Full ride scholarships for international students

Paying for College
1

I’m an Indian female with the following stats:
Class Rank-1
SAT 1- 1500 (800M, 700RW)
SAT2 subject: Will be taking in November, confident about obtaining 770-800 in both Math2 and Physics
Common App Essay and LORs are amazing.
ECs/Activities:
Vice Captain of the school in grade 10
Student council all four years
Editorial board two years
Editor for region’s biggest MUN conference, international.
Done a couple of reputed MUNs as a delegate, won awards in all of them.
Founder of the school’s Vitiligo Club
Contributed to the execution of philanthropic events in school.
Rank 2 in all Union Territories of India in the National Science Talent Search Examination
Member of the Junior Academy- NYAS
A lot of school awards and Olympiad medals (state/national (a few))
Was among the top 30 percent kids worldwide in the Breakthrough Junior Challenge
Participated in NASA’s Space Settlement Design Competition

With this profile, which universities in the US would provide a full ride scholarship to me? I intend to pursue mechanical/aerospace/aeronautical engineering.

2

I really, REALLY wish posters posting these “International needing full ride” would be first asked to read them any, MANY threads on this topic. So, OP, please do a search on this forum and see if your question has been answered. Very,very few colleges will give a full ride to an international. Some may give some aid, but will still expect the international to provide for travel, etc expenses.

Read this: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/international-students/

3

Agree.
@Iridiscence, where is the money to come from for your full ride? Who do you think will be paying for it? Have you thought about where the university would find funds for your education? Think on it a little.

4

I would strongly suggest you look at affordable colleges in India.

Your first hurdle here would be to get accepted to a college in this country. While you have great stats, the fact is that there are MANY folks from your country with equally great…or better stats with whom you will be competing for admission.

Are you asking about need based or merit aid?

We don’t know if you have financial need…but let’s say you do. Many of the most generous colleges for international need based financial aid also have acceptance rates in the single digits. This means that 90% or so of applicants like you are not accepted.

In addition, there are only a handful of colleges that are both need blind for admissions…AND guarantee t9 meet full need for all accepted international students. This means that at most places that meet full need, your ability to pay will be considered when your application for admission is reviewed.

What can your family pay for you to attend college each year? What is their annual income in USD?

What colleges were you thinking about?

Are you considering colleges in your home country?

5

When you say, “full ride,” what do you mean? Do you mean funds for tuition, room, board, books, fees, health insurance, personal expenses, air travel from India??? Are you saying that your family can’t contribute anything?

To be honest, unless your family can contribute at least $20k per year, you’re not likely going to find what you want. You may find some “free tuition” offers, but you’d still have to pay for room, board, books, insurance, personal expenses, and air travel. And you’d have to show the money before you’d be given a visa. You wouldn’t be able to work here to help with expenses. And you wouldn’t likely be allowed to stay here over summers…which adds to the airfare needs. Even if you were, you’d be on the hook for all expenses. But usually the education visa you’d be granted would demand that you leave after classes ended in May/June.

There may be some lesser known, lower level schools WITH engineering that might give you tuition, room, board and maybe books, but you’d still need about $8k to cover personal expenses, health insurance, and air travel.

You can look at UAH. But again, you’d have to pay a good bit. Has excellent engineering. https://www.uah.edu/admissions/undergraduate/financial-aid/scholarships/freshmen
UAH would give you full tuition, but if you applied soon, they’d likely give you more than that as an eng’g student.

You can also look at UAlabama. You’d get nearly free tuition plus 2500 per year (so very close to full tuition) .

There just aren’t a bunch of entities here willing or able to fund college educations for int’l students. Heck, there aren’t that many who’ll fund for American students.

6

You must understand two things:

  • your profile is outstanding
    AND
  • it guarantees nothing

People who say it’s almost impossible aren’t saying your profile isn’t good, but rather that the competition is unbelievable.

First: what can your family afford? What do you call a ‘full ride’ - would they have enough to cover your airplane tickets, your books, your health insurance, your pocket money? What amount would they have per year?
This matters because admissions can be need-aware - ie’, an international who’s got more money will be admitted over one who doesn’t… simply because there’s not enough money for the applicant without money.
It also matters because at non need-aware universities, called need blind, how much you need is not taken into account, only your stats. So, let’s say you get a full tuition scholarship. It does you no good if you don’t have the required money for room and board.

Second, there ARE some competitive scholarships - Wilson at App State, McDermott at UTD, for instance. Or, look up UToledo, Youngstown State, UAH, South Dakota Science and tech. But there’s no guarantee you’ll get one.

Finally, there are universities with possibilities of financial aid, such as Lafayette, Cornell (Tata scholarships), etc. Admission depends on luck as much as merit and need.

Therefore, do apply to the US. But also apply to other countries that are within budget (France and Germany have free programs, for instance.)

7

“The Akron International Scholars Award (AISA) is a full tuition, room and board scholarship awarded to ONE outstanding applicant who also demonstrates a significant financial need.” from https://www.uakron.edu/international/scholarships/index.dot#aisa

Note that you need to have significant financial need, it does not include transportation or health insurance, visa, etc. and they only award one.