here goes a cringy chanceme extract Demographics: Bangladeshi International Student who can pay like 3k annually (lmao)
Now the thing is I need a lot of financial aid (EFC: USD 3000) Please help, Deadline needs to be Jan5+
Intended Major: Econ/CS/Maths
Academics:
SAT1: 1490 (EBRW 700 Math 790)
SAT2: MathII 800 Physics 800 Chemistry 780
GPA: 4.0/4.0 (UW)
Extracurriculars:
Internships at an NGO, Social Business. 1400+ Hrs community service, founded a few clubs at school, programming comp semi finalist, know a few languages, tutoring
Recommendation Letters:
9/10
Essay:
Pleased with it, 6+/10
Awards:
Depressingly, national award for O level grades, intra math olympiad champion, inter school olympiad on informatics semi finalist, best delegate in the first MUN
You obviously have very strong credentials. And obviously the financial side is problematic. Almost any school will have a sticker price of $30-40,000 plus for an international student. Private schools will be more than $60,000. Schools in particular tend to be more “need aware” for international students (they consider an applicant’s ability to pay in the admission decision), and you are asking them to subsidize your education to a very significant degree.
You can google “colleges that meet full financial need” and try some of these. As you’ve probably seen, many of these will be need aware for internationals. And they might calculate that you can pay more than $3000, which might make them too expensive. But at least they are striving to be affordable for the students that they accept, and have the financial resources to attempt this. You can run the Net Price Calculator (NPC) for some of these and see if any might work.
Your “hook” might be that you are a strong student from a nation without much presence at many schools, so that you might bring a different perspective to the classroom and school community in general. I’ve heard admissions reps at schools like Colby College emphasize the importance of this. You might hope one really competitive school that is also wealthy and generous with aid falls in love with your application.
With that in mind, besides the schools you find from googling the above, you might try a few small LACs like Kalamazoo College, Beloit College, or Clark University, maybe Grinnell College. Money aside, your stats, etc. would make you a strong applicant at these very good schools. The odds would not be promising, but hopefully your complete application will convince them that you’d be a great addition to the campus community, and they’d have some way of making it work. Good luck!