Where should I apply?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hey, I’m writing this for a student from India who’s looking to come to the US next year for undergrad engineering. Here are his criteria:</p>

<li>He’s looking for a good engineering school that isn’t insanely hard to get into (such as MIT, Stan etc…) but can still hold its own (preferably in the top 100 world engineering institutions.)</li>
<li>Not insanely expensive/That gives decent financial aid to international students as he will not be able to afford it otherwise.</li>
</ol>

<p>Can you please suggest some schools that he should apply to. Thanks.</p>

<p>p.s. Is getting into public universities harder if you are an international…i.e. do they cater more to the local crowd?</p>

2

<p>The difficult part is the Financial aid because not all colleges give them to internationals.</p>

<p>MIT, Duke, Stanford, Cal Tech, Columbia, Cornell, and Penn</p>

<p>Are some private schools that give international financial aid and have decent engineering schools. (not sure about the world rankings, you can check them later). Publics might not give FA, but are still cheaper at full tuition than many privates. With good engineerings:</p>

<p>UC Berkeley, Michigan, Univ Illinois Urbana</p>

3

<p>Also, my estimates about his stats:</p>

<p>gpa: 96%
SAT: >2000 (Verbal and Essay will be less...Math will be close to 800)
SAT IIs: MathII, Science >750...most likely 800</p>

<p>Adequate ECs but may not be superawesome spectacular
Excellent Recs
Decent to Good Essays</p>

4

<p>It'll be difficult for the fact that International applicants are harder to get in than domestic applicants, combined with that Indians are one of the most competitive ethnicities for college apps especially for engineering.</p>

5

<p>any more advice people? please help!</p>

6

<p>Well, Georgia Tech is pretty well respected for engineering, and it's a public school, so the costs will be lower.</p>

7

<p>Rice in Texas is affordable. Rochester Institute of Technology has an arrangement with India, I think.</p>

8

<p>what about LAC's? if you went out of the top 10 LAC's i think they might be glad to accept int'l students. that was the impression i had at least (since they are looking for more diversity).</p>

9

<p>LAC's have eng progrmas too?</p>

10

<p>Yes they do. In fact, I strongly suggest looking into a particular LAC that is well known in the engineering community: Harvey Mudd College. The academics are very strong. I do warn you that Mudd only offers a general engineering degree, and no specifics, and that it is pricey (although you can always apply and see how much financial aid you get if you get in).</p>

11

<p>Schools like Michigan and Cal are too expensive and do not give aid to international students. </p>

<p>Caltech, MIT, Princeton and Stanford are too selective, but worth a shot, especially if everything save his english scores is perfect. I would look into CMU, Cornell, Northwestern (they now give aid to International students I believe), Rice, UT-Austin (even without aid, it is under $20,000, all costs included) and USC (they give generous aid).</p>

12

<p>DEFINITELY apply to cmu! i just realized i posted about a billion times about carnegie today but i'm on campus right now so i guess that's why. but anyway, cmu is definitely easier to get into but that does not compromise the quality of the education you will receive here. my family has a six-figure salary but they still gave my sister 20k for financial aid (and none of that was loans).</p>

<p>if you look at the engineering ranking in usnews cmu is definitely on there. PLUS, i don't know about other engineering-oriented schools but there are SO many international students here. yesterday was check-in for international students and there were indian students everywhere. i think he would really feel at home.</p>