I don't know how good I am for what University. I am an international student.

College Search & Lists
1

<p>Hi everyone!</p>

<p>I am not at all sure about what university to apply for. I want start university next fall meaning I must apply right now, around December.</p>

<p>I wish to apply for a Mechanical Engineering undergradute course.</p>

<p>I am Indian by nationality. I have been living abroad for 12 years of my life in many countries. I have spent the past year studying in Norway in the IB. I have learnt to speak a lot of Norwegian in about 6 months and I believe this is a very strong point for my Extra-Curriculars. These are my subjects with predicted grades in brackets:</p>

<p>HL: Physics(7), Mathematics(7) and Chemistry(7)
SL: Business and Management(6), English A Lang. & Lit.(5) and Norwegian B (6)</p>

<p>My score adds up to 38 out of 42. I might be able to get 1 or 2 of the 3 extra points which can boost my score to 39-40.</p>

<p>My ECs: Learning Norwegian (I have done this very fast as you can see by my grade), Amnesty International service (50+ hours) and I have learned how to swim after a life-long phobia for deep water(100+ hours).</p>

<p>I will be trying out for the Math, Chemistry and Physics Olympiads in a few months and I think I might be able to get something at the national or regional level.</p>

<p>Up until now, I had never known about how I can make myself more appealing to universities. I see people saying on here that they have done research work at their local community college or something. I have just never gotten opportunities like that! If I did, I would have definitely taken them up. I am quite jealous, to be honest. There are no clubs at my highschool. I am overwhelmed by the kinds of things people on here do. International science fairs seem far, far out of reach as they seem to be ruled by wiz-kids. I am thinking of starting a Science club of my own at school, could this be good enough for universities?</p>

<p>My scores:</p>

<p>TOEFL iBT: 108 (I messed up; my English is much better than this)
SAT: 1890 (I didn’t study for this and will be taking another one in December, expecting 2100+)
SAT Physics: 800
SAT Math II: 790</p>

<p>Please help me out, tell me which colleges I should go for. I want to hear the best chances I have…</p>

<p>Thanks in advance everyone!!</p>

2

<p>The first question is about how much financial aid you will need. American schools are extremely expensive and international students are expected to be full pay at the vast majority of them. So, first, what can your parents contribute?</p>

3

<p>Sorry, I forgot to mention that. I am aware of this and that is my next hurdle. For now, please just go about it without considering the finances.</p>

4

<p>why are you WAITING til Dec to take the SAT again??? That is late. You should sign up for Nov as well.</p>

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<p>Ok, it is silly to ignore that now. What “hurdle” do you have??? How much will your family pay each year. </p>

<p>It is a total waste of time to come up with lists when we don’t know what is affordable. This is the US with hundreds and hundreds of univs.</p>

5

<p>In my area, the next and final SAT session is in December this year and most universities say on their websites that it is okay to take the SAT at that time.</p>

<p>For my finances, I think that my parents can put in about max 25k USD per year. I will be taking a loan and will definitely need all the financial aid I can get. I will work while at university.</p>

6

<p>okay, so you need schools that provide international students a lot of aid. Here are a number of them:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.educationusa.info/financial-aid.php”>http://www.educationusa.info/financial-aid.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.desperateguide.com/us/top-25-financial-aid-colleges-in-us-for-international-students-need-aware”>http://www.desperateguide.com/us/top-25-financial-aid-colleges-in-us-for-international-students-need-aware&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2013/09/19/colleges-that-give-international-students-the-most-financial-aid”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2013/09/19/colleges-that-give-international-students-the-most-financial-aid&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

7

<p>1) Most places have no financial aid for international students. The places that do offer aid use their own formulas. Your family might not even qualify for any aid at all.
2) You can’t get a loan in the US unless you have a qualified US co-signer.
3) Where you can work and how many hours you can work each week is strictly controlled by the US government if you have a student visa. Don’t count on getting a job here.</p>

<p>So, find out from your parents just exactly how much they can pay. Ask how much they will pay if you go to Australia or Canada (both have good universities, and offer better work permission for students than the US does), or somewhere else.</p>

<p>You need to allow $10,000 to $12,000 for living expenses, books, laundry, local travel, etc. Maybe another $1,000 to $2,000 for travel to wherever your parents are once or twice a year. That means that if your total budget is $25,000, you need to identify places where your tuition and fees will be no more than $10,000 or $11,000 each year. Run a couple of the college-matching search engines for places where the out-of-state tuition and fees are in that range, and see what comes up.</p>

8

<p>Thanks everyone for the great feedback. Those links were very useful and I am starting to get a good picture. I have read that under an F1 visa, I can do 20 hours of on-campus work and upto 40 hours during the summer. This adds up to about 8000 USD per year considering about 7 USD/hr, which is quite useful. I am not expecting to visit my parents too much during my College years so travel expenses can be mostly be neglected.</p>

<p>But can you guys give me a quick example of which university I should aim for? Sort of like a ‘chance me’ thing. I need a target to aim for based on my current qualifications alone.</p>

9

<p>Since the schools with aid are so few, why don’'t you tell us of your broad school interests and we’ll get back to you.</p>