I can’t chance you, but this is a really long list with a lot of supplemental essays. I would encourage you to cut back on schools. How many apps have you already submitted?
Some thoughts to consider:
-Drop BU because they don’t give international students need based aid and merit for internationals is a unicorn, especially in the amount you need.
-Ditto for GA Tech
-UT Dallas will not meet full need, it’s possible they get in range, but probably not.
-Tulane doesn’t meet full need, and it’s not likely it gets in range. If you must apply, make the EA deadline of Nov 10.
Do you have schools on your list in India or elsewhere that have higher admit rates and are affordable?
I agree with circuitrider that dropping W&L could make sense. Replacing with Wesleyan is a good recommendation, but you should still shorten the list.
The big question is…what will the colleges determine your family can pay.
You are a strong student, but so are most who are applying to then colleges on your list.
I think your current list is top heavy and should be shortened. Would you like suggestions of colleges that will more likely come in at your price point…and where your acceptance is more certain?
Also…most of the colleges on your list are need aware for international students. This means your level of financial need might be considered when your application for admission is reviewed.
I think with your overall academic strength, fit and not unreasonable COA (very close to the median need-based grant for many of these schools) you need not be unduly concerned about being shut out at a relatively wealthy need-aware LAC like Wesleyan. You would have to be practically wait-listed for that to happen.
If you apply to UT Dallas you must make the Dec 1 priority deadline for max merit consideration. Pay attention to other app requirements for various merit scholarships.
For Tulane if you want to compete for STAMPS, you must meet the EA deadline.
Please make sure you are demonstrating interest at the schools on your list that consider that, examples are CWRU and WashU, but there may be more. That means signing up for emails as a potential student, opening those emails, clicking links on those emails, doing a virtual admissions session, etc.
I understand. But the most likely scenario is that you end up with zero affordable admits from this list, even for a strong student like you.
If you want an affordable admit in the US of $35K max (and you will have to certify you have that money to get a student visa), you would have to be looking at schools like Western Carolina, Mississippi State, Western Michigan, and there are others. The issue is those schools likely aren’t as well known in your country when you go back to India after getting your degree. So, staying in your country for college could make sense given that, meaning you might not want to apply to relatively unknown US schools like those.
My daughter attended W&L so let me know if you have any specific questions about student life, etc. She was premed/chem so I’m not familiar with the CS department.
As you mentioned, W&L has generous need-aid and merit aid available for international students. If you are applying for the Johnson scholarship full ride, keep an eye on the submission deadline. W&L also has state of the art facilities and supportive career advisors to assist with finding internships and postgraduate opportunities.
It is in a rural location so you should look at travel considerations for all the schools on your list. In W&L’s case (and probably others on your list), they consider that in financial aid calculations and offer shuttle services and other transportation assistance, but it is not easy to get to, especially for internationals.
Best of luck in your process! I’m glad you have options in India in case US schools don’t work out for whatever reason. I agree with others that your list is quite long so you may want to pare it down using whatever criteria makes sense to you.
Consider replacing a few of your choices with ones that are need-blind for international students. International admit rates are quite low at the “reach” schools, so applying to 20-25 schools total is a good target.
I’m not sure if this is a good idea in your case, applying to any school under ED.
I agree; I will add the remaining need-blind universities to my list, although I don’t really think I stand much of a chance of getting into Harvard, MIT, Princeton, and the like.
In case the finances don’t work out, I believe there is an option to opt out of ED.
You have a chance. Remember many of these are “fit” schools. You could be a better fit for the school that the international applicant with the 1600 SAT & the 4.0 GPA. A 1570 SAT could have a 1600 on the right day.
I would spend some time thinking about Amherst. If this is truly a first choice for you, then apply ED. If only 99.9%, then apply RD. I don’t predict you receiving 25-30 rejections. You are more competitive than you realize.
I would spend some time thinking about Amherst. If this is truly a first choice for you, then apply ED. If only 99.9%, then apply RD. I don’t predict you receiving 25-30 rejections. You are more competitive than you realize.
That is encouraging; I was considering applying ED to Brown, but I decided against it, seeing how competitive the international pool gets. I’ll look more into it and try to arrive at an educated decision regarding where to ED.
If I had a budget of $35K and I 100% wanted to study in the US, I might drop some of these (well you say you are done) but at least add some solid names that will assuredly work vs. only the names above that could all be rejections.
I would add Alabama - because in CS, you will get $28,500 off and would be under your $35K. It’s not Ga Tech in name, etc, but it also achieves your budget which Ga Tech will have near zero chance to do, even if you get in. So that’s a gimme vs. your list which might be all rejections. In other words, it gives you a for sure home. There are others too - Ole Miss, Minot State, Southern Miss, and more. There are “100%” to hit COA in the US is the point. You’ll see SUNY Geneseo below. It may be free for you to apply and to 5 SUNYs total through Nov 2nd. See at the bottom - when I click on apply internationally, it takes me to this page - so I’m guessing it’s free - but you can contact them to ask. So that’s an easy way to apply to 5, hopefully, low cost schools - the big names are Stony Brook, Binghamton and Buffalo but they have schools of many shapes and sizes, including Geneseo which worked 3 years ago for @Andygp student.
Then I would add some LACs - since your list has some - schools like Allegheny, Kalamazoo, Wooster, Whitman, and more. Don’t forget, travel, insurance and more have costs.
@Andygp son is at Wooster - but had a similar budget (from India) and also went through things like transcript translation (at some schools you have to pay).
Here was his kid’s list with COA and his entire post quoted linked below. Sure it’s three years old but it might give you some intel. That you can pay $35K might get you into schools that need money vs. applying only to schools that may seek full pay.
Oddly specific suggestion, but you might want to check out Bard. They have a policy of expecting Internationals to contribute at least $30K to all costs inclusive of non-direct costs like mandatory health insurance. However, they appear to have dedicated pretty good funding to funding Internationals up to that limit.
And I think Bard would be a pretty good choice for combining CS and Philosophy:
On the more negative side, I would be aware some of the colleges on your list might have rather poor budgets for International aid. Like WashU, for example, has reported extremely few Internationals getting any aid at all. You can check this using boxes H6 and B2 in their Common Data Sets, but I would personally consider eliminating any colleges under, say, 20% of Internationals on aid.
So Bard, for example, hasn’t released a public CDS for a couple years, but in their last public CDS they reported 305 Internationals (Nonresidents) in B2, and in H6, 264 were getting aid, 86.6%. That’s REALLY good, and it was possible thanks to a reported International aid budget of $16,183,321.
OK, then in WashU’s latest CDS, 30/810 Internationals were getting aid, 3.7%. That’s very much not good. And that was supported by only a budget of $2,130,097. This all despite WashU being much larger, and wealthier, than Bard.
OK, so that’s why I would think about adding Bard, and removing WashU. And I would take the time to go through your whole list, eliminating those like WashU. And then if you felt like it, possibly look for more like Bard to add (which we could help with if you like).
On your original list, that leaves 22 RD applications still to be done. You’ve talked about dropping a couple but potentially adding a couple, so let’s say that’s about where you end up. A lot of those schools don’t have the kind of supplemental essays you can just recycle, and some of them have more than one supplemental essay. Given your schoolwork load and some of your ongoing ECs, do you think you will have time to craft an outstanding application to each of these schools in the approximately two months before most RD deadlines? If not, you may want to rationalize that list to a manageable load.