What caliber of colleges should I be looking at?

Student Lounge International Students
1

<p>I'm from New Zealand and have just began junior year. I plan do go to the US to do undergrad but I need some advice on the types of colleges I should apply to.</p>

<p>To make this clear, I need quite a bit of financial aid, like $40,000 or so (which lowers my chances significantly).</p>

<p>My first SAT I got 1980 (CR610 MA740 WR630) - which is appalling and I'm really disappointed; I could do better and will certainly try again as I have two full years to go.</p>

<p>I haven't done SAT IIs but I'm looking at Math2, chem, and physics.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
table tennis (6-7 years) - won two major national awards, won a national title for doubles, silver for an oceania teams event representing my country, the youngest in my province to win Open singles (at 13 years old), and runner up to Secondary School (high school) Sportsperson of the Year award.</p>

<p>piano (5-6 years) - house pianist of a local 5 star hotel, pretty much sweeps the local competitions every year, awarded Most Promising Performer at a bigger province close to where I live, played a piano recital consisting of LTCL diploma level repertoire, played a Mozart piano concerto with the local orchestra. In terms of jazz, I'm in all of the school's jazz bands, jazz ensembles. Awarded best jazz pianist locally two years in a row (competing nationally this year), play in a community big band regularly, have countless gigs and concerts. I play the keytar also, I'm in a progressive rock band and won an award for virtuosity.</p>

<p>There are plenty more and it's too hard to list as I'm extremely dedicated to table tennis and music in general.</p>

<p>Other minor stuff:
Social volleyball
Regional soccer rep (play for club)
Regional long distance athletics rep for a year
Take computer programming courses with a local polytech tutor for a long time - so I'm a competent programmer</p>

<p>Clubs and stuff:
LEO club
International Friendship Club (I can't take leadership in these yet, but I hopefully will in senior year)
School Council
Chess club</p>

<p>Academics:
Our grading system is weird.
Excellence, or 'E' is equivalent to an A.
I have all my subjects endorsed with E except physics. I also do accelerated subjects, meaning I do them a year ahead of others; I guess this is as close to AP as we can get.
I get a lot of awards in school, mainly based on my all roundedness and individual subject distinctions - usually in music, maths, and chem.</p>

<p>A top university would be nice but a 1980 SAT is by no means adequate, and I'm sure I can improve. Financial aid is also a big issue. So I've been looking at some LACs and other generous colleges but some help is certainly needed as I live in a small city where nobody pursues USA.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance :)</p>

2

<p>Question is what do you want to major in?</p>

3

<p>Something to do with Commerce or computer science. I haven’t really decided</p>

4

<p>Look for private schools (public ones don’t give significant aid to internationals) where your stats put you in the top percentiles of incoming freshmen. In other words - apply to schools where you’re considered an academically outstanding applicant. Also, look for schools in the central and southern part of the US where you will have less competition from other international students needing aid. Since some of these schools will be liberal arts colleges, make sure that they have the majors you’re interested in. Good luck!</p>

5

<p>

How much can you pay? </p>

<p>

How badly do you want to study in the US? As an international student, you will only get significant financial aid if you attend a college that you are overqualified for, i.e. one significantly worse than whichever university you’d attend in New Zealand.</p>

<p>If you do want to attend one of the better colleges with financial aid, it would be in your best interest to raise your SAT score. Also take a look at the ACT. You can submit ACT scores in lieu of SAT scores, and some students do significantly better on the ACT.</p>

<p>Re public universities, a few states do fund international students. For example, at the University of North Dakota, you can get 50% - 100% of tuition waived after your first year if you keep your grades up and participate in community service: <a href=“Student Financial Aid | University of North Dakota”>Student Financial Aid | University of North Dakota;

<p>North Dakota State University gives 50% tuition waiver scholarships to international students from the time they enroll: <a href=“http://www.ndsu.edu/international/scholarships/”>http://www.ndsu.edu/international/scholarships/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;