I’m an international student with contribution ability of around $15k to 20. Maximum would be 25k. (Income bracket <30k)
SAT score of 1520 (720 CRW 800M), 800 Math II, Physics not taken yet, GPA 9.6/10 unweighted (top 1% in the school), no APs
Awards/Honors: one prize at National English Academic Competion for gifted students, two prizes at Muncipal English competition, and one at Regional. Also awarded with Gold Medal in a small science competition.
Are there any schools that may offer me with a great amount of aid? (preferably national universities)
If your income is under 30k, how are you going to be able to pay a contribute $15k-20k a year (or a max of 25K a year)
There are only 5 schools in the US that are both need blind and meet 100% demonstrated need to international students. Your stating that your family makes under 30k but you can pay up to 25k/year is definitely going to raise a red flag
If you can pay up to 25k, you may be better served looking at schools where you are guaranteed full tuition for your stats and then use your 25k to pay room/board and misc expenses
My Certificate of Finance would be mainly from my parents’ savings passbook instead of only Income Certificate
Since I plan to ED into private universities, a contribution of $20k would probably be on the low side (considering their total tuition of $65-75k). Are there any universities (maybe top 30) that see my stats as adequate to grant such an amount of need?
Apply to University of Alabama…today. They give guaranteed merit awards and include international students. The application and scholarship application won’t take you long to do. You will,have an acceptance with financial merit award within a few weeks. The cost will be within your parent price point.
Start there.
Your STATS will help you with admissions to those top private universities. Many of them DO NOT give merit I’d…and that is what STATS are used to determine.
BUT if your family is really low income…you might qualify for need based aid. However, if your family has. $100,000 in the bank for for college costs, THAT will also be used in the calculation to,determine need based aid at schools where you might get enough aid to attend.
What country are you from? That could make a difference in terms of admissions.
I would very strongly suggest you NOT apply ED…unless you absolutely plan to attend if accepted. If your family finances are such that this might not be possible, apply to a bunch of colleges regular decision so you have some financial aid awards to compare.
What colleges are you thinking about? Remember too…the most generous, are also,the most competitive for admissions…admitting less than 10% of applicants. In the 90% who are rejected…there are mostly well qualified applicants like you. Oh…and the international rate of acceptance is more like 5%.
This needs its own post.
Your SAT score is fine. Your GPA, however is 3.84. You say (on other threads) that younare considering Vanderbilt, Cornell, Rice.
My opinion…your GPA for an international applicant is not going to work in your favor for admissions.
You also say you want NOT cold weather. Cornell has VERY cold and snowy winters.
Thank you for the insight! My counselor suggested universities like Rice, Vanderbilt, and Cornell.
Since I have to attend if get accepted, I’m planning to apply for Cornell or Rice (maybe Cornell since I’ll be applying RD to Rice anw if Cornell does not accept me in ED). Will more contribution give me a higher chance for Cornell since my stats are not so high?
Also, I’m from Vietnam. Last year, Cornell accepted around 4 students from my country but the amount of aid they gave was not enough, so only 2 attended.
You are an Asian international student. As you can see from previous years…it’s not like Cornell accepted a TON of students from your country.
Your SAT score is fine. Your GPA is low for,an Asian student applying to these schools…in my opinion.
And you say you don’t want cold weather…so why are you applying to CORNELL?
Just preferably not cold weather. If accepted I can endure.
Also, on the other thread, i put in the wrong info about my GPA. 9.6 over 10 (96%) in my country is actually 4.0 on a 4 GPA scale, so probably not so low?
3.84 is actually 9.1 over 10 in Vietnam
Unless your GPA is a perfect 10, it is NOT 4.0.
You don’t get to round your GPA up… sad but true. A 99% average would not be a 4.0. Only a handful of colleges in the US meet need for foreign students and are also need blind for them (so needing a lot of aid doesn’t hurt chances). Those schools aren’t on your list now, and you probably aren’t competitive for them.
Rice, Vanderbilt, and Cornell are not need blind to international students. This means that your ability to pay will be a factor in admissions
With my stats, is a contribution of $20-25k be considered somewhere in the accepted range? I’m working on supps and personal essay.
You do not get to pick how much you want to pay. The school gathers all of your family’s financial information and they determine how much you can afford to pay.
The challenge is that there are more highly qualified students than the colleges can afford to fund
When these schools cost now close to 70k and you are not eligible for any federal or state aid, any financial aid you get will come directly for the school. If you read on all of their financial aid pages, there is limited funding for international students. This means if there are 2 similarly qualified students, the tip will go to the student who need less of the college’s resources.
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My Certificate of Finance would be mainly from my parents’ savings passbook instead of only Income Certificate
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What are you saying? Are you saying that your parents will empty their savings account to pay out $25k per year ($100k) for you? Do you have siblings, too? Seems strange that parents with such a modest income would have over $100k in savings AND be willing to spend $100k on your education.
No I dont have any siblings
**US universities do not work that way. ** You can’t just say, “I have some money, now accept me”.
You appear to be under the impression that if you show some money to the schools, that they will accept you and then give you more money to attend. It does not work that way.
You have to be accepted by your grades and test scores, not CASH on hand.
By the way, Cornell is freezing cold. It gets snowed in. Do not apply to a school where you feel uncomfortable with cold weather. This is extremely cold weather. If you are really unaccustomed to cold weather, you will be shocked at how cold it really is.
When determining financial need the schools will take assets into account.
I think this thread already floated the only reasonable choice, which is Alabama.
Can you answer the rest of my questions??
What are you saying? Are you saying that your parents will empty their savings account to pay out $25k per year ($100k) for you? Seems strange that parents with such a modest income would have over $100k in savings AND be willing to spend $100k on your education.