i am an international student from india and what to study economics and business at the undergraduate level in US and Canada , i have got good school marks and my predicted score avg is 94 % (all over 90%) and i have a sat score of 1220 and have decent extra circular activities . what are the best universities i should apply to with this sat score ?
First, approximately how much can you pay per year? That, unfortunately, is a huge issue in the US, especially for international students. Schools often have huge sticker prices, typically $30,000 to $70,000 per year, including room and board. However, they often give financial aid, although less to international students.
If you can pay full price, you will have many more opportunities. If not, they will be more limited. It will be helpful if you can include that and any other info that might be important to you–small town or urban? small school or large state university? Is the weather or local culture especially important to you?
That info would help give you better guidance.
Agree, money is a huge issue. Nevertheless, you need higher sat scores to increase your chances, so plan to retake. In addition, also try act, some students do better in one or the other.
i can’t take it again as i am a senior right now. i could pay upto $50,000-60,000 per year, what are the best university. i have already applied to 3 ucs (USD,UCI and Davis) what are other universities i should look for
That’s very helpful that you have some significant financial resources. You could probably attend a lot of the state universities in that price range (some publics, like Michigan, are more).
It would be helpful to know also what subjects you are most interested in studying. You will get different answers for different fields.
There are something like 3000 schools in the US, and you’d be qualified for most of them. Probably not those in the Top 50-100 in most rankings and some below, depending on how many international students they take and financial considerations. It’s hard to say for sure, and it just works out that some are easier in terms of admissions for some students and harder for others. For example, a male might have an advantage relative to a female with the same record at an LAC with a high % of female students, and the female might have an advantage over the male at a science/engineering school with a a high % of male students.
I suggest you go to US News and World Report college rankings. If you are interested in larger schools, look at the National Universities list and start looking at about 60 or so and work your way down the list. Try to find schools that look appealing to you. If you are interested in smaller schools, look at the Liberal Arts Colleges list, and start at about 45 or so and work your way down your list. You will find many excellent schools here. Again, there are 3000, so a school ranked in the top couple of hundred or so are generally going to be outstanding.
That said, based on the three UCs where you’ve already applied, I would add,
University of San Francisco, San Diego State, University of Arizona, and University of New Mexico. They are also medium to large research universities in the same general part of the country, and schools where you’d be a reasonable applicant, though I can’t say for sure for an international student. Arizona would probably be the most difficult for you, but again, it’s difficult to predict with accuracy. Maybe you could also look at Northern Arizona University. It’s in Flagstaff, which is a very nice Rocky Mountain town, if that’s appealing to you. Even though it is in Arizona, and not that far from Phoenix, it is at altitude and weather is cold in the winter. It’s the closest big town to the Grand Canyon, which is pretty amazing.
You might also look at the University of Kansas. It’s a midwestern school in Lawrence, Kansas. I hear great things about Lawrence as a vibrant college town, with lots of diverse places to eat and a developing tech sector. I can’t say how it is there for international students. Good luck!
i would be applying as a business(general and international business) or economics major, i am open to both according to my above stats what b-schools i should look out for and do early applications make a major difference or not?
i have been looking at the following universities
- indiana University
- Purdue University
- Ohio state
- san diego state
5 bently
6 northeastern
7 Boston university
8 university of South Carolnia
i would be applying 15 universities in us, what are my chances on the above universities and alumni and current students comments are welcomed and what are the other universities i should look out for ??
Early applications can make a big difference, especially at private universities. Early Decision (ED) makes a bigger difference than Early Action (EA) because ED is binding and if a student receives sufficient financial aid they must attend. This is less true at public universities, which generally evaluate students more on grades and less on intangibles.
I think this is a good list. Northeastern and BU have become much more competitive in recent years, probably more so than almost any other schools, so they will be reaches.
One question: have you checked at these schools if you apply to the schools in general or to specific programs. I ask because, especially with business and engineering programs, computer science, and some others, students sometimes apply directly into the program, for example the business school. Also, sometimes students apply to a university’s business school after they arrive, either in freshman or sophomore year. So there is no guarantee you can major in business even if accepted into these universities. You will want to check that for these schools. It can be harder to get into some specific programs, for example engineering at Purdue.
IU’s business school has a terrific reputation. I would imagine that Purdue and Ohio State would be most competitive, unless you have to apply directly to Kelley (Indiana’s business school), after Northeastern and BU. I’m not sure about Bentley. It’s a very good school, but smaller and I don’t know about international students there.
San Diego State seems like a good bet for you, maybe South Carolina too. You might want one or two other schools where your odds are higher, since admissions can be a little more unpredictable for international students.
Culturally, Boston is the biggest college city in the US. It’s a diverse place and a great place to study. SDSU will probably be how you think of Southern California, and IU, Purdue, and Ohio State are all very midwestern, which makes them very middle America. I think an international student can be comfortable studying at these schools. South Carolina will be very southern.
If you like the midwestern schools, you might also consider Kansas (already recommended) and the University of Nebraska. Nebraska has a fairly urban campus in Lincoln and is not too far from Omaha, which is actually a pretty vibrant business center. It’s a good school and has a little less competitive admissions than those other midwestern schools, I think.
If you want another California school, you might look at San Jose State. I don’t know it well, but it is in Silicon Valley and sends as many students there as about any other school. Good luck!
thank you very much you are of great help
how are minnesota-twin cities , Maryland college park , Washington Seattle and Wisconsin- madison
if i have to apply into 2 of the above universities for their business programs keeping my sat score of 1220 in mind which universities are better and in which i have better chances to get in ?
Those are all excellent schools. Seattle is a great city (one of my favorites), and the university is close to downtown, with a light rail stop next to campus. It’s typically a fairly long walk to the stop and then about a ten minute or so ride to downtown.
College Park (Maryland) is very close to DC. It’s even physically “inside the Beltway,” which refers to the highway (the Beltway) that circles around Washington, DC and is shorthand for being close to the capital. Nice suburban campus, great programs. It has a subway stop, though it’s a longer trip to DC than into Seattle from UW. Seattle is often overcast, but weather is fairly mild there. College Park has four seasons, and is generally nice, though it can be cold and snowy in the winter. (I’ve studied and taught there.) These two would probably be more competitive than IU, Purdue, and Ohio State (except for maybe Kelley at IU, if you have to apply directly into that school). UW is actually extremely competitive for California students, who apply in large numbers.
I know less about Minnesota, though we researched it for one of mine. It’s a very good school with an excellent reputation. I think it’s more downtown than the other two, and weather is very, very cold. I would imagine it would the least competitive of the three in terms of admission, although, again, international students are really a separate pool of applicants, so maybe someone can comment who knows more about international admissions.
Wisconsin is in Madison, which is a neat small city. It’s the state capital, and the state capitol building is on a hill right in the middle of the city, just blocks from campus. The campus is on one of two fairly large lakes that sit on either side of downtown Madison. It’s a pretty sprawling campus and, like Minneapolis, is very cold. It’s probably a Top 10 state flagship, or close to it, pretty equal to Washington in terms of rankings. For a US out-of-state student, it would probably be up there with Washington in terms of competitiveness. It does accept a lot of OOS though.
To summarize, I’d more or less think that a US OOS with your grades (very good) and SAT would, other things being equal, would probably look at Washington, Wisconsin, and Maryland as reaches (they are all popular OOS choices) and Minnesota as maybe a high match. I think the weather and urban campus maybe scare off some applicants–still a very good school though. Of course, this is just a rough estimate and applies to US students.
It’s very helpful that it sounds like you would be full pay at most of these schools. They really like having a substantial number of full-pay internationals. So that is in your favor.
Just to add, some of these schools may place more or less emphasis on admitting international students. It could be that one allows only a smaller number of internationals and another allows many more. These are state institutions and often this is determined by state-level political considerations. For example, Michigan and Wisconsin have declining, aging populations and accept large numbers of OOS. Texas, in contrast, has lots of demand for seats at its state schools, so restricts OOS to only 5% or so of undergrads. I’ve heard Indiana accepts a lot of international students, but I don’t know about the others.
are there any good universities in florida that i should look out for, specifically for business and are there going to good internship and job opportunities in state. where would these universities stand in comparison with other universities mentioned above ,i looking forward to apply to maryland , IU ,BU, Bently, Purdue and Ohio. and will decide between northeastern and Washington.
Florida can be a little tough. Like Texas, it admits only a small % of out-of-state students (OOS). It makes sense. These states have rapidly growing populations. State residents pay the state taxes that help fund the public universities. These taxpayers want their kids to have a fair chance to go to more affordable in-state schools. So the state governments require a high % of in-state students, and the number of internationals is low.
At my own college, the state requires it maintain 70% in-state students. Wisconsin and Michigan are not growing. They make the calculation that it is better to have more higher paying OOSs, some of whom may stay in the state after graduation. I think UT has 5% OOS, UF 7%, or something like that, and Wisconsin and Michigan are more in the 30-40% range. I’m not saying a Florida school wouldn’t work for you–especially as an international applicant–but that makes it much harder.
Again, you might try to find a site that gives the % of international students at schools. Two schools might look very similar in terms of size of student populations, programs, AND selectivity in admissions, but one might have a policy of bringing in 5% international students and the other 10%. So it might actually be easier at the latter one, even if it doesn’t look like it in general.
One place you can dig up this data is in the “common data set” for a school. The common data set is the official form that covers many areas of school operations, which schools must fill out every year. Google “common data set” and a school’s name. Usually you can find these for recent years. Go to the most recent one available and scroll down to section B2. This section has a breakdown of the student body by race/ethnicity, including the number of “nonresident aliens.” This will tell you the number of international students. You can compare that to the total number of undergrads, also here, to see how many internationals study there. For example, you could look at the University of Florida and Indiana University just for the comparison, and to confirm my comments. Of course, this info is probably available on other sites too.
Syracuse University.
Bentley would be great. They have a fairly high percentage of international students and you would be just outside a great city.
Thank you it is was very helpful
As i am an indian should i calculate my chances under non-resident alien or asian head ?
Sorry, don’t really know how that works. I mentioned those schools because they strike me as a good match with your stats. That said, my reference point is the larger US pool. Not sure how it translates to your situation.
You’re welcome!
If you are not a US citizen or resident (as defined by each school), you will be evaluated in the admissions process as an international student.
Admissions at most US universities does not involve a straightforward evaluation of all students on the same basis. For example, public universities almost always treat in-state and out-of-state students as separate groups. That’s because of what I mentioned before–state universities are partially funded by state taxes so state legislatures and governments give preference to students whose families have been paying those taxes. Typically a student and/or their family must live in a state for one year to be considered in-state. So often OOS students have stronger credentials than in-state students at public universities because more are applying for fewer spots (that’s not always the case, but is so at the most prominent schools). Money, diversity (including geographic), gender, athletic recruiting, etc. are all often factors.
Universities–public and private–usually have a target number or % for international students. So all international applicants are most often evaluated as one pool to find students to reach that target. For example, as an international applicant, you would not be evaluated in comparison to an in-state Indiana resident for admission to IU. That also means that overall stats (Grades and test scores) for a school are only of limited value for you. The numbers might very well be different for international applicants.
If you would like to apply in Florida, the choices, in order of admissions selectivity, would be the University of Florida, Florida State University, University of Central Florida, and University of South Florida. All have business schools. My guess would be that UF would be a pretty tough admit. I don’t know enough to give you a good idea on the other three. Weather during the school year will be very nice at all these schools.
You mentioned intern/coop opportunities. San Jose State University is in Silicon Valley so has great opportunities. The Boston-area schools have lots of opportunities and also lots of competition with so many top schools being located there. Ohio State will probably offer excellent opportunities in OH. Purdue and IU would also be good. A family member–whose extremely smart and has good business instincts–recently graduated from Purdue and had a dream financial job waiting all senior year.
Syracuse was a very good recommendation, and Bentley seems like a good choice as well, although that is one I only know generally. Another one you might consider is Michigan State (big Midwest quality university, not so extremely competitive as the University of Michigan, and probably less so than IU and OSU). Good luck!
P.S. In the US, whether or not a school is public or private does not tell you anything about its quality or reputation. Some of the top schools like Williams and Amherst are private LACS. Most of the big public state flagships/STEM schools–Michigan, California, Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio State, William and Mary, other state schools, etc.–are world-class research universities.
Indiana University has a very strong business program, and I would definitely not overlook it. There is a pretty strong international population as well.