<p>Hey there folks. So i have my list of prospective schools and I'm looking for some help narrowing them down. Keep in mind I am an international seeking significant financial Aid and a prospective fine art major</p>
<p>kaelyn, Williams and Wesleyan both have very good art departments and can be generous with financial aid for internationals. Your GPA is somewhat on the lowside for them, but your scores and rank may compensate. Does your school also calculate a weighted GPA? Or are there other extenuating circumstances that your could explain.</p>
<p>Most small liberal arts colleges use international admissions to increase their diversity percentages. So the “it depends” begs the question of race, ethnic origin, religion, economic status etc. If they need someone of your demographic, they will bend their requirements somewhat (not a whole lot). If they admit you they will help you find the money. </p>
<p>Ironically, the most selective schools have the most money. Cooper Union, which is crazy selective, is in a class of its own.</p>
<p>Also, could you clarify the type of aid that you are looking for? Need based aid is more readily available to internationals. Merit aid is rarer.</p>
<p>Wesleyan would have been great, but it’s a long shot as they only offer about 15 international students (outside of their Asian scholars program) financial aid and while i may have been a strong applicant otherwise i hardly believe that they will find me exceptional enough to put me in that top 15 (out of 400). Williams, though need blind and very generous with aid, is a definite reach.</p>
<p>In my research, american schools tend to consider ethnicity a more important factor for admitting us citizens and resident aliens, not so much for full out international students like me.</p>
<p>I actually have a much better chance of getting into cooper union than I do Williams although cooper is statistically more selective</p>
<p>Any aid is good aid. I thought it was the other way around, with merit based aid being more readily available to internationals. I mean with your upper tier schools like Harvard, MIT, Brown, Williams, Middlebury etc you can expect need based aid for internationals but medium range schools tend to either give a lot of internationals a little aid or (like wesleyan) a few internationals a lot of aid or, in most cases, no need based aid at all.</p>
<p>Based on what you’ve presented I’d not entirely agree with your second and third paragraphs.</p>
<p>It’s very hard to generalize as there is always an exception, but I’ll go ahead and do it anyway. Midwestern and/or rural colleges attract and retain fewer racial and culturally diverse applicants than do urban colleges. They often use international admits to roundout their diversity figures. </p>
<p>I don’t see any point of comparison between Williams and Cooper Union. Both are highly selective but their criteria for acceptance are vastly different.</p>
<p>All aid may be good, but the question is do you NEED aid in order to attend? “It would be nice” would lead to a very different list from “no aid, no can go.” If aid is a bonus, but not a necessity then you are not restricted. If aid is a necessity then you need to determine if you qualify for need based aid. If you are reasonably assured that need based aid is a possibility then you’ll have more choices. If you are relying on merit based aid then you should widen your nets considerably as it’s very, very difficult to predict.</p>
<p>I don’t know enough about your background to judge whether Williams or Wesleyan would be doable, but I do know that both schools fund internationals and value artistic talent, which is not universally true.</p>
<p>One other name that I would add would be Hamilton.</p>
<p>I will most likely NEED aid as in no aid no college.</p>
<p>I made the comparison between wesleyan and coop because i’ve had my portfolio reviewed a few times by cooper reps with definitely positive feedback, whereas last year, i was wait listed to no avail by Bard and Vassar both of which are schools that pay considerable attention to the arts. </p>
<p>My problems are that my grades have been in a state of decline from 3.9’s earlier on to a 2.7 in my final year and that i will NEED about 30k a year in aid. I guess having been rejected by both bard and vassar who have similar admission rates, i do not expect to be admitted to traditional universities with admissions rates lower than 30%.</p>
<p>I will keep that info about Midwestern colleges in mind and will definitely be doing some research. thx :D</p>
<p>wait, can you apply to top LACs for freshman more than once? What are your excuses= what have you been doing an extra year?
or your school years run in different schedule, like you’d applied junior here but senior there?</p>
<p>@Midwest, Knox! Cheaper, nicer (drab-er)
Faculties are like, have Yale MFA a piece, maybe they’d like your stuff.
My understanding is that if Cooper likes your stuff, normal UG college won’t get them.
I have met Vassar’s painting chair, lovely guy with great works but not of the Cooper style.
He also said there is nothing he can do if the kid is not on par in academics.</p>