I’m looking for feedback on my college list, admissions chances, and suggestions for schools that fit my academic profile, interests, and financial needs as an international student

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Demographics

US domestic (US citizen or permanent resident) or international student:
International student

State/Location of residency:
Egypt (attending high school in Massachusetts during the school year)

Type of high school:
Private college-preparatory boarding school

Other special factors:

  • International applicant

  • Campus Captain for The Hidden Opponent

  • Faith in Action Leader

  • Advanced Senior Research (Honors Research Project)

Cost Constraints / Budget:
Will require significant financial aid and/or merit scholarships to make college affordable.

Intended Major(s)

  • Psychology (interested in Sports Psychology)

  • Possible minor in Business or Criminology

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

Unweighted HS GPA:
Approximately 3.89

Weighted HS GPA:
4.11 cumulative (school calculation)

Class Rank:
School does not rank.

SAT:
1160 (600 Math, 560 ERW)
Planning to retake.

ACT:
Not taken.

HS Coursework

English

  • Honors American Literature

  • Literature (Senior Year)

Math

  • Honors Algebra II

  • Honors Precalculus (Senior Year)

Science

  • Anatomy & Physiology

  • AP Biology (Senior Year)

History/Social Studies

  • Honors U.S. History

Language Other Than English

  • French II

  • French III (Senior Year)

Visual or Performing Arts

  • None beyond school graduation requirements.

Other Academic Courses

  • AP Psychology

  • Bible

  • Advanced Senior Research (Honors)

Awards

  • High Honors

  • Honor Roll

  • NEPSAC/EIL All-League Honorable Mention

Extracurriculars

  1. Campus Captain – The Hidden Opponent
    Led school mental health initiatives and organized a student survey with approximately 200 responses.

  2. Faith in Action Leader
    Organized and participated in community service projects.

  3. Internship at an Inclusive School
    Worked with approximately 25 students, assisting teachers and helping deliver prepared lessons.

  4. Chess Club Founder & President
    Founded the club and organized a school-wide chess tournament.

  5. Varsity Soccer (3 years)
    Captain during senior year; received NEPSAC/EIL All-League Honorable Mention.

  6. Dorm Council Member
    Helped represent student interests and organize dorm events.

  7. Advanced Senior Research (Honors)
    Conducting a year-long research project on NIL and the transfer portal in college athletics.

Essays/LORs/Other

Essay:
Writing about adapting to boarding school and the personal growth that came from the experience.

Letters of Recommendation:
Expected to be strong.

Additional Information:
International applicant attending boarding school in the United States.

Schools

Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability)

None

Extremely Likely

None

Likely

  • Endicott College

  • University of Vermont

  • University of New Hampshire

Toss-up

  • Fairfield University

  • Drexel University

  • University of Delaware

  • Clark University

  • American University

  • George Washington University

  • UMass Amherst

  • Penn State

Lower Probability

  • Brandeis University

  • College of the Holy Cross

  • Northeastern University

  • Hamilton College

Low Probability

  • Tufts University

  • University of Virginia

  • University of Michigan

  • UNC Chapel Hill

2

How will your toss up and likely schools be affordable? I don’t think any of them guarantee to meet full need for all accepted international students.

Having said that…you go to a private prep school. Your college counselor there should be able to help you identify affordable schools where you have a good chance of acceptance. You need to find some of these schools first and foremost.

Please prep for the SAT. You might want to consider taking the SAT also. For some students one or the other test is a better option.

I think you should also look at test optional colleges.

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3

I wish you luck but I think all colleges are a reach when both admissions and affordability (if significant aid is needed) are considered.

Agree that you should talk to your school counselors and work on improving your standardized test score.

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4

If you tell us your total annual budget in USD, including all of tuition and fees, housing and dining, mandatory health insurance, and transportation, we can help you figure out if those colleges could even possibly end up affordable, and perhaps recommend some alternatives if not.

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Just to emphasize, a good number of colleges on your list are public universities, where it is rare to find significant (or sometimes any) aid given to out of state, much less international students. You may have to take most or all of those off your list. If your school is a UWC school then UVA may be an option for funding. Privates vary in terms of aid offered and you will need to do an analysis of each, by checking the NPC calculator on each website. (You can do this for the publics too of course, to check if any of them will give aid.)

Have you been doing SAT practice tests and if so what is the indication of where you might score? At your current score or not significantly higher, I would suggest only applying test optional.

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I would evaluate very carefully the different types of ugrad programs that offer sports psychology. Some colleges offer sports psychology majors, others offer only minors, others offer concentrations, while others offers coursework in sports psychology, which typically means 1 or 2 intro electives. Make sure the program leads to the degree that you want - a B.A. or B.S. in sports psychology may not be equivalent to a B.A. or B.S. in psychology with a minor or concentration in sports psychology.

You may want to try the ACT if your science score (I would recommend taking it) is higher than you math score (assuming you earn a comparable math score to the SAT math). If you can score higher on ACT math than SAT math of 600, then a comparable score in science. Attempt ACT writing only if you are an “above average” writer (can score 7-12), and if any of the colleges you end up applying to accept it as optional. Gauge this by taking multiple practice tests under timed testing conditions. Retake the SAT for possible 1200-1250 composite.

If you have room in your schedule, you may want to also take a class like Prob/Stats or AP Statistics.

7

What do you hope to do after you get your college degree? It is highly likely you will be required to return to your home country once you complete your college studies, and your student visa is no longer valid.

In my opinion, it will be very difficult for you to stay in the U.S. and work with this degree. @Mwfan1921 @MYOS1634

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8

Agree.

Also, as previously mentioned, you have a number of public universities which charge out of state fees. Those fees typically are pretty significant and are not covered by financial aid.

Please be aware that if you are admitted to a US university, you will be educated for 4 years and then your student visa expires and you will return to your home country.

You cannot expect to stay in the US. Immigration rules are extremely strict and tough. There isn’t a huge demand for nonresident sports psychologists who require employer sponsorship.
US employers are required to seek out US citizens first, for open work positions.

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9

Unique to others, I do not think you should spend additional time on the SAT. Your academics are strong and I do not see how you will achieve a score that will help you with any of the schools on your list. As a TO applicant, I think you have a better chance with several of the schools than where you have them categorized. I expect you will be admitted to the large majority of the Likely and Toss-up categories. I realize I am not considering the $$. I also think you have a reasonable chance at Brandeis and Holy Cross.

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Except that sometimes a good SAT score can help with increasing merit awards (not sure if the case for the schools on the current list), though OP would probably need to see a really significant improvement there for that to help.

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delete

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Your CC at BS will be a good resource for you. If you apply TO, you are a strong candidate. The headwind though is both needing FA and being a foreign student. Even the more generous schools tend to be more tight-fisted with international students.

You may want to try to find more schools that would value what you bring by virtue of your background. Kalamazoo? Earlham? Wooster? You’d have to make sure the academic program is what you want at each.

Unless you can significantly improve your SAT score relatively quickly, I would not spend time on that but would instead look at TO schools.

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13

Did you prepare for the SAT or just take it cold? If you did not do the prep work then I would study and retake. If you feel your score represents your best effort, you can consider test optional schools.

In general, I think a strong SAT or ACT is very helpful – particularly for international students where admission officers might not be as familiar with the various schools/curriculum.

What country are you from? What is your boarding school’s history with applicants to US colleges (particularly students needing significant financial aid)?

14

This is excellent advice for students applying from abroad, but this student is applying from a BS in MA. The AOs should be familiar with that school. With that said, the CCs at BS tend to be pretty invested in getting their students happily placed, so should be able to counsel on the importance of a standardized test. This won’t be the first time they have worked with an international student needing significant FA.

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I missed that! Thank you.

ETA: Even more reason for the OP to seek out and take advice from the school guidance counselors.

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16

OP, have you looked at the Common Data Set, especially Sections C7 and C9-C12, for each of the schools that you list? There might be some useful information available to you that can help refine your list.

17

Is your family able to pay anything for college, and if so, how much per year? You are unlikely to receive financial aid as an international student, with your current academic profile. You need to understand that as an international student, you are competing against some of the highest achieving students in their countries, for very limited financial aid for international students.

You do not say where your very nice GPA puts you, in relation to the rest of your class. At some schools, your GPA might be top 10th%, but at others, it might be only top 50th%. Your SAT score is definitely a problem. The biggest thing that you can do at this point is to make a huge effort to improve your standardized test score. Take the free online ACT test, see if you think that you are more suited to the ACT, and if so, do a ton of self-prep for it using their practice book, The Official Guide to the ACT (it has five or six practice tests in it), and see if you can get a higher ACT score. Or if you feel you are more suited to the SAT, prep like crazy now for that. A massive improvement in your standardized test score is probably the best thing that you can do, over the next two months, to improve your chance of acceptance to a college that you can afford. If your parents can afford, say, 25 -30K/yr, you could consider looking at certain states’ flagship universities and state colleges. For example, U South Dakota and U North Dakota can be as little as 25K/yr total for an int’l student, and you’ll probably get in.

Here is a link to a list of schools that might be affordable for an international student who is not one of the top students from their country. Cheapest U.S. Colleges for International Students

There are lots of other lists like this on the internet. As you can see, they’re predominantly state colleges. Focus on state schools in low cost of living regions, with decent departments in what you want to study. Unfortunately, your academic profile is very unlikely to lead to an offer with the fin aid that you need from schools that do offer substantial financial aid to international students.

As for your list. You will get into one of your “likelies”, and maybe a couple of your toss-ups, but you won’t get the fin aid that you probably need to attend, unless your parents can afford, say, full cost of attendance at a public college, and the equivalent at a less selective private college that heavily discounts tuition for many students. Endicott or other small private colleges with acceptance rates over 70% might fit the bill for you, if your parents can afford 40K/yr.

If you are Coptic, or other Christian, you might want to look at certain small Christian colleges with major fin aid resources, such as Messiah College in PA. These schools might see you as someone whom they want to help, coming from a country with unfavorable circumstances for Christians.

If you have family in the US with whom you can live, look into community college or local state college tuition for an international student there, and consider that as an option. And of course, also look at options in your home country, and in other countries outside the US, that might be within budget for your family.

It will not be easy, but it is possible, as long as you get well-informed and realistic college guidance. From your preliminary list, I suspect that your boarding school counselor is not taking into account your international status, when recommending schools for you.

You need to realize that your anticipated major and interest are unlikely to lead to employment in the US, and the required visa to work in the US. Even if you can find a school for as little as 25K/yr cost of attendance, you’re still going to be paying 100K for a college education that is extremely unlikely to lead to employment that would enable you to stay in the US. You and your family need to consider where that 100K or more is best invested, for your future, assuming that your family has those resources.

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But noting these may not be the most comfortable states for someone from OP’s country to spend 4 years in. Which boils down to the question of whether OP will take whatever American college they can get into/can afford, or whether they have other options. In that light would be useful to know if they are also applying to universities in their home country, or perhaps closer to home like Europe.

19

Are you full pay and price no object? If so, then Test Optional makes some of this list reasonable… I would lean on your school’s CC, but this list seems a bit aspirational to me given your course rigor (vs. your GPA)…I think Fairfiled, UMass, GW are less toss-ups and more lower probabilities as T-O… Only French 3 and pre-cal is pretty low for many of these schools, coming from a BS school in MA context.

EDIT: Oops, somehow didn’t see cost constraints.. ..I think some of these low and lower probability schools that are not blind as out of reach, honestly…Does your CC think otherwise?

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To add to the comments, you may want to double check with your counselor about some schools that require one year of graded coursework in a performing or fine art.

So you want to be admitted to a university with full funding but a majority of the schools, that you’ve listed, are public universities which are funded by limited taxpayer dollars and don’t have that kind of money/funding for non-residents.

Have you even spoken with your academic counseling staff about your choices? Test scores? Financial limitations?