Chance me for UConn, Ole Miss, Clark, Duke! [international, 87/100 GPA (75+ = A), rank 1/17, 1280 SAT, business or computer science, need full ride]

Chance Me / Match Me
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International student from Nigeria here! I’m applying EA to most or all of these. Please be honest, and nice if you can, I am broke as hell and exchange rate will not allow me waste money. Also, i don’t really know how to use this website as i’ve always just been reading through but never acc posting anything.

Demographics

  • International student
  • Abuja, Nigeria
  • Small high school, class size of 17 (they tend to get lower as classes go up lol)
  • Special factors or hooks: None, I’m not sure being from Nigeria counts as
    underrepresented region so… (I’m also bi but i am not sure i will be adding this
    to my application even if i have some ecs related to this cuz homosexuality is
    illegal over here so that’s nice).

Cost Constraints / Budget

I will be needing lots of aid from all schools cuz EFC is about 2-3k (about 3M NGN and my family can’t pay that so i will probably be taking out loans).

Intended Major(s): Accounting, Finance and Computer Science or IT as minors
(not sure if my colleges have the minors but i’ll check).

GPA: 87 of 100 (all As on my transcript tho because WASSCE standard and grading system says 75 to 100 is an A), when converted to 4.0 scale using google, it says my gpa is 3.3 which is low for most of these schools but i am hoping my class rank will help me along with my letter grades.

Rank: 1 of 17, making me top 10% ( i’m the only person in the 10%)

Test Scores: 1280 (E680, M600) SAT(test optional for all, had one chance (money issues) and studied hella hard but blew it)

Unweighted HS GPA: No such thing.

HS coursework: HS starts from year 10 over here. Took all 12 subjects year 10 (ss1), dropped one year 11 (ss2), dropped one more ss3 (compulsorily)

In the 11th grade, everyone dropped geography and the school didn’t let me be the only one to take it, and in the 12 grade (current year), it is compulsory in schools all over Nigeria to take minimum of 8 subjects (because of WASSCE exam) but my school allows me to take 10. I am the only one in my class taking 10 subjects, hence I am taking the most rigorous course load available to me.

There is no AP, IB or dual enrollment or anything offered at my school because we follow Nigerian curriculum which does not have these.

  • English
  • Math
  • Science: Physics, Chemistry, Biology
  • Economics
  • Catering Craft (Trade subject)
  • Information, Communication and Technology (ICT)
  • Further Mathematics (just me and two others)
  • Civic Education

Awards
Not too many that are external because we do not participate in Olympiads or anything in my school except for one year which i did and failed, however, i do have a lot, like a lot of awards from my school because of academics.

  • Best in Maths, Biology, English, Economics, Physics, Chemistry and any other awards my school has given to my grade since I was in the 8th grade. They do this each end of session by the way.

  • They do this student of the week thing in my school and since they started it (8th grade, jss2) I have won best in Maths or best in English every week for 6 years so there’s that.

  • I was a Bonvita summer program finalist and did their summer program but it is not a school award so not sure if I am going to add it.

Extracurriculars

  • (Volunteer) I and my friend were class teachers for a kindergarten class over the 9th grade summer. They were a class of about 5 students and we would teach them how to draw, read, write, play, and after that we would supervise after school activities for the primary school.

  • In the 10th grade, i ran for and won Asst. Lab prefect, the lab prefect didn’t really do anything so i basically had to do most of the work. Basically, I would ask the lab teacher which practicals they wanted to carry out and then work with them and the principal to make sure materials were provided. 1 year.

  • In the 11th grade, i won Head girl, and in my school sport is very very biased and us girls for about 3 years would just sit in the bleachers during sports or go and cheer for the boys who were playing sports and no one did anything about it. We would only have chance to play during inter house sports time and after that it went back to the same old. When i got into seat, i made sure to organise matches in different sport activities and girls always played becuase I and the sprts prefect (girl) made sure of it. Organised over 25 matches since and will do so till my exams interfere. 2yrs

  • I organize and conduct sex ed for girls every wednesday since about ss2 third term and i basically educate them on everything girls and above that. Sometimes a friend joins but most times I’m on my own. I am really passionate about these two activities so i hope AOs can see that. 2yrs

  • I have been the class president of my grade since j2 (8th grade) and i do everything that comes along with that so i do not think i need to specify on here.

  • So i have been working hard to make this game thing that teaches financial literacy and a lot of things finance to kids. Its an RPG and very close to completion but i do not think i will be able to complete and launch it and still get plays before Nov 1 but my schools says they are willing to install it on all their school owned devices once i am done. 1yr (took so long cux we have an on and off relationship).

  • I am also in the process of making a website catering to females. Idk how to explain it but its like a chatbot and telegram in one and its supposed to be a safe space for females (or anyone really) to connect and (trauma) bond, something like that. 6months

  • I have a business selling peanut and generate about 140k in revenue each year(not profit, profit is way lower). 2yrs

  • I did a 3months apprenticeship where i learnt how to handle money, cash flow, debt, book keeping, etc for the shop i was supplying peanut for.

  • I teach my baby sister lesson, have done so for about 3years (from her 4th to 8th grade which is her current year) because my parents can only afford one of us extra lessons.

  • I am the Asst. Outreach coordinator in an NGO that gives trainings to teachers in infant schools to help better the quality of their teachers… I should have mentioned this one earlier because i spend a fair amount of time on this.

  • I’m an active listener for 7 cups, and i make sure to listen to at least 3 people every night.

  • I am in an online community where its a safe space for closeted (or not) Nigerians and africans and I’m also an outreach volunteer.I am not sure this is going on my common app tho, for reasons I mentioned above.

  • In my free time, i gather used textbooks from neighbors to donate them to a specific mini library. I do have other things but these are the major ones where my impact lies. Also in multiple church orgs which i am fairly active in all

Essays/LORs/Other
I wrote my common app essay on making sports accessible to girls in my school and how i did it and how it was a peculiar challenge because such a problem had integrated itself into my school culture, it wasn’t considered a problem anymore.

My supplementals are still drafts and i know that is bad because im EAing to all schools but i am getting them done. I think they are okish and I’m putting lots of effort into supplements for schools who place emphasis on it.

I think my LORs will be okay. Mt teachers do not really knwo how to write detailed ones but they are learning. I have known one for 4yrs and he is my favorite teacher and the other for 3yrs and he’s my second favorite so I’m hoping for the best.

Schools (EA to all, ED to none)

  • Duke (I know its more than a reach esp considering my GPA)
  • Cornell (I’m not getting in here lol)
  • UMiami (praying and hoping)
  • Northeastern (it’s me being delusional)
  • Babson (it’s a reach I’m aware)
  • Brandeis (hopefully)
  • College of the Holy Cross
  • Trinity Uni (Texas)
  • U of Richmond
  • Clark Uni (I really hope i make this one, it’ll hurt if not)
  • Muhlenberg
  • Ole Miss
  • Rhodes college
  • U of Dayton
  • UConn (The way i am praying on this one, I hope i qualify for most of their scholarships)

Imma need scholarships for all of the, especially with that EFC. Thank you in advance for whatever feedback I get, its really appreciated.

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I don’t see at most of your list getting close to cost. Not sure about getting in - you may get into a few like ole miss, Dayton - but then you can’t pay.

So I don’t believe you have a winning strategy here.

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You’re coming from a tiny school abroad with a relatively low SAT score. Being first in a class of 13 - it’s only 13 people. You need a full ride; in fact, you need more than that, because you also need airfare to get to the US.

I do not think that this is going to happen for you. There are only about a dozen schools in the US that are committed to meeting full fin need for international students, and they are extremely selective. International students with 1600 SATs and perfect grades and tons of 5’s on AP exams and amazing extracurriculars still often do not get accepted to any of them.

I really do think that in your case your best bet is to focus on affordable higher ed options in your own country. Even if you were to get accepted at the least competitive schools on your list, or lesser schools than these, you are extremely unlikely to get fin aid or merit money that would enable you to attend.

Your interests seem to be business, social work, education, women’s health and empowerment, sexual minority connections. If your goal is to eventually immigrate to the US, would you be at all interested in nursing? The reason I bring this up is that there is tremendous need for nurses in the US, and hence it is possible to get an immigrant visa to the US as a nurse. We have a lot of Nigerian-trained nurses in the US. If you were to go to nursing school in Nigeria, and then pass the US boards, you might be able to immigrate to the US, work as a nurse, and also go to school in business or whatever else you like, while working. It could be your way in to a good life in the US, where you would be safer living in a country where sexual minorities have more rights and safety (we hope).

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Thank you so much for the honest reply, but could you please tell me what you mean by “most of your list getting close to cost”? I’ve read the statement over and over again but I can’t seem to understand it. Thanks again!

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Thanks for the response. I won’t lie, this isn’t what i was ready for and I’m aware nursing could be a way to immigrate but I don’t know, my nothing is really in that field. My class size is small with 17 people and i know it would be wise to stop right now, but i’ve already dragged my mother 2yrs into this and I can’t just STOP right now. I might switch out some schools, apply, get rejected and then move on but right now, I’ve made teachers, councellors, my parents and a few more put effort and time into me so stopping right not is not an option. Thank you so much for responding, but sadly i guess whatever happens happens right now.

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Most of the schools you list will not be affordable. They are not worth applying to IMHO. Nothing is worse than an acceptance you cannot afford.

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oh, oh thank you for the clarification, I don’t even know what to do right now honestly, like 2/3yrs for what? But thank you for the honesty, i think i needed to be brought down to earth sooner or later.

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First of all, education is never a waste. You studied hard and learned a lot - that is worthwhile in its own right.

I am aware that for international students coming from poorer countries, the golden ticket is acceptance to a US college. It brings respect back home, and the possibility of a better future. But the reality is that college in the US is very expensive, there is little funding for international students, and the odds of being able to stay here after college are mostly not good.

Money is tight in your family. We are all trying to tell you that unless you are one of the top students in your nation, application fees to colleges in the US are thrown out money. Even if you might get into one of the less selective ones, they’re extremely unlikely to give you enough to make it possible for you to attend.

So which is better - to stop before your family spends a thousand dollars on applications that are unlikely to yield the desired outcome, or to go ahead and spend the money and put in applications to save face?

There must be options for higher education in your country that your family can afford. If you want a degree that will open the door to emigrating to the US, the only one I can think of that’s a smooth, straight path is nursing, obtained in Nigeria.

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Perhaps ask this university if the full ride scholarship listed at University Scholarships - Office of Scholarship Services is available to international students, and whether your high school grades will convert to the necessary GPA.

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Your translated GPA is wrong. The scale should indicate 75=A.
=> If your average is 87, you have a 4.0.

Did you take the Lower secondary certificate at the end of 9th grade? If so, you need to report your results (also, indicate whether these results rank you top10%, 5%, 1%… in Nigeria).

Your GC or the person filling out the GC’s form will need to include the scale and explain what percentage nationally get that score.
They may want to compare your profile to students over the past 20-25 years as well as this year but nationally.
In your school profile the GC will need to explain how many were enrolled in 9th (before 10th) and each subsequent year reduction - Ie , 93 in 9th, only 55 admitted to your HS for 10th, 32 in 11th, 17 in 12th. Colleges need to see the attrition rate to understand the competitiveness of your class.
They’ll also need to indicate what percentage continues to trade or professional certificates (“2 year” in the US) and what % go on to uni.

Are in Year 12 (applying next Fall) or Grade 12 (applying this Fall)?

What universities have you looked into? Has s.o who’s used to reading essays for US colleges read your essays (if not look on this website for an approved reader).

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So this is purportedly a list of US colleges that say they will meet full need of International applicants:

https://www.reddit.com/r/IntltoUSA/comments/15f11df/2024_version_a_list_of_colleges_guaranteeing_to/

The good news is it is a reasonably long list (although I would definitely verify before applying). But the bad news is that very few of those colleges are need blind for Internationals, and those few are just incredibly hard admits for Internationals generally.

In fact, I have yet to find a college where I would estimate the admit rate for high need Internationals to be more than about 3%, and many are more like 2%, 1%, or even lower. I have not done estimates for every college on that list, though.

OK, so again good news, you can ignore what Google says about your GPA. A 4.0 GPA simply isn’t relevant to you, selective US colleges will very likely have your application reviewed by someone who is familiar with your grading system, and they will evaluate you in that context, not try to compare you to US applicants coming out of a 4.0 system.

Again, bad news, they may well be looking for evidence you are not just 1 of 17 in your country, but something much higher, like among the top few percent of the group that even bothers to apply to US colleges. And again, not just at like a Duke, but at ANY college that actually has any full aid slots for Internationals at all.

And I am not competent to evaluate if you have a chance at being seen that way by any of those colleges. So I would not say you should not try. But as everyone is saying, you need to be realistic about the strong possibility there is not going to be such an offer available for you in the US. It just is what it is–there are so few such slots available relative to the number of well-qualified Internationals who would want one that most of those Internationals are going to be shut out.

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I would think the GPA and test scores would be limiting factors…

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OP will be applying TO and has a very good GPA in her country’s terms.
However the way the data is presented leads to the interpretations on this forum and should tell OP that, even though all pieces are there, the way they’re assembled doesn’t allow American readers to make sense of them in a way that would lead to an admission.
@greensnwells :
The pieces are there but need to tell the story you want them to tell which is not the one we’re reading.
Btw I don’t know if you’d be allowed to change your user name because it’d not doing you any favor.

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OP- spend ten minutes googling “the sunk cost fallacy” or even just “sunk cost”. The world is filled with bad decisions which were made because “we can’t just stop right now”. Some of them are terrible decisions (entering a war which a country cannot win because “we’ve come so far”), some of them have less serious consequences (a company introducing a product which has failed in a test market and consumers rate it poorly because “we’ve spent a billion dollars on this product so far and we can’t let the money go to waste”). So now they spend half a billion dollars launching the product- it fails, they spend a few million withdrawing it from the market.

I don’t mean to suggest AT ALL that you are a failure. You sound absolutely fantastic and any college on the planet would be lucky to have you. But you should give some thought to how much time, energy and money you can actually afford to spend applying to U’s in the US before moving forward because “stopping right now is not an option”. yes it is. Stopping now IS an option. You come up with Plan B and abandon Plan A before pouring time and resources and cash into it…

Good luck.

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Just a FYI … The OP was messaged this morning and asked to change their username. Hopefully they will do so soon.

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I don’t think you guys understand that 1) yes, it’s too late when you’re a couple weeks from applying and everyone is basically counting on you - it’s like you bet the farm and it’s already bankrupt and you’re the only way for it to be dug out to fruitful again - you don’t go “wesh”, you can’t, it’s absolutely unthinkable and 2) you can’t really shrug off the fact you risk the death penalty just for being who you are.
So OP has to ride this application cycle out and hope for the best.
Odds are low. I’m sure she’s aware of it - even if no one can grasp what 1-2% odds means. It’s devastating to be rejected day after day after day. But she has to go through with the plan everyone has worked on for so long and hope something good happens.

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This is your issue. This is also the issue of the colleges. Apply and see what happens, but you need to be aware that some colleges will require application fees.

You’re going to have to ask for waivers and see if you can waive the fees to apply.

A number of “affordable” universities, in the United States, are funded by their state governments. That means that because they are supported by taxpayers of that state, the students pay lower fees. As an international student, you’re not a resident of that state, so you don’t get those lower fees.

It’s not cheap, even for the residents, but they make it work.

There are over 3000 colleges and universities in the United States; some are extremely large with up to 40 to 50,000 students, and some may have several hundred.
They all have finite budgets. They guard their monies and select the best students for their campuses, and that means high grades, and high test scores, especially for people that need funding.

They all are in very different locations with very different weather, local towns, roads, everything.

Getting tuition and housing/ room and board is a portion of your issue. You also need spending money.

TRANSPORTATION
You have to pay for transportation to and from the United States and to the college. Most colleges are not exactly near an airport.
My daughter went out of state. These are the things that we had to pay for, that weren’t included in the cost of tuition, transportation, and room and board.

MEDICAL INSURANCE
We had to prove that our health insurance was sufficient to cover any health emergency and hospitalization.
As an international student with limited funds, you still need to come up with several thousand dollars to cover student health insurance fees. Most colleges don’t cover that. Assume $3000 per year.

Medical costs in the United States are out of control. If you have anything more than a minor cold you have to go to a medical facility. Costs at a clinic or a hospital will probably run you several thousand dollars, minimum.

ROOM
If you were to somehow get a full room and board coverage. That’s exactly what you get.
You get a room,
You get a desk,
You get a closet space,
You get a mattress. That’s it.

More than likely you’ll have to deal with winter issues.
You will need blankets, winter clothing, bedding, laundry soap, toiletries, hygiene products, a light or lamp and other items that you may not bring on a plane.

Your roommate has to provide the same things for herself. You’ll swap and trade items, but you each need your own individual items. She’s not going to fund your clothing, shampoo, soap, towel or shower slippers.

If you get a job on campus, as an international, you’re limited to the amount of hours that you can work by your student visa. So if you work on campus, those monies may be just enough for some toiletries.

Even for those of us residents in the US, it’s expensive sending your child off to college because there are so many costs that come up during the year. I haven’t even addressed the cost of books, computer supplies, lab supplies that the professors will require.

So what everyone is honestly telling you is that, given your test scores, and your limited budget, coming to the US is very unaffordable for you.

If you apply to schools, how will you get to the US? How will you fund your daily living needs? How will you pay the insurance required by the colleges?
You can’t get loans in the US because you have no US collateral.

You can’t work in the US, unless it’s on a college campus. Your visa requirements do limit work hours because a student visa does not permit you to work. If you try to work in the US, then you risk being deported because you’re on a student visa.

I know that you said that you can’t stop doing what you’ve invested time in. That’s good because, if later you can get into university in your country, you might transfer to the US with a degree.

Right now, applying might be futile. If you can’t get here, and you can’t live here on your own funding, how do you think you’ll attend?

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At least among those who know British slang.

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My two cents is as long as the act of applying is not itself a hardship (and I agree about needing to get application fee waivers), it is not necessarily a bad idea to apply some places where at least they are going to cover all demonstrated need as they define it (aka they are meets need for Internationals). I also agree that still might be enough, but once you are admitted they do in fact want you to attend if at all possible, so they might be able to figure out a way to help you close any remaining gap.

And the odds of this working at all are likely low, but again as long as trying is not itself to costly, I would not see a problem giving it a shot.

By the way, if you are open to this, I think people here would be happy to help you pick some of your most promising opportunities. Like, the other day a poster here mentioned Denison as having pretty good aid for Internationals, and in fact they have one of the highest International aid budgets for a smaller college that I have seen at about $18.5M, which allowed them to give aid to 393 Internationals (note this is across all years).

In contrast, Muhlenberg has under $1M in International aid budget, and only 22 Internationals were getting aid. They, to me, are a way worse bet for you, to the point I am not sure it is worth bothering.

So if you are interested, we could help you put together a list which made more sense.

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I think OP should find a women’s college for ED1 - IMHO Wellesley would make sense because of budget and OP has a good profile if we manage to help her present it in a way that makes sense.

I’d need to look at budget and rough number of internationals (I had a chart, no longer do). Denison is another one (better than Dickinson proportionally, for all Dickinson is known for its international programs). One of the Maine colleges was good, too.

Choosing Accounting or Finance is too limiting - colleges that offer excellent scholarships may not offer these majors. Colleges that offer these majors may not offer full rides or be significantly less good than “full need/internationals” colleges.

Your GC would need to check the Fee Waiver in their part of CommonApp (your family qualifies due to income)

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