<p>“I’m an international student applying from Canada”</p>
<p>You have no safeties in the US other than the very small number of places that admit even international applicants by the numbers. If you cannot pay the full cost of attendance, most of those cannot be considered safeties. There are only a handful of institutions that award guaranteed merit-based aid and admission to internationals. Read through this thread, and contact the places that might work for you, and ask about their international admissions policies. Some have very early application dates for the merit-based scholarships. <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html</a></p>
<p>You are competitive for admissions anywhere in the US, but that doesn’t mean that any other places here are safe, or even matches. Much depends on whether you are legally Canadian (and can be admitted as a Canadian by those institutions that have relatively favorable admissions and financial aid for Canadians) or Chinese. Also, a great deal depends on how much your family is ready, willing, and able to pay. As an international applicant you will need to be able to demonstrate that you have the full cost of your education covered or you will not get a student visa. </p>
<p>Have a long sit-down chat with the person responsible for helping students at your school get into college, and find out where your legal status entitles you to study in Canada. I expect that your closest things to safeties would be there, as well as lots of good matches.</p>