but couldn’t pay the price because they didn’t receive any help in terms of need. Go figure…</p>
<p>@Blackadder: sorry, Cornell is not need blind. And MIT, Stanford, Brown, Cornell, Princeton, Caltech all meet full demonstrated need IF you get in. That’s why asking for aid significantly lowers you chances at some of these universities. <em>coughStanfordcough</em>. It’s because once they do decide to admit you, they give you all the money you need (and they only have a limited amount of funding for internationals). Provided you ask for aid in the first place of course.</p>
<p>@liveulife: while i agree that Cornell is not the best place for internationals seeking aid, what probably happened to your friend was that s/he didn’t apply for aid(because that reduced chances of admission) or the finances he submitted didn’t reflect the true extent of his/her need because once admitted, Cornell meets full demonstrated need. </p>
<p>I’m pretty sure most top schools meet full demonstrated need once admitted; they’re just not all need blind. They’re not going to admit some one who’s clearly needs aid (and has said so on the forms) and say ‘sorry pal, you’re in, but no aid’, because then the whole process of need aware would become totally meaningless.</p>
<p>I don’t think an Ivy league school can really ever be a safety for anyone 
</p>
<p>Dartmouth has an acceptance rate of like 14%, so unless you have some sort of awesome hook, no its not an option for a safety. It might still be a good college for you, just not a good safety.</p>
<p>How about Ann Arbor and Urbana Champaign and UWisconsin - Madison? No clue what their aid is like, you’ll have to check that out, but they have great programs (according to other collegeconfidential posters- you’ve said you don’t want to go all the way to the US for a mediocre program) and can probably be considered safeties.</p>
<p>damn. have you considered Canada as a potential option? Good aid, and some great schools…</p>
<p>Never consider public unis to offer aid to internationals…unless you are a world champ heh.
Canada equals bigger public unis. You shouldn’t expect them to provide you aid. However, the amount for studying there can be less in comparison to many schools you may be considering in u.s.
However, don’t let yourself down by the price. Keep searching and working hard and you’ll get your goal. I know that I don’t like to be told that “I have so little of options due to $”. But, when I stopped caring about that, I did acheive my goals to some extent.</p>
<p>@goluhaque: haha, I know what you mean 
But I think Canada’s a good option to consider. A bunch of the top Canadian Unis came to our school, and they all said that generous scholarships were abundantly available for internationals. If you’re a qualified candidate, they realize you’re probably going to have offers from smaller colleges (Canadian Unis are beyond massive - to the point where big = bad) that are better known in the US, so they offer really good merit based scholarships to attract bright students to Canada. Their fees are inexpensive (9in comparison) to begin with, and they can be really generous with their scholarships. I’m not saying you should definitely apply, just saying its an option worth considering.</p>
<p>And I think NUS/NTU are good back ups as well if you have good grades and decent SAT scores. Anyway Singapore applications are after the US results come out, so you can always have a back up if for some reason things don’t go well in the US. Singapore is AWESOME with aid - you should have no issue.</p>
<p>(PS: I’m sure the 'rents will understand :P)</p>
<p>They’re both excellent universities, and I’m sure you won’t find them lacking academically. But what might be an issue is flexibility…one of the best things about the US is that you can pretty much take any course you want as long as you complete the requirements for your major + you don’t have to declare your major till the end of your sophomore year which is good since 95% of people end up majoring in a different field than the thought they would be when applying. You won’t find Singapore universities this understanding - you have to come in with a declared major; changing your mind means repeating the year etc. Much more rigid, a lot like India and the UK that way. </p>
<p>But that’s why its a safety right - all said and done graduating from NUS/NTU means:
*good grad school
*good job opportunities
*(practically) no debt
- you’re closer to home (I do’t know if you would call this good or bad)
- constant access to Indian food (if that matters to you)
- the weather…I think its infinitely preferable to the cold that is Massachusetts/ the other Ivy locations.
^all awesome things. </p>
<p>Why I suggested Canada was because its a lot more like the US in its flexibility and style of teaching. If that matters to you, then at least consider Canada - I think it would be worth your while even if you don’t apply.</p>
<p>
This is not true. Because this:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>is true. ;)</p>
<p>Cornell sucks with aid. It’s worse than the rest of the Ivies. They basically only have the TATA to give, and have admitted other needy ppl without aid. I think they don’t have anything other than the TATA, or if they do, it is only for really exceptional cases.
Debarghya09, a user here, and Tiyas another user both got accepted to Cornell and were told basically the above, although they qualified for full/near full aid. “No more FA left to distribute”.
Tiyas finally was able to get the TATA with a lot of pleading…and the fact that three indians gave up the TATA def helped a lot too (although the folks at the FA office said that they distributed aid after making assumptions about no. of denials for the offer…) . This was a one in a million case, don’t count on it.
Debarghya ended up not getting any aid.</p>
<p>Sadistic in my opinion. Rejection is better.</p>
<p>Cornell is need-blind for internationals.</p>
<p><a href=“http://finaid.trellon.org/cornell/sites/default/files/2011-International-FA-App.pdf[/url]”>http://finaid.trellon.org/cornell/sites/default/files/2011-International-FA-App.pdf</a></p>
<p>@pixie: Wow, that’s awful. I thought considering the number of times the quote Ezra Cornell on their website they would know better.
–> “I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study”</p>
<p>Now that I think of it, they never explicitly state they’ll meet full aid if admitted (practically every top other school does), but I never imagined they would do this…WHY on earth would they accept someone who couldn’t pay and whom they couldn’t help?</p>
<p>@blackadder: apparently I stand corrected. but I think accepting people willy nilly only to find they can’t afford to have them there (unlike HYPM) is worse than a need aware school, and I suppose that’s why they’re not usually clubbed together with those four when it comes to aid policies. </p>
<p>Anyway I think we can all agree that Cornell’s not the place for international aid, which was the point of this whole discussion.</p>
<p>will an average student get financial aid if the sat score is good enough?</p>
<p>RE: Cornell-- Contradict got it right, it does perform admissions on a need blind basis, but doesn’t promise to meet full need. Their aid policies are very confusing and twisted, and many have spent ages trying to figure them out.
Also, another fun fact-- The TATA scholarship is generally given to those students who also probably are good enough to get into the need blinds. So mostly it is given up by the original recipients. What it offers, equals the FA offer of HYPSM. I know four TATA recipients this year, and one is going to Harvard, and one to Yale. The third is Tiyas of course. And the fourth sat next to me in math tuition sometimes. :rolleyes: He though, only got the TATA.</p>
<p>
Really? You might not be singing the same tune come march 2012.
Nooooo. A lot of public universities provide quite a lot of FA to internationals, just coz they need the diversity. The FA prolly won’t be full, but 50-ish or so?
Ex–Drexel gives oodles of aid to indians especially. Purdue has scholarships you can apply for in second yr if you do well in the first. And SUNY Buffalo has a couple (or only one? don’t remember) of full scholarships for internationals. A user from a couple years ago, Sushmita got it! There are many more public schools that do give FA, mostly merit based though, that I don’t know of/don’t remember, since I didn’t apply to any…
many Canada schools actually have a lot of (merit) scholarships to give out, you might want to check their respective websites.</p>
<p>
Didn’t mention that I was referring to top publics like Berkeley, UMich, Gtech, UVA, UNC. I def agree with you on Drexel providing aid…their advertising basically works by selected a large pool of students and pushing them to apply for full/partial scholarship on merit (don’t know about need, but that school seems a little desperate). I don’t know much about need base giving publics for most part (maybe you are better with knowing that fact), but based on merits publics are pretty considerate. </p>
<p>@Contradict: By the way, I never heard Canadian schools ever gauranteeing scholarships for a school…that is new. Especially because they usually are more leaning towards providing advantage to provincial students. Hmm</p>
<p>@liveulife: I don’t think the offer the money as fin aid - they do have a LOT of merit based scholarships though. I don’t know how they convert Indian syllabus’ scores, but as for IB, I think 39+ students are pretty much guaranteed some really nice scholarship packs. At least that’s what the reps from Canada told us. </p>
<p>Plus, while the idea of studying in such HUGE universities might not seem appealing at first (they make the US state schools looks tiny :P), they have some accelerated programs that you can qualify for - these have much smaller class sizes, more professor interaction etc. I think its worth considering…</p>
<p>@contradict: lol 39+ would obviously imply a top notch student, especially since Canada leans and is more familiar with IB. </p>
<p>While I wouldn’t exaggerate the size of Canadian publics (since Ohio state/Arizona…etc can doubly match them), I still do consider the classes large. However, the accelerated programs have some good prospects.</p>
<p>@liveulife: “they make the US state schools look tiny” –> quote from my college councilor that I never bothered verifying, which was apparently not wise :S </p>
<p>“I still consider the classes large”–> lol, most definitely. i think I would probably consider any college with 8000+ students as having ‘large classes’. But 30,000? Yeah, I can’t even imagine what that would be like. Huge doesn’t cover it.</p>
<p>NUS/NTU scholarships are need based, but they require you to sign an agreement with them that says you’ll work with a Singaporean company for five years as soon as you graduate…Just thought I’d throw this out here, and you guys can check it out. :)</p>
<p>Also, getting into NUS and NTU is difficult coming from India (if you have also spent time prepping for college in the states), since they have a very high cut-off for board results (sth like 95%) and give value to only national and international activities. People who are well ranked in the competitive exams like IIT-JEE or AIEEE, but not well ranked enough to get a great IIT here, say a rank of 6000, and also have a good board percentage get preference over regular ppl.
Ex, my neighbor had ~6000 rank in IIT and 92% (in science) got accepted, but another of my friends who got a 94% (science) but no entrances, and no big awards didn’t.
Take a look at the application for NUS.</p>
<p>^the actual terms of agreement for the Singapore scholarship in NUS/NTU or wherever else is you have to pay Singapore TAXES for three years (and the logic is, to pay taxes, you have to work in a company based in Singapore…) </p>
<p>But you don’t have to worry about being ‘stuck’ in Singapore for three years after your graduation, if you don’t want to stay…there are legal ways around the system that involve paying nominal taxes, and then allowing you go pretty much wherever you want.</p>
<p>My use of the word ‘safety’ was not to imply that it is very easy to get in; more that the conditions for entering are pretty clear to all applicants, and that acceptances have a lot less of the randomness american colleges seem to have. The NUS/NTU reps told us applicants with 40+ in IB, steady grades and decent SAT scores would almost definitely get in. 40+ isn’t easy, but it’s the sort of tangible goal the US doesn’t offer you - that’s what I meant by safety (you can fairly accurately predict whether you will be accepted or not). I’m not sure what the equivalent goals for the ICSE/CBSE are - maybe contacting an NUS rep would help…</p>
<p>They are talking about college grading - no relevance to your situation of graduating from a high school.</p>
<p>@goluhaque; regardless, most Indian schools have no GPA system and american colleges are aware of that. just leave the GPA part blank on the common app.</p>