Where to apply and Where not to. Confused. :O

Student Lounge International Students
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<p>Well, I'm an international applicant for the class of 2016. I need some serious advice on which colleges to apply in US, Canada and i'm thinking to add 2 or 3 from Europe as well.</p>

<p>I havan't taken SAT yet, am supposed to take it in October and then SAT II in November. Well its like I got a score of 2200 in the online practice test and I'm working hard to improve it more, have taken some other practice tests as well so I'm pretty hopeful, I'll get a 2100+ score in it and same goes for the subject tests, I'l manage a 750+ score in each IA. Though my grades aren't that stellar, I was a cadet at military college, one of the top reputed institutes, but due to an unwanted incident, i was hospitalized for over an year and that was pretty much it for me, I messed up everything for a long while and now I'm finally trying to get things right. </p>

<p>I'm intending to take Engineering as my field of study, either Computer/Software Engineering, was always good with computer or Electrical. My priority would be Computer Engineering. So another key factor in selection of where to apply.</p>

<p>And another and the most important factor is that I'm going to be needing a huge financial package as well. So Universities offering Financial Aid in terms of Merit or Need, both are my top requirements.</p>

<p>About my EC's, I won't call them extraordinary but I do have some work done during the good times.
I'm In the basketball team, won last year Regional Championship, going to win this year as well. XD. Won a couple of regional and a national Essay writing Competition, A few short story titles aswell, did win another couple of debate and declamation competitions, all English, prizes in science fairs as well, have a prize in a Maths Olympiad, Participated twice in National Spelling Bee, Head of College's Event Organizing Committee plus the discipline committee, am an ex-cadet from Military College,dont know whether that counts or not, :P plus these days i'm volunteering with an NGO and going to participate in as much competitions as I can this year as well. But with all this I dont have a major participation in any major international Olympiad or something of that sort. Plus i'm a regular blogger, part of the team of two different websites and did work on developing some few programs for linux systems and for andriod OS and apple's iOS and have a certificate of succesfully handling and implementing all Google Inc's Products signed by the Country Head for Pakistan.</p>

<p>So this is pretty much it, any advice on where should I apply would be appreciated. Going to a good US University has always been my passion so that US being on top of the list, then Canada, I couldn't find any credible information whether Canadian Universities offer some kind of AID to international applicants. So guidance needed in that section as well. Plus I read about JUB Germany here, so I'm thinking to apply in Some European Universities as well, so of any one can provide any information on that would be great and I'm not applying to any University in UK, I dont know why, I visited England some time back and I really dont feel like going there again.</p>

<p>P.S If you ask me, my strongest point in the whole application my process would be my essays, I'm really good at writing them and I have named alot many titles in that regard so any guidelines on that would also be appreciated and sorry about such a long post but I do need all this information before things go wrong :P</p>

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<p>Use popular search engines, SuperMatch on this site, Princeton Review, Collegeboard. To begin with, eliminate public universities. They won’t give you the financial aid you seek. Then eliminate liberal arts colleges which won’t have the breath of engineering you seek. Once you indicate you need extensive financial aid, these search engines will narrow down the list even more. Once you have that list, come back to this thread and we can give you more information. Have fun :)</p>

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<p>Harvard
Caltech
Yale
Stanford
Columbia
Dartmouth
Swarthmore
UPenn
Amherst
Williams
Duke
Chicago
Wellesley (if female)
Lehigh
Oberlin</p>

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<p>Except that half of those don’t have engineering.</p>

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<p>Umm, b@r!um, ALL of those have engineering except one or two I think.</p>

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<p>I would take all 5 liberal arts colleges off the list. 4 of them don’t have engineering, and Swarthmore doesn’t have the breadth and depth of engineering that a serious engineering student would be looking for.</p>

<p>But you are right that it’s less than half. I thought that a few of the bigger universities did not have engineering programs at the undergraduate level, but they all do.</p>

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<p>Well here’s a list I have made, any additions or filter these if they don’t fit my criteria.</p>

<p>MIT
Harvard
Yale
Brown
Caltech
Furman
Lafayette
Northwestern
Stanford
UC Berkeley
USC
U of T Austin
Texas A&M
U of Chicago
Vanderbuilt
Georgia Tech
UIUC(Not sure about Aid for Internationals)
U of Michigan</p>

<p>Maybe JUB Germany</p>

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<p>UC Berkeley
UT Austin
Georgia Tech
UIUC
U of Michigan
Texas A & M</p>

<p>– are all public universities which will not meet your financial aid.</p>

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<p>so I should not consider applying to them?</p>

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<p>I have seem people get some generous amounts from UT Austin or Texas A&M. Anyhow thanks for correcting me.</p>

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<p>Be careful of anecdotal evidence. A few international students may get some aid from public schools but IN GENERAL public schools do not – cannot! for financial reasons – give money to international students. This is ESPECIALLY true now, when the US is in a prolonged recession affecting universities and in-state students alike. </p>

<p>You can certainly apply to those schools if you want to and don’t mind paying application fees for schools unlikely to give you the “huge” (your word) financial aid amounts for 4 years. Just be realistic going into the process that you’re fighting a very uphill battle.</p>

<p>In my opinion you should focus on lesser known private universities, especially in the middle and southern part of the US where there will be less competition for FA $$ from other international students.</p>

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<p>USC,Berkeley,Georgia Tech,UT Texas/Austin and UMichigan do NOT HAVE FINANCIAL AID FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS.Please don’t apply if you need lots of finaid.Are you aware that UChicago does not offer engineering at all?Anyhow,look into Tufts University,Trinity College(Connecticut),Miami University OH(Merit aid),Fairfield University(merit),University of Richmond(not sure if they have eng).Canadian universities do not usually give aid to intl students,but their tuition rates are subsidised so the education is comparatively affordable.</p>

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<p>Well how much are the odds for me to be one of those few who get aid? Not saying that I would definitely get it, but UIUC is one of the best school for Engineering. So I have a few concerns, anyhow, I’ll definitely do some research before committing something like that.</p>

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<p>

I did read somewhere on this forum that USC has some real good scholarships for Internationals, or maybe it was a need based aid. Something like that, Are you sure that they don’t have any kind of needs for Internationals? I’ll definitely look into all the suggestions you gave. :slight_smile:
About Canadian Uni’s, I couldn’t exactly get your point, how are your tuition rates subsided. Plus its like I have some close family members living in Ontario, Toronto and Kingston to be precise. As a matter of fact, my Aunt is specializing in Medicine in Mcmaster, she first in Kingston and just got a scholarship and is there now. Is that in anyhow helpful? I mean my living expenses could easily covered if I get into Mcmaster.</p>

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<p>USC is also not a public university, so it probably wasn’t meant to be on the list to begin with.</p>

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<p>“Well how much are the odds for me to be one of those few who get aid?”</p>

<p>I certainly can’t tell you; contact UIUC directly and ask them yourself what they have available for international students. </p>

<p>Again, if you want to apply to public universities, go ahead. It’s your money. Just don’t be surprised when not even one of these schools offers you any financial aid, much less the huge amount you require.</p>

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<p>Ahan, well I guess I’ll have to cut these out.</p>

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<p>Only a handful of American colleges give huge scholarships to international students who are not recruited athletes, and those generally go to applicants who are top students in their countries. Approximately how much can your family afford to pay? There are good options out there in the U.S. and abroad if your parents can pay at least half of a typical college per annum cost. Also look for opportunities to get educational loans at home.</p>

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<p>Well i was wondering on that aspect of applying as well. If you read my first post, I mentioned playing basketball for my school, we made it to the finals last year and won the regional championship, this year I’m pretty sure we are going to win as well and chances are I’ll be nominated as the Captain, ultimately that does mean I’m good at playing. I need to know the procedure for getting my self recruited. Can you recommend any colleges that give full rides or some other scholarships to internationals? Plus what is the criteria for getting recruited as an athlete at college?</p>

<p>Btw if you are referring towards the EFC? I calculated that it rounded up to something around $15000, so that is the reason I’m going to need loads of aid.</p>

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<p>Basketball is not the easiest sport to get recruited in: it’s a super-competitive sport with lots of hard-working American athletes, and it’s hard to judge your performance from a distance. (Unlike, say, track and field, where performance is easy to measure in numbers.) </p>

<p>There are a few organizations who connect international athletes with American coaches (and scholarships). You might benefit from their expertise and connections, although it comes at a price. I am not familiar enough with them to recommend one over another, but you can find a number of them on google (try ‘international athletic scholarship’ or ‘international athletic recruiting’).</p>