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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Yeah, I can’t see it being a good idea letting something like that stand in the way of just taking your best shots at getting the offer you need.

The good news is it is extremely hard to find a non-specialist college that does not have Econ, and these days likely also CS. Like, I never actually looked at this for Wellesley specifically, but . . . yep, has both as majors. Actually, apparently Econ is their biggest major. They also have Data Science, which is increasingly popular as well. And of course Math.

Point being you can make it work at a college like this even if your ultimate goal is something more specific in business or so on.

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I grew up very low income and I can tell you it’s hard, but if my experience was hard, the OP’s is even harder given her international status and country of origin. I think she needs to reduce some of these EC’s and put in more time to earning some more cash.

If this student is accepted to a school with financial aid, her financial problems are just beginning. She’s going to have to open a financial account within the United States in order to have her FA disbursements transferred to that account. She won’t be able to draw out any funding (via Venmo, Apple Wallet) if it’s an online account that isn’t recognized by the school.

She isn’t handed a packet of cash to pay for on-campus supplies; she has to wait to receive her disbursement and in the meantime she has no cash.

This is really hard on those of us that have gone through the financial aid process. Many a time I was in tears because my housing wasn’t received.

Fortunately for me, I had a part-time job with a little spending money.

If she hasn’t received her disbursement by the time classes begin, and she gets her syllabi with class fees (clickers, etc.), she’s stuck and falls behind.

Glitches happen in the system and disbursements can be “late”. You can’t get angry with the financial aid officers because they have no control over when funds are transferred to them. Many a time, once I got my syllabus, I rushed to the library to check out the book that was assigned, and made paper copies. Sometimes, they had allowed only one-hour holds on the new books. There were a lot of students without cash, and they did the same thing because you don’t want to get behind in your classes. I learned all the tricks because I had to.

This is a student coming into a completely different culture without finances. Regardless of whether or not she gets into a school this year, she needs to reduce her ECs and focus on building savings.

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This is the current situation in Nigeria/Abuja:
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/nigeria-travel-advisory.html

(Central Abuja is considered safe and suburbs are considered dangerous - we don’t know where OP lives or goes to school.)

Minimum wage is currently $40 a month full time.
OP does work operating a peanut bulk retail operation for a shop (shops) but we don’t know whether she makes a salary from it and whether it goes to help feed/clothe/keep her family safe.

US colleges offer few full rides because they know it’ll cost them a lot to bring a student like this to their college, so they’re very careful about potential and what network that admission would strengthen. Many do make that choice when they believe it’ll benefit other students and fill an institutional need.
Nowadays, health insurance is typically covered if the student has a full ride package. As a “pay it forward” gesture, graduating internationals are asked to leave bed linens, towels, etc., and even winter clothes for new students. The International orientation includes sessions on how to get a cheap phone contract and open a bank account plus a shuttle run to Walmart/Target/etc.
First gen support groups also offer this type of orientation nowadays.
Even like that students need to budget carefully.

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Hi. As for the GPA, this information is such a relief because i thought my GPA was going to be very low when converted so thank you so much for this.

Yes i did take the Lower certificate exam (both BECE and ERC), wrote 17 subjects in both, results got compressed into 10 for my ERC and got 7As, 2Cs and 1P(my school never forwarded our BECE result, probably with them tho). I got Cs in language Studies and French, got a P in Religous studies, these 3 subjects were mu weaknesses. I am not sure where my ERC result ranks me in Nigeria because i tried looking on their website for some kind of data set showing this but nothing came up so I am not sure how to get this information but I’ll keep trying. But as for my school, we were about 30 in my 9th grade and I and i think 2 others or so were the only ones with that amount of As.

My GC (principal) does not really have time for me because she’s very very new at this. I’ve already tasked her with writing a rec and she says that’s enough so I am the one preparing my school profile and then I’ll give her to upload. I have already prepared the profile but i will make sure to edit it and add this information to it, thank you so much.

I will be re editing my school profile to show the attrition rate.

So in Nigeria here, not going to uni (with exception of people going to National Defense Academy) is not really an option because of our ■■■■ economy so nepotism or not, without a degree, you are going no where, so our school preps us really well (because our class size is usually small in the 12th grade) for JAMB and WASSCE so that our JAMB score and WASSCE result is good enough to go to uni. That us what happens every year since I’ve been here and we (teachers, i’m just nosy) usually receive feedback about who got admission to uni (usually every one) or not so no trade school for anyone.

I am in year 12 and applying November 1st (EA deadline) to most schools, i know timing is really bad to start this thread but i really thought i was going to get 2 or 3 replies max. and I needed to get more friction in my ECs so thats why i started it so late.

I have looked into Duke, Cornell, UMiami, Northeaster, Babson, Brandeis, Holy Cross, Trintiy Uni Texas, U of Richmond, ClarkU, Muhlenberg, Ole Miss, UDayton, UConn. I will be swapping out Duke, Cornell and Northeastern tho because a lot of ppl said I might not get it so ill put in small LACs where i have a better chance (hopefully).

I have written my college essay but have only gotten feedback from AI, obviously i have seen tons of examples online and have edited n edited mine to be better but that is far as it goes-- no approved reader or anything, I didnt even know they existed so that’s new to me. Now that you have mentioned it, I will be looking for approved readers on CC to read it, thank you so much.

I did not believe strangers on the internet would spend time helping more strangers on the internet achieve their dreams, this platform is amazing and thank you so much for whatever effort you put into replying me. God bless you.

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i just googled what that meant and My God! I meant it as Wonker, like WIlly Wonker because i think he is a very interesting character but i will be changing it if allowed, thank you.

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Thank you so much for this. Like I can’t just stop, I literally can’t but like someone said to stop before investing thousands. I have already done so- thousands of Naira my parents do not have, I am aware my chances are slim but I am not going to stop because I cannot tell my mother that the 450k+ money she has spent on consultation, SAT, and what not for me will go to waste when i was aware my chances were low from day one 2yrs ago. Thank you so much for putting my feelings into words.

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hello. Yes I’m aware that there are extra costs that there are addtional costs that come with living in another country for 4yrs and i might not be able to afford it but my mom has 7 other siblings residing in different parts of the US who have agreed that if i were to get admitted and , they would contribute each year for those 4yrs (and only 4 yrs) to make sure I can actually like live comfortably, even if it’s a little. I know i will not be able to work and I am still looking for a way to bypass that but yes, that is still a problem.

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These two cents are precious, thank you. I will be getting a fee waiver for schools i want to apply to and for those that I need to pay CSS fee that don’t have waivers, I’ll pay.

Thank you for recommending Denison and I checked out their majors and it’s a tailor your own major type thing. I am not really sure about this because I would want to sit for the CPA and get an accounting bachelors so I am not sure how the tailor your major thing would work out for a hands on field like accounting. I guess i will remove muhlenberg since they won’t be able to provide enough aid.

Yes, if it wouldn’t bother you too much and any other people helping me to put together a list which makes more sense, It would be very appreciated, thank you and God bless.

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O my God, i thought i shouldn’t bother with Wellesley since their acceptance rate is super low and I alr have enough of those types of colleges on my list but I would gladly swap another one (alr planning to swap out some like Duke and Cornell) if you and any others are willing to help me with a Wellesley-fit application. I am also willing to push my application semester to the fall instead of spring if you think it is not possible to tailor my application in time for fall semester deadlines which is in like 2 weeks or so. I can’t believe people are actually willing to spend time into helping other people that they don’t even know, your kindness is very much appreciated.

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I’m also down to expand my major options if it means better chance at getting aid.

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I guess my majors are very limiting so I’m down to major in Econ, Maths/Statistics and CS. I really like working with numbers and i decided on accounting because of job security but as an international, I’m sure that may not even hold true. I do just want to work in business so yes, i’ll be making my majors flexible, thank you for that.

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Thank you so much for the advice! Unfortunately in Nigeria, you cannot work until you are 18 and I’m 15 turning 16. I mean teens do work but not in a formal setting or anything remotely close to that but rather as house girls or boys to rich families. It’s illegal first of all because a large amount of them are around that 10 yrs of age but then again its Nigerian so like most WA countries, nobody cares. My mom would never allow me to become a maid for someone else, especially when so so many are mistreated, sometimes abused and almost always not put in school so unless it’s an online thing, I sadly have no means of making any money.

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I live in the outskirts of Abuja but like…take this as you want to but people (young girls) get kidnapped once in a few months because there are these people called ritualists and they sometimes hijack Ubers, Bolts and public transport to pose as their initial drivers so they can kidnap women or girls in general (haven’t heard it happen to any man in like 3yrs but there’s still a possibility) to use their parts for ritual.

My peanut business generates profit but not all that much. I could probably buy a few nice clothes with the profit i make in like 4months. This is just me showing how much i make as profit-- its there but with the rising cost of living I can only use it for transport money becuase transport now is really really expensive.

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Wonka would be a good name to change this to.

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Apply for Statistics or Applied Math or Economics.

Accounting is not portable, rules change from country to country. Having a US Accounting degree would not allow to work in Nigeria. And you can’t get a student visa if you think it’ll allow you to stay and work in the US (it’s a condition for immediate rejection). Unlike other countries like Canada or the UK, the US has not had a direct process where they educate bright people and allow them to stay after their degree. After you graduate you have 2 years for practical training and then either you get into a graduate program or you must return to your country of origin.

Do NOT say things like “I’d like to bypass that rule so I can work”. I know you mean it as in “contributing to the cost of my education in any way I can” but to an American it doesn’t mean that you don’t take generosity for granted, it means you want to cheat (something that culturally is seen as very bad). Saying anything about working or having a job (beside the accepted work study on campus, which is 100% allowed and expected and would appear on your financial aid award letter) would forfeit any visa.

You can keep most universities on your list - including Duke etc, even if odds are low - CommonApp has 20. Remove Ole Miss and UConn since AFAIK they don’t offer full rides, let alone test optional. I think Trinity University in Texas requires internationals to have a 25-30k budget. If Trinity CT most full rides are kept for athletes AFAIK.

Ask your relatives what universities are within a 20mn distance to their homes. If they allow you to live with them for free it may make things less impossible since you’d have to get a full tuition scholarship not a full ride. Not that these are common but they do exist.
If they don’t know, simply give us their zip code. We can look that up.

Using your peanut money for transportation&safety to school is a good use of money.

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@MYOS1634 if the OP has so many relatives living in the US, can she live with them and go to community college for two years?

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@thumper1 (or anyone) can you post the link on how to change a user name m? I tried but it didn’t work.

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@greensnwells You sound like a great student. I hope you get good news in the spring!

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Here you go.

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Are you looking to become a CPA in the US? Are you sure you will be able to do that?

But assuming you can–every state can set its own CPA requirements, but at a high level you usually do not need a specific degree, but you do need to meet certain specific credit and course requirements. An accounting major will usually be designed to cover most of those requirements, although I think often you need to take additional credits after graduating (and some people get a Masters as a way of doing that, but that is typically not necessary). But you could do the same thing with a different major as well–take as many of the required credits/courses as you can getting that degree, and then finish up what else you need after graduating.

OK, this is just a guess, and you could talk to your advisors, but my guess is if you went to Denison and you stayed interested in becoming a CPA, you might want to consider their Economics major with a Financial Economics concentration:

I suspect that major would help you fulfill a lot of the CPA credit and course requirements, and you could use electives to do more. It would also be a very flexible degree for any sort of business or finance career.

That said, part of the point of going to US colleges like Denison is in the US, you are typically not locked into a particular major. Instead, as your interests and abilities evolve during college, you can potentially do something quite different from what you originally expected.

I agree with other posters–it sounds like you could save a lot on costs if you go to college within commuting distance of relatives you could stay with, possibly including community college before transferring to a four-year college to finish your degree. Lots of US students successfully follow these paths as well, and no one cares how you started as long as you finish strong.

So rather than throw out more or less random suggestions like Denison (which may not be within commuting distance), it could help if you gave us some areas to target.

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