Chance/Match Mongolian student aiming for Tufts University and Others

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Demographics

  • international student
  • State/Location of residency: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
  • Type of high school : Private

Cost Constraints / Budget
Needs full-ride scholarship

Intended Major(s)

• Electrical Engineering

• Mechanical Engineering

• Civil Engineering

• Computer Science

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0

  • SAT Scores: Projected 1500+

    HS coursework

  • English as a Second Language: IGCSE

  • Math: IGCSE and Elective

  • Physics: IGCSE and elective

  • Biology: IGCSE

  • Chemistry: elective

  • Geography

  • History and social studies

  • Mongolian

  • Russian: 7-9th grade

  • Literature

  • Mongolian scripture

  • ICT: IGCSE

  • Global Perspective: IGCSE

  • Health Education

  • Morality

  • Physical Education

Awards

National English Language Olympiad Bronze medal

10th place in district math olympiad

Gold medal in National Scouts Competition “Ikh duudlaga”

“Best student of the year” award given by the National Students’ Association

“Most Intellectual Student of the Year” award given by the National Students’ Association

10th place in District English Language olympiad (12th grade advanced level) as 11th grade student

Extracurriculars

Built an electronics project, which was a miniature working model of a solar charged lighting system for outdoor basketball courts.

Member of the Scouts Association of Mongolia-participated in camping, volunteering, and competitions

Member of the Student Council and led and co organized many school events and participated in volunteer works.

High school basketball team member-competed in district level league “Sukhbaatar League”

High school volleyball team member

Schools

Princeton

Tufts University

Lafayette College

Cornell University

2

Tufts University practices need-blind admissions for domestic applicants & need-aware admissions for international applicants.

Tufts also doesn’t offer any merit scholarships to domestic or international applicants.

This makes Tufts an “extreme reach” option for an international student requiring funding.

2 Likes
3

You are a very strong applicant. You are competitive at pretty much every university you apply to. However, admissions to schools in the US that meet full need for international students is very competitive. It is very difficult to predict whether you will get admitted.

Princeton is a high reach for pretty much every applicant. To be admitted you would need to be at least very close to being the top applicant from your country. However, given what you have accomplished up to now, you might very well be the top applicant from Mongolia to Princeton in any given year. Tufts will not be much easier for admissions, nor will Cornell.

I have visited both Tufts and Cornell multiple times, have heard good things about both schools, and quite like the areas where they are located. You will get real winters at Cornell (the first time I visited it snowed three feet over three days), but you should be used to this coming from Mongolia. I have not visited Princeton, but have heard that it also is located in a very attractive area. Again it is an excellent university. If you do get admitted to any of these schools they would be very good choices, would provide you with an excellent education, and would meet full financial need. You will want to work hard at any of these schools. You might also need to make sure that you graduate in four years (which is very common, and which a high percent of incoming students do at all of these schools) because financial aid might end after four years. Look very closely at any financial aid offers that you get if you are admitted, so that you know exactly what is included and what the terms are.

Lafayette College is a somewhat different choice. I am wondering what makes you consider it. It does offer full ride scholarships to a small number of international students. Given your excellent stats you may indeed be a serious candidate for a full ride scholarship. I do not think of it for engineering, although apparently several of their engineering programs are ABET accredited. ABET accreditation is important, and any ABET accredited program is a good program.

This could go either way. I think that you have a chance to be admitted to any of these schools, but you might also be rejected from all four. It is very difficult to predict what will happen.

If you do get to attend any of these universities, you should be aware that after graduating your visa will expire and you will need to return to your home country, except that in some cases a short term “practical experience” visa extension might be possible to extend your stay for a short time period (I think that this might be one or two years). On the other hand, I would expect that Mongolia needs engineers, and you can get a great education here in the US if you get accepted and if you get sufficient financial aid.

In the somewhat unlikely event that you get accepted to any of these schools with full financial aid, and you choose to attend, then definitely plan to attend the welcome reception for incoming international students. You might be amazed who you meet. Also, plan to work very hard for a full four years, stay way ahead in your homework, and take full advantage of this opportunity should it become available to you (however I expect that you already know this last part).

Best wishes.

2 Likes
4

Thank you! I have added few activities since this post and I’m planning to take the SAT in September 12. I’m only regretting now that I haven’t competed in any national or international STEM competitions. But, thanks for your detailed response!

1 Like
5

I didn’t know Tufts was need aware for international students, so this is a pretty important information for me. Thanks for letting me know!

6

From AI, but some of your schools are on this list. They meet need and are need blind so they don’t look at your finances in regards to admissions. The list below is from AI but a few of your schools are on it - you should add others that have engineering.

I would think your chances are slim to none as International acceptance rates are extremely low, even at the need blind schools. But unless you try, you never know.

Best of luck.

As of August 2026, 12 U.S. colleges are need-blind for international students and meet full demonstrated financial need: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Amherst, Dartmouth, Bowdoin, Washington and Lee, Brown, Notre Dame, Georgetown, and Columbia.

1 Like
Chance Me: Intl Student (Mongolia) — EE/CE, Full-Need Aid Required
7

Vanderbilt University could be a good option to consider for engineering. Though need-aware for international applicants, they do award need-based financial aid & merit scholarships to admitted international students.

1 Like
8

Chance Me: Intl Student (Mongolia) — EE/CE, Full-Need Aid Required

Demographics: International student from Mongolia, male, attending an English-curriculum (Cambridge/IGCSE) school. Rising senior.

Intended Major: Electrical Engineering or Civil Engineering (deciding between the two)

Coursework:

• IGCSE: ESL, Math, Physics, Biology, ICT, Global Perspectives

• Regular: Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geography, History, Social Science, Mongolian, Literature, Traditional Scripture, PE, Health, IT

• Advanced: Math, Physics, Chemistry

• School does not offer AP or IB

Stats:

• SAT: 1520 on most recent practice test (770 Math / 750 R&W); sitting for the real SAT Sept 12, 2026, targeting 1550+

• Unweighted GPA: ~98-99/100

• A* in IGCSE English as Additional Language and Mathematics

• IELTS: expecting 7-8 band

Extracurriculars:

• Basketball team since 10th grade (will likely earn athletic diploma in basketball, possibly volleyball)

• Student council since 9th grade — co-organized events, community service (not president)

• Building a solar-charged outdoor basketball court lighting system prototype, tracked on GitHub — personal project inspired by an unlit court near home

• Intern at a STEM-focused NGO for youth education, under my biology teacher (a scientist with a master’s degree)

• Intern in Mongolia’s energy sector under an automation engineer in a senior/high-level position

• Scouts (8th-9th grade) — Morse code decipherer; won National Gold at “Ikh Duudlaga,” a national mountain endurance/orienteering competition

• Math Olympiad since 8th grade — leading scorer for school every year; qualified for nationals once (8th grade)

• Contributing the electrical/energy component to a friend’s hydro-energy science fair project (friend is building the physical model; project is in progress and on track to be completed)

• Volunteering: animal shelter (10th grade), “Modod-2024” tree-planting event (500 trees planted), elders’ home (fundraising, clothing donations)

Personal Statement:

Awards:

• “Best Student” (9th grade) and “Most Intellectual/Smart Student” (11th grade) — national honor-society-type awards

• Bronze medal, National English Language Olympiad (9th grade)

• Placed 10th in district-level Advanced English Language Olympiad (the 12th-grade-level competition) as an 11th grader

• 1st place, team English speech contest (9th grade) — team later presented at “Gan Zam” palace

• 2nd degree diploma, Kangaroo Math competition

Financial Context: Need full-need/need-blind aid as an international student — family can only contribute ~$1,000 total.

School List:

Princeton University

Dartmouth College

Amherst College

Bowdoin College

Smith College

Bryn Mawr College

Brown University

University of Notre Dame

NYU Abu Dhabi

University of Rochester

Union College

Lehigh University

Lafayette College

Tufts University

Case Western Reserve University (CWRU)

Caltech

Vanderbilt University

Duke University

Northwestern University

Cornell University

Washington University in St. Louis

Swarthmore College

Rice University

Would love honest chances given the aid constraint — I know need-based aid + international status makes everything a reach, but trying to gauge where I’m competitive vs. wasting an application.

9

But most importantly, you wouldn’t qualify for any merit aid making Tufts an impossible choice unless you can secure an external source of funding to cover all expenses.

10

Yes, Tufts is need aware for admissions, but they also meet full need. So the real hurdle would be getting admitted. If admitted, it could be a viable choice if the need as calculated by Tufts will be sufficient for OP.

1 Like
11

Right, thanks for correcting me! I remembered responding to IsaiahII’s OP previously & must have gotten confused. Tufts is absolutely a possibility for you!

1 Like
12

I can’t chance you, but you have a number of schools on your list that don’t have engineering majors. Why? That would be an easy way to cut back on apps.

Depending on your Sept SAT results, more apps may be cut at that point, e.g., CalTech.

As you said, all of these schools are low probability. Do you have any schools with higher admit rates that are affordable in your home country and/or ex-US?

3 Likes
13

Some of the colleges you have listed either don’t meet full need for all accepted international students OR are need aware for international students.

Only 10 US institutions are both need-blind and meet full demonstrated need for all accepted international students:

The Complete List of 10 Institutions

  • Amherst College (Massachusetts)

  • Bowdoin College (Maine)

  • Brown University (Rhode Island — starting with the class entering in 2025)

  • Dartmouth College (New Hampshire)

  • Harvard University (Massachusetts)

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT (Massachusetts)

  • Princeton University (New Jersey)

  • University of Notre Dame (Indiana — starting with the class entering in 2025)

  • Washington and Lee University (Virginia)

  • Yale University (Connecticut)

14

Thank you to the moderators for merging these two chance me threads.

@IsaiahII could you please clarify which colleges you are considering applying to? There are two lists of colleges here now…and it would be helpful to know which is the accurate one.

15

This is on the Georgetown financial aid website. @tsbna44 is there more current info that indicates that this college will meet financial need for all accepted international students?

And this seems to indicate that Columbia is need aware for international students. Again…is there something more current?

International Admissions and Financial Aid

The Columbia admissions process is largely the same for all students, regardless of citizenship and residency, but international students are evaluated in a need-aware manner.

I will admit, I might be wrong…but this is what is on these two college websites today.

1 Like
16

As noted AI - so OP would need to validate each. GT doesn’t fit anyway given the majors.

But yes it doesn’t appear they do.

17

And Smith and Bryn Mawr are bad choices for a male applying to undergraduate programs, so they could be crossed off, too.

1 Like
18

Lafayette has an excellent engineering program, but it focusses on undergraduate education, rather than graduate research.

2 Likes