You’ve applied to some with no chance of hitting $50k. You should add U of Alabama as it’s a rare school where internationals get the same merit as domestic. You will be close to $30k (under $30k) if your GPA computes to 3.5 or higher.
IU, UIUC, Wisconsin, Rutgers won’t be $50k.
Others may depend on need but all those you lost are also unlikely. International has lower acceptance rates and likely higher full pay rates - meaning if they admit you, there’s a better chance they’ll ask you to pay $90k. Or if they determine you have high need, they might not admit you.
The one exception may be Purdue, which will be just under $50k and would be your most likely destination. But don’t forget air and health insurance.
I do think you can get in there but I’d add Alabama. Great B school - Culverhouse and for international, assured to meet budget so it’s give you an assured US home at a name brand school. There may be a few others as well.
Have you already applied to these schools or are you applying next year?
if this is for next year, apply EA to all the schools that offer it. Your chances are significantly reduced by applying RD to some of the schools on your list.
Unfortunately some of the schools on your list are much more competitive in RD than in EA. Sadly Purdue is one of them. IU also gives an advantage in EA but I don’t believe it’s as much as Purdue.
What’s done is done but I mention this for others who may be reading your thread for the next admission cycle.
Best of luck to you and I hope that you have some affordable acceptances!
I think Vanderbilt ED2 is too high a reach (unless you have support from someone from athletics or club soccer??) but what’s done is done.
W&L a reach but reachable reach, odds probably 10% so not bad for an international. A bit better, perhaps 25% odds at Lehigh, Denison.
A lot of the public universities are going to be WAY more selective RD than EA/Priority. What would have been a 50-50 chance or better is now uncertain.
I would add some private colleges that offer some financial aid to internationals and where a 50k budget is actually an advantage: St Olaf (especially for Quantitative Economics), Macalester, Dickinson.
SUNY Albany is another possibility for what you’re interested in, indicate interest in the Honors College on your application. I don’t think the “non EA” penalty is as bad there.
American U is iffier financially but your odds are okay if you apply for Business Analytics major+French minor (assuming you had a few years of French before choosing the STEM track.) AU missed their enrollment target last year so an international with a 50k budget might get a favorable look and your academics+ ECs are solid. 50-50 I’d say.
Admissions at these schools will have someone on staff who knows how to interpret the grading scale used at high schools in your country. Most of us don’t. This leads to the question of how your grades compare to other students in your high school. To have a good chance of both acceptance and getting sufficient financial aid in the US you are likely to need to be relatively close to being the top student in your high school, at least in a short list of academically strongest students. Are you? (I am guessing yes).
Your SAT is very good. 800 on math is of course the highest you can get. 750 on English suggests that your English is quite strong, probably stronger than the average American, and will not be a problem at all. Of course your excellent writing on this post suggests the same thing.
I think that you are very likely to get multiple rejections plus a moderate number of acceptances from the schools in your list. Whether any of them will be affordable is something I have trouble guessing. I do think that there is a pretty good chance that you may get a small number of acceptances where the total cost of attendance is close to or just under US$50,000/year.
I do not think that there is a safety on your list for both acceptance and affordability. Do you have a safety outside the US? Alternately if you do not get any affordable acceptance would you take a gap year and try again? If so then people on this web site can recommend other schools to apply to next year.
Where did you see this? Not saying it’s wrong but rather wondering where you found the info.
As per the CDS, AFAIK, the odds are about 1:8-1:10 all things being equal for domestic applicants, meaning they’re at best half that for internationals but in reality would likely be less, and 67 admitted/44 enrolling sounds about right since they meet full need, but I don’t see where “3,534” international applicants comes from and I’d have expected a number closer to 1,500 applicants so curious to see where the info came from and when it started - perhaps related to the “meet need for all” policy??
This student is likely among the top applicants so odds are better than average for his applicant group.
(In Vietnam 8=A)
Those numbers are in the 24-25 CDS for W&L, section C1. If I recall, W&L is now need-blind for internationals, which would account for that super low acceptance rate.
Thanks . I had checked and somehow missed them Let’s blame my tiny screen
ETA : went back and I still could see it. Turns out it’s cropped out on my screen but if I shrunk the doc to illegible I could make out extra columns then flipped the screen. Pff.
Yes it is need blond for all including internationals (2024 I think).
Still keep my evaluation though - OP will be evaluated among Vietnamese applicants as well as generally among Asians outside of China&Korea (who are each likely to be in their own category) and has a really strong profile. But dang that’s quite a ratio - you can compare to Yale or Williams.
CDS - I’m now looking at these more (realizing intl is broken out) because domestic rates might not be as poor as the overall reflects. Many schools have very low intl rates.
It’s very interesting. 13% overall acceptance rate, but 23% for domestic. I wonder how many schools hope for international apps if only to pump up the application denominator.
I realize this section of the CDS is a more recent addition to the form, but it’s annoying that not all schools publish this data.
Yes, I know many schools have very very low international rates, with many variations/criteria. (So tiny it’s hard to make kids understand what it means).
By my estimate W&L went from ~1,500 to 2,500 to 3,500 in a couple years.
Anyway, thanks.
In any case I hope OP adds a few colleges to this application list.
Perhaps Case Western might be another worthwhile addition. Like the colleges I listed it had a Jan 15 deadline so hopefully OP has CommonApp at the ready.
I like Bama. I know, everyone says - he always recommends Bama.
But for an international student, their merit is the same as the US whereas most every school isn’t. So it will be under $30K - and it’s a good name. For an intl OP, it’s an assured. I know there are others - but many low cost intl schools aren’t “names”.
So Case is near 25% on Intl but CWRU is $90K direct cost. Cost OP get merit to bring to $50K - sure. But it’s not assured or even likely.
I’m wondering - what on their list is assured admission and affordable - I’m only seeing Purdue - but it’s barely at budget and i’ll say likely, not assured.
I think OP needs to find schools to hit cost - the list as is - is going to be tough for them.
And those that meet need like W&L can be great - if the student has need. They have a budget, but we don’t know the need situation.
Thank you for the reply! I already got offers as “safeties“ in Australia (UWA and UniMelb) and am looking forward to applying to local colleges as well. If there aren’t any great choices in the US then I would probably go to UniMelb rather than taking a gap year.
Why not Alabama? It assures you a home here at a good school? That’s what you are missing. There may be more but that’s the one I know for sure. It’s a sub (less selective than UGA, UF) and for you cheaper, based on stats. I say a sub because the schools are very similar in so many ways - campus wise, locations, strengths, etc. . Loaded with smart kids because they buy them in.
Schools like Case - even if you get in, then you have to hope to afford it.
If this student is in at UMelbourne (which I assume he’d know due to exam results being in December in the Southern hemisphere), a highly ranked, globally recognized university, there’d be little reason to apply to any college they don’t like more and/or that provides a different experience than UMelbourne offers.
UAlabama does (large Honors college , research opportunities, Southern, Greek) but unless OP wants the Southern vibe/SEC football I wouldn’t pick UF or UGA or UA over UMelbourne.
UMass, Purdue, UIUC all have specific strengths in his fields of interest and of course W&Lee, Denison…offer a close-knit, personal experience unlike any at a large university so they make more sense to me as alternatives.
. I had checked and somehow missed them 
Let’s blame my tiny screen 
