What would be the best college in this case?

Student Lounge International Students
1

Hi. I’m an international student form South Korea.
Here’s my certain situation: I studied in the US for almost 3 years including graduating HS, and wasn’t the strongest in academics. I have 1330 in SAT, 100 in TOEFL (Taking it again and hoping/very sure of getting 110 higher), and 3.4 GPA (the school I went to had a higher standards but I know it’s still low).

I’m not intending to go to the most prestigious schools in the US. I would love to study where I can learn what I want to learn, which is Communications&International Relations, with the least possible amount of money, due to my financial situation. My parents cannot pay for my college.

So I’m looking into any colleges possible. But in this process, it is quite hard to ignore the hope emerging from the bottom of my heart about some good(but not the top) private colleges that offer some amount of scholarships, sometimes even full ride.

I still don’t want to be too unrealistic, so I decided to choose only 1 ‘good but not the top top’ college in order to throw in everything I can and get scholarships. It would be really nice if I can get full ride as well.

Here comes the problem, my grades. But I wonder if it would be any worth it if I show my other strengths that will certainly outweigh the academic scores I can present. So do you guys think it would be worth it to apply for one college’s full ride scholarship program with a strong essay and extra curricular activities, given my academic scores?

For that ‘one college’, I’m hoping to apply to Syracuse university since they have everything I want. (I hear about this 1870 Scholarship thing.) Do you think Syracuse would be a generous enough school for me to go for scholarships or do you know any other schools that offer generous scholarships to international student like me?

Based on stories and potentials the applicants have, not judging entirely by their GPA scores.

If you have any ideas, please let me know.
And if you would like to talk some sense into my head, please do.

Hellp

2

Many liberal arts colleges offer need-based financial aid to international students. Have you considered that as an option?

If you are interested in merit scholarships specifically (which do not consider your financial need), try the [Financial Aid and Scholarships](Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums) forum. They might have suggestions for you about scholarships based on extra-curricular achievement (like community service or sports). They’ll be able to help you better if you can outline the kind of work you have done or experiences you have had that might make you a good scholarship candidate.

Alas, most forms of funding for international students are at least partially based on academic merit, even if they use other criteria as well (such as financial need or community engagement). That’s why I would encourage you to focus your applications on colleges where your SAT scores place you in the top 25% of incoming students. That wouldn’t be the case with Syracuse, for example.

Applying for funding as an international student is a bit like playing the lottery. Competition for funding can be keen and it’s difficult to predict where you might get an offer. You can improve your chances of success by applying to several schools, if you can afford it. (I applied to 10. I was offered admission with funding to 2, and only 1 of them was affordable.)

You have probably already explored the financial options at your state public universities. If not, that would be my first go-to for affordable college options, especially if you might qualify for in-state status. (If you are unsure, we can help you check if you share your immigration status and the state you are located in.)

In case you haven’t already come across this yolasite, someone helpfully compiled a list of colleges with full tuition scholarships. It’s a bit outdated, but many of the universities on the list still offer significant scholarships.

http://competitivefulltuition.yolasite.com/
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/

3

@“b@r!um”
Thank you for your response. I understand that I would have to look for colleges with lower standards in terms of SAT scores. Do you happen to know some colleges that do that, that have some good international relation programs? No blaming for not knowing, though!
Also, are the scholarships on the links you attached available for international students as well?

Thanks again.

4

The yolasite list was compiled for US citizens, but many scholarships are open to international students as well. You’d have to check them one by one to be sure.

Another really useful resource is Collegeboard’s college search engine.

To start, I would subset to colleges that

  • are 4-year schools
  • offer financial aid to international students (check box on the “Paying” tab)
  • where SAT scores of 550+550 would be competitive for admission (intentionally chosen to be lower than yours, to make you more competitive for scholarships)
  • with a major you’d accept

If you are looking specifically for colleges with need-based financial aid for international students, also subset to

  • private colleges
  • with less than 2,000 students (there’s some with need-based aid that have 2,000 - 3,000 students, so it’s worthwhile to look at the 2,000-15,000 category too, but check the small category first)

If you try that with an international relations major, that would leave you with a list of about 70 colleges that you could check for financial aid opportunities by hand. I read about 400 college websites when I was assembling my own list for where to apply. It was a lot of effort but totally worth it in the end.

5

Thank you, very helpful.

6

@“b@r!um” gives you some good suggestions, but I think you need a reality check on the level and type of aid you are likely to get. Places that have clear guidelines on what scores and grades get what kind of financial aid are a good place to start. Places where your stats put you way at the top end of admitted students are the other option.

You can check that out by searching for + college data. If you do that for Syracuse you find that a 3.4 GPA puts you in the bottom 1/3rd of admitted students and a 1330 SAT puts you in the middle 50% of admitted students. Without knowing anything about your ECs, I don’t think that Syracuse is even a sure-thing for admission for you, never mind get you one of the named scholarship that they say are for their most “superbly accomplished” students.

The thing is that there are a lot of students chasing the top scholarships, and they tend to have both amazing stories of what they have already achieved AND top stats.

7

Increasing your TOEFL won’t help. A 100 meets any college’s criteria. The issue is your SAT- focus on that and increase it to 1400 (doable) or 1450 (hard) to have a better shot at scholarships.