<p>Okay, crap, reading about all of this has made me scared. I haven’t started writing anything at all. I’m getting psyched already. Really should get something done, at least the first draft of the common app essay, that is. :/</p>
<p>By now, everyone should’ve had their list of universities set, and started their common app essays.</p>
<p>hey guys. I’m new on here so just wanted a lil help from you. I’m currently in my 2nd year of Fsc Pre-Eng. I’m also preparing for the SAT. I just wanted to know that is it possible to go to a top rated uni in the US with your fsc degree? Because most of you guys here are O and A Level students. Just help me out please I’m very tense</p>
<p>^ I know of cases in which kids with an FSc have gotten into schools such as MIT and done well. With good SAT/ subject test scores, essays, LORs and ECs it is possible.</p>
<p>Hey everyone. I’m doing my A-levels from LGS. Straight A’s in O-levels (9)(5 A*s and 4As), My EC’s are :</p>
<p>1) Football:
School team captain (O and A levels), Punjab Olympics semi-finalist (Provincial), played in a lot of tournaments, founded my own amateur team FC Experto.</p>
<p>2) Student Govt.:</p>
<p>Headboy(2011)
Officially opened the Sports Gala (2011) as Head Boy, Volunteered and lead the ‘Clean-up’ movement.
, History Society president(2012)
Term officially begins this year.
, Red House Captain (2010)</p>
<p>3: Writing:
Blogger for the Express Tribune, nation-wide newspaper.
Winner of the inaugural Kinnaird InkFest - short story writing competition (out of more than 100, no age limit).
Helped the editor of the school magazine.</p>
<p>4: Career Oriented:</p>
<p>Interned at Bank-Alfalah for 6 weeks this summer. Youngest internee in their history. Co-founded All You Need Solutions, a financial services firm.[All</a> You Need Solutions - Home](<a href=“http://allyouneedsolutions.■■■■■■■■■■/]All”>http://allyouneedsolutions.■■■■■■■■■■/)</p>
<p>Other than that, I scored a miserly 2030 on my January SAT. In my defence, I only laboured (*labored :P) through a week of self-study and didn’t give a single diagnostic. Timing issues. Studying now for the October or November test. Math 2 and History/Literature in December.</p>
<p>The only thing that worries me is the lack of community service I have. Other than that, I’ve virtually completed my Commonapp, and even wrote first drafts of both my essays.</p>
<p>Okay. So that was one way of welcoming myself. Haha. Colleges I’ll be applying to are:</p>
<p>1) Harvard (Yes, a lifelong dream.)
2) Columbia
3) Claremont McKenna (LOVE this school)
4) University of Chicago
5) University of Virginia
6) Williams College
7) Brown
8) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
9) Penn State
10) Middlebury
11)University of Michigan</p>
<p>UPenn is also kind of on my list, but their website is pretty ambiguous relating to the topic of financial aid for internationals. All I can decipher is that they don’t hand over much aid, maybe only 5-6 freshmen.</p>
<p>thanks for the reply perriziman. Just a couple of other questions. How do I get good letters of recommendation? And what kind of EC’s should we have. I’m actually quite good at football and a good athlete, but nothing on paper.</p>
<p>And what kind of community service do i need to do?</p>
<p>^^ Hi. I just graduated from F.Sc II as well. I’m currently on a gap year. Applying next year. You can pm me your questions if you want.</p>
<p>@Samee24 It seems like you need aid as an international for college. Your college list is strange in that aspect. Claremont McKenna will NOT give you aid. UChicago, Brown and Columbia are all known for not being generous towards internationals. Neither does University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Penn State and Michigan. Someone correct me if I am wrong, but the only schools on your list with generous-ish aid are Harvard, Williams and Middlebury. UVA might give you some aid, but not totally sure it will give you significant aid.</p>
<p>@Bluelovexd Claremont McKenna does provide financial aid to internationals. It is stated on their website, but yes they won’t give it as much. Also, they have a couple of merit scholarships that could be interesting. So yeah. Plus, I only require 40-50% aid. People I know got into Brown with pretty decent aid packages. Again, most of the places you listed have good scholarship opportunities.</p>
<p>Hello.</p>
<p>Can you someone please list universities that grant generous aid packages to international students? I know 5 IVY’s, MIT and Amherst are need-blind; are there any other universities?</p>
<p>Secondly, I am an international gap year student who’ll be requiring fee waivers from universities. Does anyone over here know whether or not universities accept fee waivers from GAP YEAR students?</p>
<p>junaid123, applying with waivers is not a good idea. It gives a bad impression to the university. Also, there is not policy of gap year students not being allowed to apply on free waivers.</p>
<p>samee24, UVA does not give aid to intl’s.</p>
<p>I’ll be requiring a healthy aid package (around 90%-92) and here is the initial list of colleges that I have short-listed:</p>
<p>Amherst
Carleton
Dartmouth
Middlebury
NYU AD
Pomona
Princeton
UPenn
Wesleyan
Williams
Yale
Swarthmore
Brown</p>
<p>Take a shot at this list, given my financial aid requirements.</p>
<p>I have got a lot of big names over there because of my financial aid requirements. I haven’t taken my standardized tests as of yet and my ECs aren’t that great (for example, no student govt. position). Fingers crossed, but suggest good universities who’ll be give me healthy fin. aid packages.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>gtfotu, most universities state that it’s understandable that students who apply for financial aid may also request for fee waivers. I don’t think universities view these students in a negatively.</p>
<p>students negatively*</p>
<p>I’ve been through the process before and I’ve talked to people. Fee waivers do have a negative influence on the application. It tells the universities that the student is in such great need of aid that he will most probably not attend if he’s not given almost full aid. The only way a university will accept a student like that is that if he has exceptional/extra ordinary credentials such as won the IMO twice in a row or something like that. I’m talking about top 20 universities. Look at liberal arts colleges, they give a lot of aid since they are small in population and hence have very big endowments saved. Liberal arts colleges are the best shot for people who need lots of aid and don’t have ivy league stats.</p>
<p>@junaid123 From your list and your financial aid requirement, I would raise my eyebrow at Dartmouth, Pomona and UPenn.
Also look for lower ranked colleges that will be less competitive and still generous with aid. Examples would be U of Richmond (but I am biased here :P), Oberlin, Bard, Grinnell, Macalester (?) etc. They are still very good universities that is a little less competitive (for admission + aid)</p>
<p>junaid123, bluelovexD’s advice is good.</p>
<p>Yes, I know UPenn, Dartmouth and Pomona will reject international students just because they asked for fin. aid. Penn’s website clearly states that.</p>
<p>A friend of mine got a 50k aid package from Pomona, though.</p>
<p>Can someone over here help me do a CBA and help pick good colleges that’ll give me aid?</p>
<p>And amongst Ivy leagues and top 20 LACs, which colleges should I be applying to (in terms of aid. I know my SAT score will be the make or break factor).</p>
<p>junaid123, keep in mind, SAT is not the break and make factor. There is no one break or make factor unless for example your SAT is terribly low. Even then I know people in Penn and UC Berkeley with SAT scores of 1560, etc. Also, a Cornell admissions officer himself once said that the most important thing to them is the high school transcript. SAT comes way down the list. Then again, it’s not the last thing on the list either.</p>
<p>Dartmouth is COMPLETELY need blind for Foreign students. 1 of only 6 places in the US. they gave me >50000$ in aid.</p>