The catch is a family with limited income also has to have ‘typical’ assets to qualify for max need based aid.
Since your family owns land, that could result in you receiving less need based aid than you may expect.
Because you are living internationally, I would speak with financial aid staff at the schools you are considering. Ask if the NPCs would be accurate for you, and if not, if they would do a financial aid pre-read for you.
It sounds like it may not be a significant amount when converted into USD from what OP had posted above? Agree OP should try get clarity from the financial aid office though.
So a couple things:
You can’t count on jobs - you may get one and maybe more than $60 but you can’t count on one. And as noted above, any scholarships you earn will likely reduce your aid offer. But some won’t. CMU says - “Outside scholarships are used to meet unmet financial need and, if necessary, are used to offset/reduce loans and/or work-study. Institutional grants and scholarships will not be reduced due to the receipt of outside scholarships unless one of the following occurs.” But each school will be different.
I don’t want to over pass the previous guidance of top 30 - but you might think, do you want to come to the US so badly that you would apply to schools with a better chance to hit your budget - and if so, would mom/dad approve? If that were so, you need more names. Obviously, many of the IIT campuses are renowned.
They have land - so what you don’t know is - what will college cost - because income is one thing, but assets are another that get set into the aid formula. So run the NPCs on all the names, not just the OOS names. And some schools may give you a pre-read before you apply - so contact your list of high end privates and ask if they can/will. Whitman in Washington does one - not a top 30 but maybe it will give you a scintilla of an idea. If they come back very very low, then you’d likely be in good shape for your schools.
Just to give you an idea of insurance costs for a domestic student, U Penn shows a price of $5018. To show a public school, U Michigan is $3704 - and insurance doesn’t mean all your costs are covered. So you need to see the terms - you may pay a small fee for each doctor visit or you may pay in full for a doctor visit but after you hit a certain amount, then be covered. For example, and I have a family plan so my #s are higher but to give you an idea - we pay the first $4400 of fees. Then I am 20% from $4400 to $7000. And then it’s fully covered. So not only do you need to see what they charge but you need to find out what it includes - to see what you might need to pay in addition.
Bottom line - you likely can’t afford health insurance, let alone more. But some of the meets need schools may include health insurance in their offer - so check those private schools to see if they do before you apply. If they don’t cover, you may take your shot - but even if you get in, you may not be able to afford.
And don’t be afraid to look at LACs - which one could argue are top 30…they get ranked (by US News on a different list). Swarthmore has engineering that’s accredited and all will have math and physics - so if it’s an Amherst, Bowdoin, Vassar type, they (your parents) should be ok.
Lots to think about.
Good luck
Well I for one want to hear more about “Sideways Sundays”! Sounds like an intriguing essay topic.
You have a very interesting record. I think that 1540 with the 800 math is probably good enough for any of the top schools.
The highly selective schools with massive endowments can offer you a ton of fin aid, even a full ride, but assets (other than the primary home and two normal cars) can really mess things up. Our experience was that they expected us to sell rental property to pay for college, even though it was business rental property. It was akin to asking a farmer to sell his land to pay for college - sure, it would yield the money to pay for college, but how was the farmer supposed to earn a living after he sold his land? So if the land is worth millions, you may get no financial aid. But if the land is not worth very much, they may not take it into account.
I would apply to the top schools that meet full financial need, and have what you want to study, and rely on your safeties that you have already mentioned. You may want to consider which schools have ongoing graduate research in your area of interest - for that reason, I might rule out the small liberal arts colleges (someone mentioned Swarthmore).
I don’t think Northwestern RD is much different from UChicago RD (if anything, UChicago RD would be more selective). So if you’re willing to apply to UChicago RD…
OP, I think your assessment of standardized testing is correct – I don’t think it makes sense to retake, as it won’t make much of a difference. Some posters are overly focused on test scores, when the rest of the application is more important. Good luck!
Just noting you have to be very careful with how you interpet these sorts of statistics.
According to their latest CDS, Northwestern admitted 1186 applicants ED. It admitted a total of 3806, so that is only about 31%. So why are certain sources claiming over 50% for colleges like this?
Well, what they are usually doing is assuming all 1186 ED admits enrolled (which is probably not quite right, some won’t for various reasons, but it is probably over 95%), and comparing that to the total number of students who enrolled, which was 2105. So that is more like 56%. Frankly, I am not sure where 70% would have come from, but 56% is a lot higher than 31%.
OK, so which of these numbers should matter to you, if any? Well, presumably you care about getting an offer. If you get an offer and then choose another offer you like even better, it turns out you didn’t need to apply to Northwestern, but that is your choice, not theirs.
So presumably you should care about the admit offer percentage, 31%, not the enrollment percentage, 56%. Because the only reason the enrollment percentage is so much higher is a bunch of people with RD offers chose somewhere else.
Indeed, we can estimate that. Assuming something like 97% of their 1186 ED admits enrolled, that would be about 1150. That would leave 955 non-ED enrollees, out of 2620 non-ED admits, so a non-ED yield of about 36%.
That’s not bad, only a few colleges do better with RD yields, most are lower. Northwestern is a very valued college. But still, the fact somewhere around 2/3rds of Northwestern RD admits did not end up using their Northwestern offer is why ED admits then became a majority of enrollees. And that is underscoring why that is likely the wrong percentage for you to be looking at.
And don’t forget that many of those 1186 are likely athletes and other friends of the school invited to join. They are not admission hopefuls - that # is likely far less.
Absolutely.
Long story short, I am pretty confident if you are an “unhooked” student who would actually be admitted ED by Northwestern, and not rejected or deferred, they would very likely happily admit you RD as well. And in fact if they were not sure they would want to admit you RD, very likely they would defer you ED, not admit you.
None of which is to suggest the OP must apply to Northwestern at all. But I think people sometimes use misleading statistical analysis to suggest you need to be ED or nothing for these sorts of colleges, and I really don’t think that is true . . . unless you are something like a recruited athlete, and the coach tells you that is how it works if you want to get the benefit of being recruited.
Yep, schools use FUD as a marketing tactic - and very successfully. Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.
Interesting from AI echoing what you said: “Most elite schools (like Penn, Brown, or Dartmouth) artificially inflate their overall yield to 65–75% by filling half their incoming classes with binding ED students. When you isolate just their RD applicants, their yield drops sharply down to 30–45% because those students are often cross-admitted to other Top 10 schools.”
The exceptions are the SCEA or REA schools (I.e., the usual suspects).
I note I don’t personally think a lot of colleges care about the statistic per se. But I do think they are quite happy when the kids they turn out to want to enroll have applied “binding” (note there is an active lawsuit about just what that means).
And in return, they actually promise . . . almost nothing. Like, technically they promise an early decision, but then it turns out one of the decisions they can make is deferring you to RD. And so what even are they really promising?
So I am not a big fan of ED, but it isn’t so much about the stat manipulation per se, it is that they are essentially getting a lot of families to enter into what is an extremely one-sided deal.
Which is why I am a firm believer that ED should only be used for your absolute top choice. If it’s a yes, you have your decision early and a lot of relief going into the winter break - no more applications, no stress of waiting etc; if it’s a rejection or deferral you’re no worse off than before and applying to all the other schools you would have anyway. If it’s a “tactical” ED, then it’s a different story, because you’ve chosen your shot wrong.
Yeah, that makes sense. I’ll email all the schools I’m applying to to check whether NPCs work or ask for a financial pre-read.
Any chance you would know which price of the land we consider for this? Government-assigned land value or market price. In India, these prices are very different. Should I just assume the average of those 2 and submit in college apps? the “market price” is extremely volatile since most of our land is in very remote places.
Yep, I feel you haha. Same case here 
. I checked using some NPCs, and it shows about 17.5k total amount to pay each year with 3.5k on student and 14k on parents. This actually is manageable given that we sell some assets
Good point, actually, I shall add Northwestern Rd as well to the list.
Just for your personal opinion on this, do you think it’s weird that my essay would have a lot more humanities flair to it than a STEM flair? Truthfully, it’s cause those so-called “humanities” reasons are why I do STEM itself, but being very inexperienced with these kind of essays and college admissions, I can’t help but doubt whether that might confuse the readers and worsen my chances
This can be part of what you ask financial aid staff members.
Don’t overthink this, you have plenty of STEM activities. Write the essay that allows the reader to get to know you, the essay you have proposed is unique and interesting. Don’t doubt that.
Don’t forget health insurance. I put above. It can be another $5k ish depending on the school. Then you have travel, summer living if you stay - you need a place to live and food.
No - and it’s a great segue to explain how the humanities lead you to your STEM love.
You don’t need activities or an essay to tie to your academic goals. You want them to learn about you, your personality, something that makes you tick. One student near me was accepted into Yale, writing about waiting at home for Papa John’s pizza delivery. Another student I know wrote about the yellow fuzz on a tennis ball. It doesn’t have to be about standard things.