What colleges would you recommend? How to search for others?

College Search & Selection
1

Hello!

First things first, some info about me:

  • I'm an international student from the middle east (my country wasn't banned)
  • I have a 4.0 (unweighted) GPA.
  • I have an SAT I score of 1300 (new SAT, plan to retake).
  • Did the SAT II (Bio M, Math II), waiting for scores.
  • No AP Courses
  • Extracurricular Activities: Biology Club, doing a Child Safety Campaign next month, and an Alzheimer's Awareness Campaign the month after (both planned and coordinated by me), my dad is a doctor in an academic hospital so I spend most of my free time at the library there reading medical textbooks, attended multiple medical conferences and lectures, participated in a sickle cell disease research lab, I have an NIH Research Ethics certificate, and an ACUC certificate, participated once in a science fair, once in a talent show (which I won), I've worked with multiple local charities, and finally I play basketball and soccer.
  • Planning to go for a Neuroscience major (Premed), and then go into Medicine and then into Neurosurgery.
  • Planning to study in the US.
  • Want to apply for Scholarships/Financial Aid.
  • Budget ~25k USD (Including colleges/universities that might cost that much (or less) after (possible) scholarship/financial aid acceptance)

What colleges and/or universities do you recommend I should apply to? Any other ideas?

Also, how should I look for colleges and/or universities? What criteria should I base my search on? Is there a particular website(s) that can help me with this? What should I base my whole search on? Do I just look at the national US rankings and then apply to the top universities that seem “fit” for me? And then after that, how do I choose which college I want?

I really have no clue how to search for and pick universities, and I would love some advice.

Thanks in advance <3

2

You could read through here for some ideas:

http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/lists/list/the-experts-choice-colleges-with-great-pre-med-programs/199/

This site offers some excellent SAT range data:

http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/college-profiles-new-sat/

3

I am dismayed that you have to tell us the status of you country today. :frowning: So first and foremost, welcome to CC, and we will try to help you.

I believe the CC search function may be disabled right now, but maybe some other posters can help with other tool suggestions for online searches. If you can get a Fiske Guide to Colleges, that can be useful.

There are only a few universities (5 or 6 now) that are both need blind and meet need for international students. To be honest, I am not sure you are competitive as an international for those schools (the pool of applicants is VERY competitive).

So the fact that you need aid reduces your chances at other schools, and many of them give limited aid to internationals. Budget is going to be a driving factor in your search, honestly. Also, if your parents make a lot of money and only choose to spend $25K per year, you may not be awarded need based aid even if the school gives much of it to internationals.

A few schools that you might look into are Dickinson, University of Minnesota, and University of Alabama. If you are female, Mount Holyoke. I am sure you will get other suggestions here.

One thing to be aware if is that it is very difficult for international students to get into US medical schools. I don’t know details, but other posters can help. Or look on the med school forum.