Nationality: Indian
Country Residing: Oman
Curriculum Type: IB
I am planning to apply to the US under an economics concentration. I did the IB curriculum in high school and here are my grades (i will be applying with these grades):
Maths HL: 7
Physics HL: 7
Economics HL: 7
Chemistry SL: 6
English SL: 6
French SL: 6
TOK: B
EE: A
Total: 42/45
SAT: 1440/1600 (Maths: 760, Reading/Writing: 680)
My extra-curricular activities are as follows:
Karate: black belt holder (5 years)
Bollywood dancing (2 years)
EcoSoc - Environmental Club (President)
Game Theory online course by Stanford University and UBC
Physics Tutoring (Co-Founder/Instructor)
Maths Tutoring (Instructor)
Amnesty International (Member)
Students Against Prejudice (Member)
Here are the following universities i want to apply to, but am unsure if i will stand a chance into them:
University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) RD
Cornell University RD
Boston University RD
University of California, Berkeley RD
University of California, Los Angeles RD
Your IB grades are very good - are they predicted grades, however? How good a reputation does your school have for acurately predicting? I have seen that make a big difference here in India with a few schools being “blacklisted” because they consistently were over predicting.
For people to help you identify potential schools you might want to provide the following information:
Preferred location
How much can you afford to pay
What size school do you prefer
What type of school - large university or small LAC
Are you looking for financial aid (that will limit the schools an international should apply to)
Your states appear to be very strong - but you need a deeper list in order to ensure that you find a good place.
@CValle I am looking for some financial aid. My father says it really depends on the school. If it’s an HYPSM school he wouldn’t mind even paying the whole tuition. But, if it’s a lower ranked school, say CMU (i know its a really good school, but comparatively low ranked), then he wouldn’t, and then we would need some sort of financial aid/scholarship. Size and type of school doesn’t really matter to me at the moment.
I think you need to start doing research on the US educational system and process. Understand the terms.
Financial aid/scholarship simply is too broad of a term.
We have “merit aid” given to exceptional students a school wants to attract to the school. These are also “scholarshps.” They don’t need to be paid back.
We have “need based aid” given to students whose financial worksheet shows that they have a financial “need” in order to be able to go to the school. This can be comprised of a variety of types of aid - sometimes including loans.
Some schools will cover all of your demonstrated “need” with “need based aid.” (Schools like your HYP high endowment schools.) Some schools cannot cover all of your need and you will need additional loans.
Some schools are “need blind” meaning they admit you without regard to how you will pay. Some schools take that into account when they review your application.
We have government loans and private loans - some for parents and some for students.
There are only a handful of schools that give merit aid to international students. If you search on here you will get the list. It is really, really small. Most schools are interested in international students BECAUSE they are full-pay. They are not really interested in international students who will also require funding. That is why all the colleges are out visiting all over Asia and going to international schools trying to recruit international students. I’m sorry but that is the hard reality.
So- you can focus on the schools your parents like (which by the way have NO merit aid EVEN for American students) or you can have some more realistic conversations with your father. If you focus on the handful of schools you mentioned which have admission rates of 4-5% these days you are setting yourself up for disappointment. Those schools are reaches for EVERYONE.
I recommend doing some more research. If you can get a Fiske guide those are good. Or use the tools on this site or any site. Familiarize yourself with many more schools so you can have a list that accurately addresses your desire for finanical aid, the fact that you are an international student and what you want to study.
Boston University does not give need based aid to internationals. Merit aid is offered but that would only be at most $25,000 toward a cost of attendance of $65,000.
The fact that your parents can afford to be full pay at Harvard refuse to be full pay at CMU etc. means that you will not qualify for need based aid at schools that do offer it to internationals.