What are my chances?

Student Lounge International Students
1

GPA of 8/10 in the brazilian system.
Top 10% of my school.
I haven’t take the ACT yet, but I think my score will be 30+
TOELF : 104

Extra curricular:
Certificate of Sebrae entrepreneurial
Basic Computer Science skills certificate
Second place in interschool science competition
Third place in interschool science competition
Forth place in interschool science competition
3 place in regional rank in Math Olympics
2 gold medals from in school soccer competitions
1 gold medal from state soccer competition
3 gold medals from state swimming competitions
2 silver medals from state swimming competitions
4 silver medals from state swimming competitions
I also play tennis and table tennis, but i have no medals.

I’ll got 3 recommendations letters, 1 from the director and 2 from teachers.
I have also a level 7-advanced english certificate from Hansa english school in Canada.
I speak portuguese, spanish and english.
I have also a advanced english certificate from a national english school in brazil.
I’ve been elected as a member of the class council in my school days and one of the valedictorians.
I’m looking for a bacherlor’s degree at computer science, i’ve looking for that for quite a time, so I’ve made already one app for android that got 1.000+ donwloads, did some RPG games, and animations.

I’m applying as a freshman, do I have chances at any good university ? I’m also applaying for financial aid.

2

Well, all of those awards look good, but you need financial aid, which means your chances are low. If you can pay for your education, you would have a better chance.

3

I can pay for universites with a cost of 25.000 per year without any financial aid, you have any recomendations ?

And my chances get a lot lower just by the fact that I need financial aid?

4

The problem that you have is that most universities, with those costs, are small schools or way out in the middle of nowhere.

Because you are not a resident taxpayer of any state, you have to pay full costs.

Many public universities run about $25K, but not for Out of State or International students.

California, for instance, runs about $40 to $55K, depending on the school, per year, for OOS students.

A lot of schools are NEED-AWARE, which means that if you need money from them to go to school, they will accept the kid who can pay full fees.

5

Got it, thanks, but you think there’s a chance of me getting into a good university with financial aid ? what woud you recommend ?

6

No, you didn’t understand my message: very few internationals receive good financial aid. Most of our fully accredited universities in the US are good.

Your chances of getting into a university with financial aid are extremely limited because: you need financial aid. Scholarship money comes from the universities. The schools don’t have that much money (unless it is an ivy). They pick and choose who they want. Everything is based on grades and test scores. If you are not the best student from your country (yes COUNTRY), you can expect to pay all of your own fees.

The ivies are very picky and accept very few students.

You will probably get accepted somewhere, but you will be paying all of your costs-no financial aid.

7

30 is not enough. You need at least 33~34+ for top schools. Also,

Your GPA isn’t good enough for top schools. Your GPA is less than 3.5, which is not good in US standard.
Your awards are good but no way particularly standing out. There are hordes of international student with better stats than yours, and they get rejected 9 out of ten times.

You will have a very poor chance to get need based scholarship if you don’t have 3.5 GPA AND good SAT math+cr or ACT score.

8

i know that my GPA isen’t enough, i actually think this is strange cause in Brazil 8/10 is good actually, but somehow this is a low GPA in US system.

I’m not aiming for a top school like Harvard or Stanford, but seems that even that way its hard to get in with financial aid.

But I will try to join a university and get a financial aid, do you recommend a good university? don’t need to be a top one, like the ones from ivy leagues, just a good one.

9

There are over 3000 universities in the US. Some “good” universities are in small farm towns, they get very cold and snowy winters; some universities are very large and have big athletic teams and also get cold or hot weather. Some universities are in the middle of the country. Some universities are politically vibrant. Some are religious.

You can’t just say: I want a good university. You need to describe what your educational needs are and then Google their web sites. Start with This website. Go to the link on the left that says “find a college”.

10

@josevi I would try UMass Amherst. It is the state flagship for Massachusetts and has a top CS program. This year top internationals were receiving 12K a year in merit aid. That would bring you to 30K for COA. Amherst is one of the best college towns in the US. Could you bridge the gap?

11

Yes, I was already thinking of the Umass amherst, but after all the comments i dont know if is possible to get a financial aid there and pay 30k per year… and yes I would pay 30k per year haha.

thanks.

12

@josevi 12k is what they were giving out to good international students this year for merit aid . Why wouldn’t you receive merit aid? Also add UMass Lowell. Not as good in CS as Amherst but will be cheaper. Not in a fancy area of the state but you can get the commuter train into Boston. At Amherst, you are isolated in a rural/suburban area. The COA at Lowell is http://uml.edu/International-applicants/competitive-costs.aspx. You could get merit scholarships between 10k to 20k. http://www.uml.edu/FinancialAid/scholarships/Freshmen.aspx#International So your COA could be from 18k to 28k. Also you could look at high merit options such as Alabama.

13

@gearmom Thanks I’ll definitely look for UMass Lowell too and what you think about Louisiana State University and Ohio State University ? i’ve been searching and they have almost the same COA, do you know if they usually give financial aid ?

Again thanks, somehow i feel more hopeful now hahaha

14

I know the cost is the main problem, but based on what I heard, LSU isn’t really enjoyable in term of college life.

They do NOT give FA, but LSU have a full ride MERIT scholarship, for which you are not eligible because you don’t have SAT/ACT score. You need 1480+ math+CR SAT score, and that is the MINIMUM requirement. I didn’t apply for that school but it seems like the school looks at more than score and GPA

15

tOSU is much better than LSU, so if they cost the same go for tOSU.
I agree on UMass amherst and Umass Lowell.

16

what’s tOSU?

17

tOhioState University (vs. OSU: Oregon State)

18

Please don’t think your grades are low, maybe they are but if in Brazil that’s good, then the admissions officers will know that.

19

@paul2752 thanks for the help, unfortunaly I can’t take boths exam now, so I’m going to do the ACT because is the only one avaliable in Brazil, and after what you said Umass Amherst is going to be my priority.

@MYOS1634 ok hahaha, I’m definitely giving up on LSU, thanks for the answer.

@S0U10H03 Thanks, I hope they do, I dont think my GPA would be awesome like 3.8/4 but i dont think they are low like 3 or less/4.

I’ve looking at the University of Texas - Austin too, but I saw many comments saying that is hard to get in as a out-of-state, and even harder to get financial aid… is that true ?

20

UT Austin is very difficult to get into for OOS. FA is almost non-existent. In fact, top STATE universities virtually don’t have FA for OOS/international students. Only school I know so far that gives extremely competitive full ride to OOS as well is UNC-Chapel Hill’s Robertson scholarship.

@MYOS1634‌ if OP applies to private school that costs around 45k and gives need based and merit based scholarship to international students, wouldn’t his/her chance be as good as full pay students’, since the OP can pay 25k per year?