I was looking at Aerospace initially. But… I recieved my high school transcripts… just 81.2% wondering if I should apply to Aerospace or mechanical now. Which will be less competitive in terms of admission/scholarship qnd if I can switch majors later.
Please remember…you are an international student from India. Your application for admission will be reviewed with the applicant pool from that region which tends to be very strong in engineering.
You have an 81% average GPA out of 100? Is that correct?
I think scholarships in engineering will be hard to get with that GPA if it is on a 100 scale. So please explain. You have 1450 or so SAT, which is fine.
Both fields of engineering are competitive for scholarships, and depending on the college, also for admissions.
Where are you applying to college?
I will also be giving the a levels since I feel that the the Indian system is just not the right one for me and I have consistently scored 92-96% on my mocks.
I have done some interesting projects and assisted with two research papers. I am also expecting 800s on SAT Math2 and Phy. I will also go in for another SAT aiming for a 1600 which is just about 12 questions away from my current score considering I had no formal prep for my first shot where I got 1470.
I will probably get a 5 on each of my ap exams and recently did some certified edx courses on Aerospace. Planning on doing another course that yields 3 hours from Arizona state.
Like I said in my previous post… I have done a lot of social work even before I ever decided to apply to American Unis.
Test scores and projects can’t outweigh actual academic results. You see this as a competition for an admit. The top colleges are looking at how you’ll fare, once there. The tougher the college, the tougher the standards.
You need to find universities that accept students with your gpa range. The competition in both Aero and ME will be quite tough at the most competitive colleges.
Can you afford full pay international rates?
No. I can’t afford international rates but like I said I will probably do well in the Cambridge A Level Exam which I guess, has more acceptance compared to CBSE which is India’s in house curriculum. CBSE promotes a memorization based education while a levels heed actual learning. I hear someone from my neighbourhood got in UT Austin ( with grades lower than me) for Computer Science which is probably more competitive and had to pay the in state tuition all thanks to Texas laws.I was also at the 98th percentile in the IIT JEE mains exam which is said to be one of the most competitive Pre engg exams in the world. Most people applying to the US don’t even make it through.
Someone who is a citizen of India is paying instate rates at UT Austin? Sorry, but I believe you have been fed a line of goods on that one, unless this person got some scholarship at UT that lowered the cost to instate rates.
Bottom line on this…be careful of what your friends are telling you about their costs…because it really doesn’t matter unless YOU are eligible for the same rate reduction for the same reason.
This is on the UT Austin website:
Here…read all of this yourself:
https://world.utexas.edu/isss/students/new/utreqs/finances
You need a school on your application list from India…a place that is affordable, and where you will gain acceptance.
It isn’t aid there is a clause for peolle getting a scholarship above 1000 usd or who have a teaching assistantship I looked at the clause myself on the webpage regarding non resident tuition waiver. It is on the UT website as well but it is not listed with aids it is on a separate section.
You are an undergrad, first year student. Not likely you will get a teaching assistantship job.
And the site is very clear that aid to internationals is not likely.
Please post a link to the info you found.
That sounds more like graduate student aid rather than undergraduate.
And please believe us: state colleges are primarily supported by their state taxpayers and owe the rest of us far less than those residents. At the larger state systems, it’s much harder for the ordinary rest of us to come anywhere near a major tuition break like instate rates. Where it happens, it’s reserved for the kids they want most and generally has strict conditions.
You can’t make your decisions based on something you hear about another kid. People confuse details and even misrepresent.
The difficulty of admission between AE and ME depends entirely on the school in question.
I agree with others…don’t count on any aid as an undergraduate international. Internationals and out of state US citizens are how universities make up for budget shortfalls. There’s absolutely no incentive for them to carry an international student financially.
@Le1Harsh , there is absolutely no reason for you to consider doing Eng at an US Univ unless you can pay for it. I did my MechE undergrad from IITB. I would suggest that you do your undergrad in Aero or Mech from one of the 5 original IITs. Apply for your Masters/PhD here in the US if you are still interested.
And yes I do agree. My D who has a 3.8+ GPA as a senior studying MechE at GTech, most probably would have not made it to one of those 5 IITs 
I have direct experience with UT-Austin, because my son was admitted as an out-of-state student. I heard about the OOS tuition waiver possibility and thought my son might qualify since he did get a scholarship greater than $1,000. When I called the engineering school to inquire about it, the woman was polite but explained that there are only a handful of waivers available TOTAL - meaning one or two per class. My son had excellent stats and didn’t get a waiver. So I don’t believe you would qualify for one.
If you are seeking financial aid in the US as an international student, your best bet is a private engineering university that offers international student scholarships. As others have noted, public universities really don’t give much aid to international students or out of state domestic students for that matter. Look into the smaller Association of Independent Technical Universities for possibilities.