Which colleges should be on my final list?

College Search & Selection
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<p>Hi! I've been lurking for a while and I really am grateful for all the advice everyone here provides. Unconsciously you have all helped me in the process! :)</p>

<p>I know it's quite late into the admissions process, but I'm an international student and I need to cut down my college list. I've done the essays of the ones I am surely applying to but my list is above 20 colleges and I have to cut it down to around 17 atleast.</p>

<p>Thing is, I am an international applying for full financial aid. I have a good academic profile (Top 2%, valedictorian in senior year) and SAT scores (2200+), number of good ECs. CA Essay is really different from the average essay (that's all I can say) and should differentiate me from regular essays. Teacher recommendations are quite good.
Are any of the colleges in my list ones that don't offer good aid to internationals? Do they all meet 100% required need? (I shall be requiring a full ride and qualify for it too).</p>

<p>Here's my list:</p>

<p>Whitman (does it meet full aid internationals qualify for??)
Reed (does it meet full aid internationals qualify for?)
Wellesley
Smith
Middlebury (does midd meet full aid for internationals?)
Pomona
Swarthmore
Williams
Amherst </p>

<p>Washington University St. Louis
University of Chicago
Rice University
Wesleyan University
Duke University
Emory University</p>

<p>Harvard (duh)
Princeton University
Brown University
Columbia University
Dartmouth
U Penn
Stanford?</p>

<p>PS- I don't know if it counts but I got Deferred from Yale. But then, Yale defers so many people. I want to decrease the number I'm applying to while keeping a good mix of reaches, matches and safeties.</p>

<p>Ideally how many safeties should I have? Smith seems more like a safety, and Whitman and Reed too if they offer full need. WUStL seems more like a match, so does Wellesley. Apart from that they all seem like crapshoots seeing I require full aid. That's why I have such a big list-- since I simply cannot afford to be miserly in the number of schools I apply to as who knows where I might get in?</p>

<p>The many Ivies are because of their generous aid policies, apart from other stuff of course. Although I'm not very keen on Penn, my country has a good record with them.</p>

<p>I would be very grateful if someone could mention how well known the colleges are for aid, and which ones I should remove if they don't provide good aid.</p>

<p>PS- I would also appreciate it if someone could tell me which all colleges on my list don't give application fee waivers. If any on the list don't then please intimate me!</p>

<p>Thank you so so much for reading this!</p>

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<p>Bump please! Any suggestions would be welcome. :)</p>

<p>Bdw, please ignore the question on fee waivers. I figured that out myself.</p>

<p>Also, I come from a pretty reserved family. While I don’t mind being among liberal people and am myself quite accepting to different ways of thinking, I’d prefer schools that don’t give me too much of a culture shock. Going oceans away is enough for the time being ;).</p>

<p>From what I hear, Reed is very very liberal…too ‘liberal’. (I’m not sure what you people mean by liberal; I’m assuming it to be not very reserved?) Now I like Reed for its academic rigor, I like that you have to study a lot in depth. But do you think I might not fit there? I don’t really fancy spending 24X7 with a student body mostly comprising of smokers, drinkers and who do weird protests in the nude.
Please please do not take thsi the wrong way…this is the impression I got from many posters and please correct me if I’m wrong because I really do like Reed for other reasons.</p>

<p>Good rigorous academics is a must for me (tough curriculums are welcomed, no preferance to open/core), prefer less pretentious people (I hear prep school kids fill many LACs).
I prefer places with lesser drinking… I don’t mind being with drinkers, but there should be other stuff to do if one wants to hang out rather than just downing a peg or two.</p>

3

<p>As good as your excellent qualifications are, I don’t think you can consider any school on your list a true safety, considering you are an international who needs 100% financial aid. Keep in mind that what matters is how the school (not your family) calculates “need”, and that all but a very few schools are need-aware (not need-blind) for internationals. You’ve been deferred by what I believe is one of the few exceptions. Then again, even getting deferred by Yale is an honor.</p>

<p>The least selective school on your list probably is Whitman. Whitman does grant some aid to internationals, averaging about $35K per recipient, but only 6 internationals were granted any aid in 2010-11. To find these figures for most other schools on your list, Google for the school name + “Common Data Set” (CDS). Download the CDS file and go to section “H” for information on aid to internations. Or check out the following:
[Top</a> 25 Financial Aid Colleges in US for International Students (Need-aware) - Desperate Guide: Undergraduate College Financial Aid, Scholarship](<a href=“http://www.desperateguide.com/us/top-25-financial-aid-colleges-in-us-for-international-students-need-aware]Top”>http://www.desperateguide.com/us/top-25-financial-aid-colleges-in-us-for-international-students-need-aware)</p>

<p>I believe you will have a relative competitive advantage, as an international, at the women’s colleges and some of the other LACs on your list. Notice how many LACs are among the above “top 25”. There is a corresponding list of “need blind” schools on the same site but it only contains 6 schools.
[Top</a> 6 Need-blind Colleges in US for International Students - Desperate Guide: Undergraduate College Financial Aid, Scholarship](<a href=“http://www.desperateguide.com/us/top-6-need-blind-colleges-in-us-for-international-students]Top”>http://www.desperateguide.com/us/top-6-need-blind-colleges-in-us-for-international-students)</p>

<p>Reed is one of my favorites, and it does seem to be generous with aid to internationals. Nevertheless, it might not be the right fit for you. Consider swapping in another women’s college (such as Bryn Mawr).</p>

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<p>Bear in mind that last admissions cycle, many international applicants were just rejected by need aware schools! I saw that posted quite a bit by international applicants on the boards last spring. If you need too much FA, it is just in your best interests & the school’s to deny you admission!</p>

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<p>Reed is a safety for no one; numeric stats account for only 20% of admission criteria.</p>

<p>Reed does grant full-need financial aid to internationals (and is need aware, but that’s mostly irrelevant), but only to approximately 20 to 25 each year, so the competition is intense.</p>

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<p>You have excellent stats for a lot of schools, but your list is a little too diverse. Do you want a national university or a smaller liberal arts college? You could cut your list in half if you determined this.</p>

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<p>Pick out school characteristics that are important for you disregarding lay prestige and you will have no trouble cutting schools off your list.</p>

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<p>tk21769-- Thank you so much for helping me out and suggesting the way to proceed. I shall use the Common Data Sets for checking out the other schools. I didn’t know such a thing existed. And thank you for the links! I think I’ll add Mt. Holyoke to my list. It’s awesome aid for internationals (gives more than most Ivies!) and science program are very attractive.
Bdw, so I shouldn’t be applying to Reed? I was really keen on the academics there so can I have more opinions on this please?</p>

<p>informative-- Tbh, I don’t have much of a preference. I prefer smaller schools (but not too small) so colleges like Pomona with the Five college consortium, Amherst fit my requirements so that if I don’t like a class in one school, I can take it in another one. Undergrad focussed schools like Chicago, Princeton, Wesleyan are ideal too. </p>

<p>My main priority is a rigorous academic curriculum with wide availability of choices in courses. Availability of school spirit, a place where people look out for each other is a big plus too, but the rest of the stuff such as sports, clubs, partying options, closeness to city etc are secondary.(Haven’t given it much thought) I can adjust to situations/fit in pretty well generally.</p>

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<p>I’m cutting off Whitman from my list…and adding Oberlin. <em>sigh</em> and I’d been so happy to have one down. :rolleyes: Oberlin seems to be great for sciences and academic rigor? Plus they’re currently interested in international students. But it’s the same for Grinnell too. Do you think I’ve made the right choice by taking Oberlin over Grinnell? I only want to choose one.</p>

<p>I’m also cutting out Columbia. Just found out that there’s not much focus on undergrad, everyone’s really career focused, little making friends for life, there’s more of tension. I want to go to college to be a college student…not to act like a grown up already.(although I’ll be focused on Grad school too)</p>

<p>Stanford’s off as well; the only reason I’d taken it was for the weather, and because I’ve heard it gets quite unpredictable with admissions and one might just get in. ;)</p>

<p>I’m not sure about U Penn or Emory. Emory seems to have a lot of scholarships (~300) and is undergrad focused which is what attracted me. Do you think I should take it off? Because I might have a chance with merit scholarships. Should I choose one out of Rice and Emory?</p>

<p>And what are your opinions on Bard? This is one more school that’s pretty cool with financial aid to internationals (rivals Brown in this aspect) and I need to have more matches/near safeties. Is it very much academically rigorous with wide course availability?</p>

<p>Thank you everyone! :)</p>

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<p>A good website that I suggest you check out is this:
[College</a> Search - Find colleges and universities by major, location, type, more.](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)</p>

<p>I used it extensively whenever I needed to find out particular statistics about colleges. If you look up a college, you can look at information about tuition, scholarships, and financial aid. I’m not personally going to look up each of your 20 colleges, but feel free to use the site above as much as (and maybe even a whole lot more than) I do. </p>

<p>One thing that I should point out, besides the fact that you should double check with the college websites to be certain about important details that the college board gives you (like deadlines), is that applying to so many colleges will kill your wallet, even before you start paying tuition. So keep in mind that you only want to apply to schools you have a high interest in (some reaches and some safeties). </p>

<p>You can narrow it down, not only by financial aid, but also by what major you’re intending. From what I know, the bigger schools (Ivies and such) will try to do whatever they can financially for you to go to their school once you’re accepted. So if you truly think that the bigger schools (who also have higher application fees) are a good match for you, then I think you should go ahead and apply.</p>

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<p>Hard to say. One of the most significant differences is that Oberlin has almost twice as many students. Grinnell is quite small. Nevertheless, Grinnell’s endowment is nearly twice as large. In other words, Grinnell is a richer school. Grinnell does seem to be admitting more international students (maybe they get more applicants); yet, they both have been awarding aid to almost exactly the same number of international students and in similar amounts. See the Common Data Set files for details.</p>

<p>I’ve read Grinnell has really terrific science facilities (again, it’s a rich school). But … they are very similar. If you think you’d prefer a larger school, go with Oberlin; otherwise, I’d lean toward Grinnell.</p>

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<p>Thank you everyone!</p>

<p>tk21769, yes I have chosen Grinnell finally. Thanks! :)</p>

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<p>@GarfieldGirl seems like you and I have a lot of things (international, female, lot of aid) in common and a lot of colleges too! Except for the IVY ones, I did not do on any of them, but I think the liberal arts colleges you’ve chosen are pretty much all fantastic and “elite” (translating to “rich”) so ya if you get in to the LACs, there will be much aid, even though most of them are “need-aware” for internationals</p>