@CollegePerson23 While my comment about Amherst was a bit tongue in cheek due to the historic rivalry between the schools, there is no reason why your application would get a serious read there. Your stats are good. Amherst also is need blind and more generous to international students than many LACs. As long as you approach the prospect with the understanding that it’s a reach for every applicant, I don’t see a downside other than the admissions fee and writing more essays.
Another less competitive and relatively generous school with respect to international applicants is Clark U.
Strongly consider (see supporting sources) Middlebury, Barnard (if female), Wesleyan, Hamilton, the University of Richmond, Swarthmore, Bates, Amherst, Macalester, Reed. Some of these colleges may serve as stronger personal fits for you, but all would be excellent for your academic interests.
@CollegePerson23 I’m a great fan of small liberal arts colleges in general and Williams specifically, but having studied international admissions over the past few years I would advise foreign applicants to be aware that their chances of admission at Williams, especially requiring substantial financial aid, are actually quite low.
The most complete information that I have for Williams is from the Class of 2021. In total Williams received 1890 international applications and admitted 95, an admit rate of 5%. Under ED they only admitted 12 internationals – 12, from the whole world!
Over the past few years due to a combination of factors, LACs have been “discovered” by the international education community, and application rates have risen exponentially. Few colleges post meaningful statistics for “non-resident aliens” e.g., the total number of international applicants and the number offered admission and the breakdown between full pay and those needing aid. (Wesleyan is a welcome exception.) We have to extrapolate information from the CDSs and college press releases, and make our best guess.
Among LACs you might focus on area schools with the highest number of enrolled internationals and a reasonably high percentage of internationals receiving aid. Some of these would be Middlebury, Macalester, Trinity (CT), Richmond, Skidmore, Colgate, Oberlin, Grinnell, Dickinson, Clark, Wesleyan. All of the women’s colleges except Wellesley if you are female.
It would also make sense to research enrollment and aid figures for less selective mid-sized privates (5000 to 8000 students). You want to find that sweet spot where non-resident alien enrollment exceeds 10% AND financial aid to internationals exceeds 50%. It will take some digging.
@momrath Yes, you’re absolutely correct. For an International needing FA, chances are really slim at Williams.
I’m looking into those colleges and doing my research, so you’re saying I should look into places with Intl student body over 10% and with significant F.A?
A commenter above mentioned Claremont McKenna which seems like a match to my interests and fits the above credentials (17% internationals for class of 2022) as well as a great economics dept so I’m considering it for ED2. Thank you for the help.
@CollegePerson23,I think you have to look at both figures: The number of enrolled internationals AND the number receiving aid. Claremont-McKenna enrolls a high percentage of non-resident aliens, but doesn’t give out a lot of aid. Only 15% of their international students received aid, a total of $1.6M.
Comparatively:
Trinity (16/17) 80% received aid, total $10.4M
Macalester (17/18) 80% received aid, total $11.3
Grinnell (16/17) 73% received aid, total $8.1
Middlebury (17/18) 55% received aid, total $8.0
Dickinson (17/18) 65% received aid, total $7.7
Colgate (17/18) 56% received aid, total $7.1
I would stress that this is a highly inexact science. Just because a college is on the high end of the aid scale doesn’t mean that you’ll get what you need. It just means that the college has budgeted to admit and fund “X” number of aid-seeking internationals, and that that “X” varies widely from school to school.
@merc81, Thanks for the Colgate statistics. I find it pretty amazing that LACs are now getting 20 to 25% of their applications from internationals!
@momrath I’ve been researching my ED2 options but after your comment, should I not even consider claremont mckenna as my ED2 option? Since their aid practices provide sparse funds to intls.
@CollegePerson23, I don’t think anyone could answer that question except you. Who knows? You may be admitted to Claremont McKenna under EDII with adequate funding. It surely could happen and the only way to know for sure whether EDII would give you the needed boost would be to apply. The down side would be that applying EDII to CM would preclude the option of applying EDII to another school that devotes more funds to international aid. In either event you still have the RD round to fall back on.
Hi. I don’t think the problem was with your individual stats and activities with respect to what Williams wants. Williams must not have held a quota for Pakistani students this year (I saw your comment about your nationality in another post) as every Pakistani who applied ED to Williams was rejected. One problem with Pakistani applicants to Williams was that they all had similar stats and were all asking for FA. I am also from Pakistan, have the same SAT Score (alongside perfect scores in the SAT Subject Tests) and GPA, and have activities almost similar to yours. Moreover, another person I know who applied to Williams from Pakistan had similar stats & activities as well. Maybe the saturation of our profiles and request for FA was the reason they did not accept any of us.