Things are a bit different here.... please help!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hello, i am an international student and admission things are a bit confused for me, because here in Bulgaria everything is different. We don<code>t have APs, ranks in class, almost no clubs and activities in the school and etc.
I</code>ll be very tankful if you tell me what my chances are. No counselor to ask here :)</p>

<p>SAT I - 2110 (CR - 750, W - 670, Math - 690)
TOEFL - 280 (out of 300)
SAT II- not taken yet, but hoping for 800 at math 2C and a decent result in German.</p>

<p>My diploma will be something like 5.93 out of 6, which is the highest mark here.</p>

<p>ECs: ( Do I have to prove these??)</p>

<p>-painting, drawing - I am thinking of sending some photos of my pictures (is it a good idea? )
-maths - attended one national olympiad; 3rd place at a city contest
-linguistics - attended 3 national olympiads
- chess team
-English since I was in Kindergarden :) - i have a CAE (the Cambridge Certificate in Advanced English)
- German - for a few years
- participated in a project for the Bulgarian integration in the European Union</p>

<p>Volunteer work : </p>

<ul>
<li>in an International Foundation which gives language courses and helps students who want to
study abroad. May be theyll write me a good reccomendation. </li>
<li>Red Cross - i have signed up but havent done anything yet.</li>
</ul>

<p>I am interested in Carnegie Mellon, Cornell , Colgate and BU. I am looking for a school that has various courses
in visual arts and computer science at the same time. And i definately need a need-based aid.
But may be these are very big reaches? What do you think?</p>

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<p>Carnegie Mellon dosen't gives financial aid to international students. You have a good shot at Colgate and BU. Cornell is a bit difficult but it is certainly possible. Being from Bulgaria definetly helps you.</p>

3

<p>Your English is excellent; you have outscored most native speakers. You're a good applicant to these schools. Do send pictures of your artwork if it's good.</p>

4

<p>In my opinion, you have an excellent chance (70%) at getting into Boston University, an okay chance at Colgate (55%), and about a 45% to 50% chance at Cornell. However, getting financial aid at Colgate and Cornell will be difficult for you since you will be just in the middle group of those being accepted (if accepted)--and the financial aid at BU is likely to be half grants and half loans--meaning you will owe a lot of money at graduation if you go there (probably $25,000 to $40,000 or more).</p>

<p>You might want to consider some other schools where you have a better chance at scholarships and grants (meaning they don't have to be paid back)--and which have the mix of computers/visual arts you mention. Schools that come to mind are University of Southern California, Indiana University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Georgia Institute of Technology. Your grades and test scores should get you into all of these schools. (Chances: USC--60%, Indiana U--85%, RPI--65%, Georgia Tech--55%).</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

5

<p>THANK YOU very much.</p>

<p>The collegeboard says for USC that : "International students are eligible for non-need-based aid". Doesn<code>t this mean that getting aid is more difficult; that they must like me a lot to give me aid?

Which Indiana Uni do you mean? Isn</code>t it public?
GIT doesn`t offer financial aid for international students.

"However, getting financial aid at Colgate and Cornell will be difficult for you since you will be just in the middle group of those being accepted "

Colgate:

Number who applied for need-based aid: 272 Number who were judged to have need: 219 Number who were offered aid: 219 Number who had full need met: 219

Cornell : Number who applied for need-based aid: 1,967 Number who were judged to have need: 1,499 Number who were offered aid: 1,499 Number who had full need met: 1,499

Doesn`t this mean that EVERYONE who is admitted and is judged to have need receives aid?</p>

6

<p>Those are numbers ... and numbers need to be interpreted before you can draw conclusions ....
VERY FEW universities offer need-based aid to international students..... According to " A is for Admission" - ( a book about admission process ) ,the universities divide the international application into 2 parts .. those that need aid and those that dont need aid ... Those that dont need aid are judged along with other "normal applications " ... those that need aid are separated .... Since the colleges can support very few international students so only a handful of students are selected and these students have their full need met .. which explains the numbers that they have put .... but most of these financial aid needing kids are very smart , so admission is very very competitive ...
Simply speaking admission is need blind only US citizens .... and international students are judged keeping in mind whether they can pay or whether the university can pay for them which makes it all the more difficult....
Best policy for you would be to be more flexible and focus on colleges that wud love to have you because your profile is way better than the average student .... these are the schools that wud go out of the way to support you ...
PS- read " A is for admission " or any other book they will give u insight into the admission process ....</p>

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<p>"Best policy for you would be to be more flexible and focus on colleges that wud love to have you because your profile is way better than the average student .... these are the schools that wud go out of the way to support you ... "</p>

<p>supergaut24, pretty discouraging, but you are right.. Do u have any suggestions for colleges?</p>

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<p>zdr , pozdravi ot NY</p>

<p>neznam dali kriteriite za international sa po visoki (ponezhe priemat po malko hora)...no za cornell i carnegie mellon mislq che imash dobur shans. brat mi e v cornell i poznava dosta bulgari koito sa doshli ot bg da uchat i mislq che im davat stependiq (inache ne vijdam kak shte plashtat $44,000)...</p>

<p>vsushnost i az mislq da kandidastvam v gore dolu sushtite kolezhi za computer science/matematika i mojebi minor vuv fine arts.</p>

<p>imash li nqkakva online galeriq s razni risunki/kartini?</p>

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<p>supergaut24 explains the financial aid pretty well, but left out the part you aren't understanding.</p>

<p>Just because a school says that they are giving you financial aid doesn't mean you are getting the money for free. Most of the financial aid offered by Colgate, for example, consists of loans. These have to be paid back when you graduate, and in some cases you have to start paying the interest the minute you take out the loan--which is even before you graduate.</p>

<p>Take a school like George Washington University for instance. They promise financial aid of practically 100% to all their students. But 80%--yes, 80% of this consists of loans or other money that you have to pay back. Since it costs $160,000 to go to George Washington, that means you would have to pay back $128,000 to banks after you graduate--and of course you also would have to pay back the interest, which would be about $9,000 per year--so to pay this off in 10 years you would be paying something like $15,000 to $16,000 every year after you graduate. (The interest will go down each year as the loan is paid down).</p>

<p>What you have to do is find a school that will give you a grant or a scholarship. This is financial aid that doesn't have to be paid back. In this way, you can afford to go to school and not be broke when you graduate. USC gives non-need based aid--this means you don't have to be poor to qualify, you just have to have good grades and test scores and have done good things for your community. This is what you are looking for--and you should also be looking for schools that offer need-based aid if you are poor.</p>

<p>But understand--America is the land of opportunity--it is not the land of freebies and giveaways. Most schools expect you to do some work, or spend some time after graduation helping out the local community--or your country--after you graduate. Thus some of the aid will be "Work--Study" meaning you are offered a job to earn some of the money, some will be scholarships--meaning free, and some of the aid will be grants--meaning money to be paid back. </p>

<p>You are unlikely as an international student to get an entirely free college education unless you are the absolute top student in every single way possible--the schools are not just big money machines that give everything away to all the international students. They want smart students who will contribute to the community (and the college) while in the US, and they want students who will use what they learn to help out both the foreign country--or will stay in the US and become a productive citizen once they graduate. Also, keep in mind that the less competitive the school you go to, the more likely you are to be close to the top of the school's incoming class--which enables you to get more scholarship money. But it's a tradeoff--a lower ranked school and more money, or a higher ranked school and less money. You usually don't get both--unless you are going to cure cancer or invent the next supercomputer.</p>

<p>Go over to the financial aid section of college confidential--you'll see all the stories of people who got accepted to schools--and were offered "financial aid", but couldn't go to the school because the "financial aid" was loans--and they couldn't afford to pay them back after graduation.</p>

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<p>Hey, I'm sorry about the Georgia Tech thing--didn't realize they didn't offer financial aid to foreign students. Also, I checked out Colgate--and their financial aid package is heavily weighted towards grants, not loans--about a 12 to 1 ratio--so you should definitely apply there.</p>

<p>For another choice, how about Rice University in Houston, TX. They offer financial aid to 66% of their students, 100% to those in need, and the ratio of grants to loans in their packages is 8 to 1--$17,200 in grants to $2,500 in loans to the average incoming freshman student.</p>

<p>It's very tough to get into--about equivalent to Colgate and Cornell--but obviously the aid packages are good. As far as Cornell, the ratio of grants to loans is about 2 to 1--not as good as at Colgate and Rice--but it would put you about $40,000 to $50,000 in debt at graduation, not $128,000 like at George Washington--so it's not terrible.</p>

<p>Sorry, but I don't have time to look at any other places. I'm at work, and I'll be working late tonight to make up for the time I've spent on this site answering some of these chances threads.</p>

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<p>@ calcruzer:
I know someone at cornell that applied internationally from bulgaria and she got a full scholarship minus a couple of thousand work/study. This seems to be the case for most of the international bulgarians at cornell
as far as i know and i would assume need is met in most such situations.</p>

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<p>SurfinBird : I didnt mean to discourage you from applying you any school you have named ... i just wrote out the facts ...
I am a "semi-international " student myself because although i am a US citizen i have been living in India for whole of my life ....And i will rely heavily on aid to be able to afford college ....
I know a lot of wiz kids from here that go to princeton ,harvard etc. etc. with full scholarships .... these students are really exceptional and in most cases winners of national competitons and stuff like that ....
I my opinion you shudnt worry and apply to a broad range of schools and you surely get into one that suits you fine ....</p>

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<p>Yes, I know that i am not the outstanding student with a long list of ECs, but I have never (until soon) supposed that these ECs will be needed for college.
Every activity that I have started was out of personal interest. Ofcourse this does not change the fact that i didn`t manage to get to an international math or linguistics olympiad..
Not working is out of the question and I have some family savings; loans is what is more unpleasant.. And the hardest part is being admitted at all..

Calcruzer, thank you, I dont want you to be fired :) Ill continue checking the colleges by myself.. Rice university gives only non-need-based scholarship and only 54 internationals have received it.. It turned out that BU doesn`t offer fin aid for int. students too.</p>

<p>So, do you advice me to try merit based scholarships in less competitive schools, such as USC where 248 internationals got non-need-based aid?</p>

<p>supergaut24, thank you, I will:)</p>

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<p>I want to ask you smth. else : Would it help if I take 3 Subject tests?</p>

15

<p>It will be good to give 3 subject tests ... because no school in my knowlegde asks for more than 3 tests .....</p>

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<p>Some Ivies (like Harvard) require 3 SAT IIs, whereas some (like Cornell and Penn) only require two.</p>

<p>Surfin_bird, have you checked out the "financial aid" portion of the site yet? Hopefully there is good info over there on best places for foreign students to get scholarships and grants, including for Bulgarian students like yourself.</p>

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<p>Yes, I have checked both the "financial aid" and "International Students" parts.
I know some REALLY clever Bulgarian students with a lot of math/physics first places and awards that were rejected and some with.. hm.. usual ECs that got full rides (one of them is in Harvard). So nothing is for sure.. </p>

<p>I<code>ll appreciate more oppinions on my chances in Colgate and Cornell and suggestions about other not LACs (they offer more fin aid for internationals and i</code>ll try a lot of them but I prefer bigger unis).</p>

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<p>Hey Surfin_Burd I'm also from Bulgaria. I'll be 12th grade this year and I'm considering applying to US colleges as well. Which town are you from? I'm from Rousse.</p>