Hello, and thank you for responding to my cry.
I have asked many of my upperclassmen about getting into college in the US. They all gave abundant answers except for where I should be apply. I’d be extremely grateful if you can give me some feedback on my choice of schools.
About myself: Female Vietnamese, Ho Chi Minh City resident. Family income about 30K (middle-class in VN)
Family of teachers mostly but I’m the first to go to the States. Planning to return home after grad school.
Aspiring business owner, possibly professor at international universities in VN
Major intended is Business Administration/Finance and major Financial Aid needed.
Academic: go to “gifted” high school (in my language) - but it’s grammar school. English majored.
GPA: 8.8/10 in 10th and 11th grade --> 3,52/4 (?!)
SAT1: 2120 with R660,W690,M770 (last Oct, will take it one more time)
SAT2: Math I 710, Physics 640 (horrid)
I have no idea where I am in class ranking, bc we have an unbalanced obsolete grading system
Best subjects are English, Literature and Physics.
Extracurricular:
Swim team since 6th grade for school. Furthest I’ve made is gold medal in district tournament.
Blogging for 2 years: English blog contains self-reflectory posts and photography; Vietnamese blog caters for my generation’s needs: short stories and humorous rants
1,5 years as volunteer tutoring at children’s shelter
Founding Member of Photography club in my school
Won 2 English debate contest, latest one was in May 2015 (I got to visit the US for free twice thanks to them)
My school list:
Dream: Stanford (because I’m nuts)
Berkeley (very competitive scholarships but I love that school and I don’t know why)
University of South California
Reach: University of Texas: Austin
Franklin & Marshall (possible ED)
Texas Christian University
Texas A&M
Safe: Temple University
Liberty University (I had received offer)
My parents’d like to stay in Cali or Texas bc of the distant relatives there (If I die, I’d have family?). I like it there because there’s no snow.
Is my school list alright? If not, what is wrong? Do you have other suggestions for me?
I am shaking in despair (metaphorically). Thank you very much for your comments. You have just save a life.
Please pray for me,
BinhAn.
Can your parents pay $50,000 per year? If not, you will need to apply for financial aid – and that changes everything.
A vast majority of public universities doesn’t give significant FA to international students. So you can still apply to Berkeley, Temple and Texas A & M if you want, but chances are good you will not be able to attend.
Liberty University is controversial. Please go online and read about it and decide if it would be a good choice. Many of us parents here on this site would not send our children there.
Go on the International Student subforum for lists of schools which give aid, and for advice how/where to apply.
Your list is all wrong. You can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip. Please do some more reading and educating yourself here.
You are not going to get enough from Berkeley or any UC so don’t waste your efforts, you pay $30k minimum per year… Stanford is a far far long shot, if you must try at least you would get enough money from them. Also, elite schools like Stanford do not teach business admin for undergraduates. UT Austin give you no money, Texas A&M not enough money. If Temple gives awards to internationals like they do to domestic students then you can get a good award, but how much can you pay yourself, you will have some to pay. F&M good pick maybe they give you.
Many people don’t like Liberty because they make you take a class that says maybe God created everything, which would be fine but it is a Science class, not a religion class so it makes them seem a bit of a joke. Also you have to go to convocation and you may not hug for more than 4 seconds and other silly rules that are very unusual in the United States.
You may be able to find something but you need to research a lot. Read a lot here. I will wish good luck. Try Ohio Wesleyan for a start.
Don’t apply ED to F&M if 1) that school is not your top choice and 2) you are in a position where you will have to compare financial offers.
Be sure to look at options in your home country as well.
You should get in touch with the counselors at the EducationUSA advising center in Ho Chi Minh City. They will be able to tell you which colleges and universities have admitted students like you in the past, and whether or not those students received any financial aid. They really are the experts. https://educationusa.state.gov/centers/educationusa-advising-center-ho-chi-minh-city
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Dream: Stanford (because I’m nuts)
Berkeley (very competitive scholarships but I love that school and I don’t know why)
University of South California
Reach: University of Texas: Austin
Franklin & Marshall (possible ED)
Texas Christian University
Texas A&M
Safe: Temple University
Liberty University (I had received offer)
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How much will your parents pay each year? Ask them, please don’t guess.
No aid from Berkeley. Even if you got an award, it would still leave your family with a lot to pay.
UTexas. No AID
TAME…No AID
Temple…Even if you got an award, your parents would still have to pay a good bit.
Liberty U…how much will that cost you?
U are approaching this all wrong. If the school can’t give u significant need- or merit-based aid, then there is ZERO point in pursuing it. And u need to get over your antipathy of snow.
Most public universities (i.e. state schools) give little to no aid to int’l students. There are a few exceptions: the University of Alabama gives automatic full tuition scholarships for high scores, but u wd still need to fund your living & travel expenses which, from Vietnam, wd be considerable.
All need-blind/meets-full-need schools are terribly competitive to get into (doesn’t everyone want a good deal). So to be a realistic candidate at those schools, your profile needs to be super strong. Stanford is a long shot.
I recall a student from india who reported on CC about getting generous money to attend WPI.
Again, to make your study abroad dream a reality, u need to focus on money, not geography or snow.
Howard University
Louisiana Tech University
University of Texas - Arlington
University of North Texas
St. Cloud State University
Note that the first two are in the list at http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/ – you may want to verify with the schools that international students are (still) eligible for those scholarships, and how your grades or GPA would convert to the usual 4.0 scale used in the US.
Thank you very much for all of your replies.
About Liberty: I spent time in camp there, and I am aware of the intensity. But I have an offer of at least 75% aid so they are the safest school I can get into.
My contribution is at most 22K a year.
I mostly talk to my upperclassmen about my school list. I haven’t approach any professionals and I will definately do so.
Thank you for help me estimate my stand in the race.
Most schools which meet need do so only for US students; very few give financial aid to internationals. Merit aid seems like your best option.
You can keep USC on your list as a reach, since it offers full-tuition merit; although awards are highly competitive, it doesn’t hurt to try. Apply by December 1st to be considered.
You’re gonna have to add schools that will give you guaranteed merit for your stats as your matches and safeties.
The other 50+ schools in that group are not need-blind (they are “need-sensitive”) in admissions for internationals. This means that admission chances may be lower at these schools for borderline international applicants with need. However … it does appear that most of those schools award fairly generous aid to the international students they admit. I assume that the number reported in CDS section H2(i) (“On average, the percentage of need that was met of
students who were awarded any need-based aid”) does include internationals. If so, then all ~60 schools that claim to “meet need” do so for both the US and international students they admit.
Even if the number in H2(i) does NOT include internationals, still, the average dollar amount of institutional financial aid awarded by these schools to internationals tends to be rather high. This number is reported in CDS section H6. For example, for Bates College (a school that is “need aware” even for US applicants), this average was $52,700 for 2014-15 (for 91 international students). For Macalester College, it was $42,377 (for 215 international students).
The OP’s qualifications may be strong enough for admission, with sufficient aid, to these and some of the other somewhat less selective schools among the ~60 “full need” colleges. Possibilities:
Bates
Boston College
Bryn Mawr (women only)
Holy Cross
F&M
Macalester
Mt. Holyoke (women only)
Occidental (in CA, warm weather, President Obama’s first college)
However, note that most of these are small liberal arts colleges that do not have business programs.
Other possibilities would include schools farther down on the following page (schools below the group that includes Bates, Bryn Mawr, etc.): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need-blind_admission
Lafayette College for example awarded an average of $43,119 to 106 internationals in 2014-15.
It is amazing to me that none of your upperclassmen peers told you about liberal arts colleges that offer financial aid to international students? And please, schools like Liberty are super Christian, hardly a wise choice for non-Christians. Now since you are willing to contribute about 22k every year, you are in somewhat of a better position than many intls seeking aid, and can probably look into more schools on the west coast. Definitely not USC, though, unless you bump up that SAT score so that you have a sliver of a chance of getting the merit aid.
I know that F&M offers a business major and most LACs don’t, but that’s okay in America. It’s OK to go to an LAC, get a BA, and then get an MBA later.
@nnbinhan Which school do you go to? LHP or TDN or PTNK?
I’m a little disappointed that you are not informed of liberal arts colleges, which offer a lot of aid to international students. Based on your stats, Stanford is a long short unless you can pull off a killer essay; Berkeley is unlikely to give you any aid; F&M tends to admit a lot of VNese students with your stats and can meet 100% of your need - so definitely apply ED there if you are desperate (be forewarned: there’s a lot of snow in Penn). I don’t know much about the rest on your list, but chances are that you won’t get the offer you might want from these schools.
I’d suggest you do a comprehensive research on LACs, otherwise you’re just missing out on a huge opportunity. Check out the Claremont Colleges - they’re in Southern California (meaning a lot of sunshine), and they do offer a lot of aid for international students (provided, of course, that you can get in). Claremont McKenna College is nationally known for its top-notch politics & economics programs, so you might want to check it out.
p/s: You shouldn’t be worried about schools not having Business majors. It’s common in the United States to pursue a BA in Economics and then get an MBA later.
@PKMGSoledad Sorry, but that is just plain untrue. The Claremont Colleges are the least generous schools among LACs that promise to meet need for internationals. PItzer, for instance, only offers to meet the need of ONE international, while Claremont McKenna spends $500k or so on like 6-10 internationals. Compare this to Amherst which spends $8m for over 120 intl students and Mt Holyoke that spends $13m on about 400 intl students. The 5-college consortium is far more generous as a consortium, and Smith has generous numbers as well ($7m?).
I mean, even Pomona, with a $2bn endowment, spends under $2m for internationals. My LAC, with only a $560m endowment, spends over $2.5m. This just goes to reflect how much a school cares about having a diverse international student body.
Stanford DOES offer aid to international students, but it spends far less than Harvard or Yale or Mount Holyoke or Smith or Amherst, and Stanford is not need-blind for intls. That is all.