Which university should I choose?

Student Lounge International Students
1

<p>I'm almost 18. I love programming and I have been coding a lot since 13. I had a dozen of jobs as freelancer and was working on websites for bigger businesses too. However, I know that my knowledge is still very limited.
Therefore, I would like to study on good (programming, engineering) university. I'm from Poland and I'm applying for places like MIT and Stanford, I would really like to get and will work very hard, but I know that there is a little chance I will get there.
Can you recommend me a good university (in USA or UK - must be English) to study my passion. I believe that teacher's passion, knowledge, overall community, challenges, as well as capability to work in serious company during studies.
What's your experience about studying? </p>

<p>Also I can't go to university which does not provide full or almost full financial aid for international :(</p>

<p>TOEFL: 92
SAT Subject Math 2 and Physics: waiting for results (expecting more than 700 from both)
SAT: registered for December date</p>

2

<p>For MIT, Stanford-like schools, TOEFL 92 isn’t enough; you need at least 100+. Can you give us more credentials about your GPA, AP/IB, and ECs? Then we may be able to recommend which schools you will be content with. </p>

<p>There are schools that offer generous scholarship, even for international students:
<a href=“Automatic Out-of-State Tuition Waivers - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1505285-automatic-out-of-state-tuition-waivers.html&lt;/a&gt;
Look at each school’s website, PLEASE.</p>

<p>Only schools I know that offer full scholarship(tuition and other stuff) based on SAT and GPA are FIU and Howard University…I have no idea about their CS programs, but consider those ones.</p>

3

<p>I know that 92 isn’t much, however the minimum for MIT is 90, so I believe there is still chance for me. I can always take a gap year to learn hard and improve my scores. My GPA is around 3.5-4.0. I don’t have any AP/IB scores or ECs. I checked most of the universities from the link you send me and non of them offers full need-based financial aid for international students neither FIU not Howard University. I checked already plenty of universities and most of them which offer financial aid do not have a computer science major :disappointed: </p>

4

<p>I said Merits scholarship, not financial aid. </p>

<p>also,

  1. if you don’t have top scores, top GPA(which you don’t, and 3.5-4.0 is a wide range. What’s the exact number?), top ECs
  2. if you need money
  3. if you are an international
    then you don’t have many choices.
    Btw, U of Alabama has full tuition scholarship for 1400Math+CR and 3.5 GPA, and it has a CS major.</p>
5

<p>Firstly, Thank you very much for your support ! :slight_smile:
I know that it is the wide range, but I’m from Poland and it is really hard to convert my marks to GPA.
I was looking at the University of Alabama website, however I did not see such a information. Can you please provide me a link, please? (maybe it is not for international students)</p>

6

<p><a href=“http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out-of-state.html”>http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out-of-state.html&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.howard.edu/financialaid/grants_scholarships.htm”>http://www.howard.edu/financialaid/grants_scholarships.htm&lt;/a&gt;
Howard University is a historically black university, but if you don’t mind, it shouldn’t be a problem</p>

7

<p>University of Alabama looks really good. However, I’m not sure will I get 1400 on SAT. Math is easy, but critical reading on SAT is really hard (at least for non-native speakers). So as a plan B what do you think about taking a gap year to improve my scores and then trying to get there? (or maybe studying first year somewhere else and then transferring to another university)</p>

8

<p>Can you ask if U of Alabama takes December score?</p>

<p>You should have taken SAT earlier…December is the deadline for scholarships in most schools that offer merit scholarships. And no, very few scholarships/FA are available for international transfer. Only handful of them offer money. Harvard and Cornell are some examples, but you have to figure out what else schools offer money,.</p>

9

<p>international transfers don’t get financial aid or merit aid, so taking colleges classes during a gap year is a big no-no.</p>

<p>An alternative for you would be University of Waterloo, a sort of Canadian MIT.</p>

<p>What’s your parents’ budget?</p>

10

<p>Thanks for answers :slight_smile: My parents’ budget is like very very low maybe at most $5000-10000 but there will be other expenses for instance flight. Therefore I’m not in best financial situation.</p>

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<p>Can you take a gap year? Because your financial situation makes it necessary for you to have a perfect record and even then your only choice would be universities where you can get merit for your stats. With so much hanging in the balance, having everything resting on a test you take in December doesn’t make things too auspicious.
You have to apply to UAlabama by Dec 1st and your SAT score in one sitting must be 1400 CR+M to qualify.</p>

12

<p>If I don’t get to any place, I’m applying to, that will be (unfortunately) my only choice to take a gap year in order to improve my scores. And that is way I’m also looking for other universities that would provide me with full financial aid(or scholarship) and would be good place overall to study cs.</p>

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<p>Check the links in this thread for more ideas: <a href=“Links to Popular Threads on Scholarships and Lower-Cost Colleges - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Links to Popular Threads on Scholarships and Lower-Cost Colleges - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums;