Hi, I am currently a high school senior and trying to look at some of the schools that might be well-fitted. Below is some of my information:
Demographics:
Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Mathematics or Computational Mathematics
School Type: Private school
Hooks: I don’t know, maybe being an international student?
Gender: F
Race: Vietnamese
State: PA
I am an international student from Vietnam, and I transferred to the US at the beginning of my Sophomore year
Test and grades
ACT: 31 (using super score, Math: 33, English: 32, Reading 31, Science: 27, Writing: 8)
SAT II: 750 (Math I), 620 (Physics)
GPA: 3.5-3.6/4.0 (unweighted) (I’m not sure about this since I didn’t have the official transcript, this GPA is totally estimated from my previous year reports)
AP Scores: AP Calculus AB :3, AP Chemistry 2
Senior Courseload: AP Calculus BC, AP Computer Science A, AP Physics 1, AP Statistics, British Lit Honors
Awards / Honors:
Regular school honor rolls
Recently I placed 15th in a district Interscholastic Math competition, but I don’t know if that counts
I also got some district and provincial awards during my 9th grade in Vietnam.
I can’t think of any awards for now but I don’t really have any “spikes” such and such
EC’s:
Math team
Robotics club
DECA
National Honor Society
International club
Habitat for Humanity
Yearbook
Student Government
Summer Programs: N/A
Recs:
Calculus teacher: I didn’t ask for a copy of the letter but I hope I got a good one
English teacher: I didn’t ask for a copy either.
Counselor: probably just a general letter since our class size is big (around 250 students)
As stated, I’m just looking for some suggestions. Actually, I have Lehigh, MIT, Bucknell, RIT in my application list, but I really think they are all long shots. Maybe someone can help me to realize the reality :^)
Have you looked through the thread on automatic merit scholarships that is at the top of the Financial Aid Forum? Some of those are open to international applicants. However, many have early cut-off dates so you may have missed them. Check each one carefully to find out whether they are available to you.
I tried to look at Penn State before actually and they don’t really have any financial aid program for international students (maybe some scholarship but at a very low amount and it wouldn’t be enough for me to afford the tuition) I believe Penn State tuition is around $50k for non PA resident and $30k for PA resident.
Being an international student, from Asia, and needing significant financial aid is going to make this a bit tough. I don’t know what to suggest in the US that would get the price down to $25,000 per year for total cost of attendance. The only schools in the US that we found that were this inexpensive were our in-state public schools, and being an international student might make you have no in-state public university. Schools that guarantee to meet full need might in many cases be reaches with your stats. Hopefully other people can suggest US schools that will work for you.
Many of the universities in Canada have a total cost of attendance that is about US $25,000 per year for international students (more if expressed in Canadian dollars). Your best bet might be schools that are outside of Ontario that you have not already heard of (the famous ones can charge more). Some good large ones in the east are Dalhousie and Concordia (application deadline is very close for this one). Memorial University of Newfoundland is slightly less expensive but in a location which is hard to get to with rather dark and stormy winters. Some good small ones in the east are Mount Allison, Acadia, St Francis Xavier, and Bishops. You would get into at least some, probably most of these with a 3.5 GPA and your budget of US $25,000 per year would be very close to what they would cost.
You’re not likely to have any realistic options for need-based financial aid. Only the most competitive schools meet need for international students. You need to identify schools that you can afford based on the “sticker price” and predictable automatic merit aid.
Your best bet in the US may be the Midwestern public LAC’s - Truman State and U of Minnesota Morris. These are very good schools where you should have no trouble getting a solid undergraduate education. Both offer majors in math, statistics, and computer science, and minors in all of these plus more (Truman State also has minors in Information Systems, Statistical Methods, Mathematical Biology, and Actuarial Science). With automatic merit, both schools should be in your price range. If you want a larger school, SIUC and some of the U of Maine campuses make in-state rates available to all students. The Canadian U’s mentioned above could also be good options.
$25k out-of-pocket each year is extremely difficult to find in the US for international students. Must you study here or do you have affordable options in other countries?
Work through the list of automatic scholarships that is at the top of the financial aid forum, and run a search for places where the OOS tuition and fees are no more than $10,000 (so you have the rest of your money for housing/books/meals/travel/etc.) at https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?s=all&l=93&ct=1+2&ic=1&tx=10000&ts=-2
University of South Dakota & South Dakota State University are 2 of the few reputable universities you could afford with no financial aid. As others have pointed out, financial aid is going to be difficult because of your nationality, & the time to apply for it is running out (some schools have earlier deadlines for internationals requesting financial aid than for others). It might be a good idea to apply to at least one decent school that you could attend even if you get zero financial aid.