<p>Wow, this is an especially bad year for kids who don’t know what they are talking about posting chances. They even admit they are not qualified but post away!</p>
<p>OP, here’s what I think. You need to add some schools that don’t see as many candidates from Germany/W Europe if you want to attend a US college. If these are just backups and you have a good option at home, it doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>The ivies, MIT and Caltech are going to see better candidates from Germany. Unless you raise your ACT by a lot or get a 2300 SAT, I think most of these are highly unlikely with $30K in aid. Even back 25 years ago when I worked in admissions at Penn which was much easier to get into then, any nternational getting in with aid had national medals.</p>
<p>I would look at some smaller name schools that would be more eager for an international and are know to give generous aid to some. Grinnell, Rhodes, Bates, Colgate, RPI, Purdue, Emory come to mind.</p>