These schools are need-blind for international students and say they will meet full-need, which will make them amongst the most competitive in the world for international students:
- Amherst
- Bowdoin
- Brown (starting for your graduating class)
- Dartmouth
- Harvard
- MIT
- Princeton
- Yale
If your family is willing and able to spend about $20k/year, then that’s a leg up on international students whose families can pay $5k or less. Thus, though the schools I will list below are not need-blind for international students, I don’t think your need is at such a high level that these would be near impossibilities.
This snip comes from this resource showing which schools produce some of the highest number of graduates who went on for a doctorate in chemistry in the U.S. between 2000-2018. Use the link to see additional schools, but the list is sorted from highest to lowest and is inclusive of all schools, no matter what size of the college. So William & Mary (about 6800 undergrads), for instance, is punching well above its weight as it produced more chem doctorates than U. of Florida (about 35k undergrads) or U. of Michigan (about 33k undergrads).
In listing schools below, I excluded a number of schools that would not provide sufficient aid (whether none to international students or insufficient quantities).
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Cornell (NY): About 16k undergrads and produced 167 chemistry doctorates. International student financial aid policy indicates that it includes living and housing expenses in its determination of need. Among the 20 colleges with the biggest international student aid packages.
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Truman State: About 3600 undergrads and produced 112 chem doctorates (the same number as Cal Tech…both just not visible on the snip). This school may not have a big international reputation, but this school just continuously impresses me with the number of students it produces who go on to earn doctorates in various fields. International students are eligible to earn merit aid here, and you would automatically qualify for $9k in merit based on your test scores/GPA and you would get an additional $2k as an IB graduate. You would also be eligible to compete for the competitive scholarships which would be worth even more. But with $11k in scholarships, cost would be about $18k/year. Here’s the international student financial aid policy.
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U. of Chicago (IL): About 7500 undergrads and produced 111 chem doctorates. international student financial aid policy indicates that it does not include living or travel expenses
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Carleton (MN): About 2k undergrads and produced 106 chem doctorates. – international student financial aid policy does not indicate whether living expenses are included in the definition of need
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Northwestern (IL): About 8700 undergrads and produced 102 chem doctorates– international student financial aid policy shows that it covers full cost of attendance, including room & board, health insurance, travel allowance, etc.
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Harvey Mudd (CA): About 900 undergrads and produced 93 chem doctorates. – international student financial aid policy shows that it’s for tuition, fees, books & supplies (so not living or travel expenses)
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Rice (TX): About 4500 undergrads and produced 81 chem doctorates. international student financial aid policy does not indicate whether need is determined inclusive of living expenses or not
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Franklin and Marshall (PA ): About 2k undergrads and produced 79 chem doctorates.
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Washington U. (MO): About 8100 undergrads and produced 75 chem doctorates. Its policy on international aid
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College of Wooster (OH): About 2k undergrads and produced 74 chem doctorates. Its policy on international aid.
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Case Western (OH): About 6k undergrads and produced 72 chem doctorates. international student financial aid policy does not indicate whether need is determined inclusive of living expenses
Some schools noted for being among the 20 most generous with the average aid package to international students included (in addition to Cornell, listed above):
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Duke (NC): About 6600 undergrads and produced 62 chem doctorates.
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Haverford (PA ): About 1k undergrads and produced 48 chem doctorates
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Pomona (CA): About 1800 undergrads (and in the same consortium as Harvey Mudd). Produced 36 chem doctorates.
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Wesleyan (CT): About 3100 undergrads and produced 33 chem doctorates. : international student financial aid policy doesn’t specify whether living expenses are needed, but there is a scholarship for students from Asian countries.
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Vassar (NY): About 2500 undergrads and produced 32 chem doctorates.
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Vanderbilt (TN): About 7200 undergrads and produced 34 chem doctorates.
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Georgetown (D.C.): About 7900 undergrads and produced 24 chem doctorates.
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Washington & Lee (VA): About 1900 undergrads and produced 22 chem doctorates.
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Skidmore (NY): About 2800 undergrads and produced 18 chem doctorates.
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Pitzer (CA): About 1200 undergrads (in the same consortium as Harvey Mudd & Pomona) and produced 3 chem doctorates.
And one last school that has a reputation for being on the generous side for international students is:
- Brandeis (MA): About 3700 undergrads and produced 46 chem doctorates. international student financial aid policy does not indicate whether need is determined inclusive of living expenses, but it is noted for having more generous amounts of aid for international students.