IBDP1 student applying to US universities [international, 37/42, 1510, need FA/scholarships, psychology]

Chance Me / Match Me
,
1

Demographics
Location: International student at international school China
Residency: Russian, Turkmen
HS type: private
Lgacy: No
Gender: female
Race: Asian
Ethnicity: Armenian
class size:266

Intended Major(s)
Psychology

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Grade: My school doesn’t do GPA, currently I am in my 2nd semester of my first DP1 year, my 1st semester grade was 37/42

  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1510

Coursework
IB classes
HL: Biology, Chemistry, Psychology
SL: English LangLit, Chinese AB into, Math AA

Awards
1 falcon EYAS gold- international
2 academic desttinction- school
3 UNICEF youth eyes on the slik road short list- international
4 local city clamathon 2nd place- regional
5 uwc davis scholar - international
6 kuala lumpur sports league netball 2nd place- regional
applied/ applying to topps competition, neve such innocence and john locke

Extracurriculars
1 Leader and founder of Food and tea science club
2 leader and founder of a club helping local orphanages
3 Peer support group member
4 volunteering (beach clean up at local beach, building well in Cambodia, teaching kids in rural China, Visting orphanages in Vietnam)
5 organized first-ever on-campus mental health awareness week
6 shadowing at hospital
7 photography
8 internship at self-growth group
9. piano (self thought since 5 years old)
10. leader of school news paper club
others:
languages: Russian , English (fluent), Spanish (learning), Chinese( writing, listening well)
college council (served one term, selected out of 4/20 applicants)
sailing club member
sustainability cumb member

Essays/LORs/Other
personal statement ideas
1 jewlery- how the jewellery I wear reflects my life and its importance

  • aspects of personality, childhood, teenagehood, family, friends, the woes of growing pains, framing more lyrically

2 turkmenistan- growing up in turkmenistan

  • critical thinking, self awareness, standing up for your own intellectual beliefs, subverting upbringing

3 mother - escaping a genocide, guilt, employment, gender roles, future career path, considerations towards future, living in your mother’s shadow

4 can tab collection - habits, sense of ritual/continuity, aspects of personality, growing up

5 armenia on the commonapp (it is not there) - culture, heritage, internal conflicts, identity crisis, persistence, othering

Cost Constraints / Budget
will rely a lot on scholarships

Schools
safety: Pittsburgh, twin cities, UoIowa
target: UCB, UCLA, Umich
reach: Uchicago, John Hopkins, Stanford

2

Oops…see comments below.

3

UCB and UCLA do not provide much if any financial support for international students, unfortunately. If you have financial need, these are not good options for you.

4

I think you are going to need to modify this list based on your ability to pay. A number of colleges on this list do not provide full funding to international students, or have limited aid for international students.

You can look on all college websites here in the financial aid section. Search for international student financial aid. You need that information.

You are a strong student, it seems. But at most of these colleges, your ability to pay will also be considered when you apply for admission.

I think you need to research some affordable options. I’ll tag @MYOS1634 who might have some suggestions for you.

My comments are in bold below. @MYOS1634 can verify my accuracy.

I’m not trying to be pessimistic. I do want you to find colleges where you will be accepted and have the chance for enough aid to attend.

Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh does not guarantee to meet full need. You will be relying on getting merit aid. So apply early and see what happens.

Twin Cities

International students studying on an F-1 visa in the U.S. do not qualify for U.S. or Minnesota state financial aid programs. The University of Minnesota does not offer a full tuition waiver or scholarship and the University assumes that international students will take full responsibility for financing their education.

Uolowa is this University of Iowa. If so…
Financial assistance in the form of grants, loans, or need-based aid is not available for international students. Please see the Scholarship and Grant Policies for additional information on awarding.

UCB

your cost to attend will be in the $75,000 a year range.

UCLA

UCLA does not award scholarships or financial aid to undergraduate students who are not citizens or permanent residents of the United State . International students must prove that they have sufficient funds available to them to pay for their educational and living expenses.

your cost to attend will be in the $75,000 a year range.

UMich

International students with F-1, F-2, J-1, J-2, and G-series visas are required to show proof of enough resources to meet their expenses while attending U-M and federal regulations limit financial assistance.

There is no federal financial aid and limited scholarship funding available to international students attending U-M, though a short-term university loan may be available in the case of emergencies (see information below). Any scholarship consideration requires no additional application. Student athletes should work through the U-M Athletic Department for potential scholarships in that area.

UChicago

this one is a possibility affordability wise…if you get accepted

First year international students are eligible for need-based and merit-based financial aid. In fact, if you apply for need-based aid, and we offer you admission, we are committed to meeting 100% of your demonstrated financial aid.

Hopkins

Hopkins has limited financial aid for international students

Stanford

Stanford has a limited amount of financial aid for international students. International students needing assistance must make that indication on the admission application. Applicants who are admitted with eligibility for aid will be awarded assistance from institutional funds based on their family financial circumstances.

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5

This looks very confusing to me, and will look probably the same to admission. Are you official resident of Russia, Turkmenistan or China?
If you are resident of Russia and your family is not some political refugee, it maybe difficult due to current situation in the world.
Then somehow I can see Armenian. But study in China…Then I can see Cambodia, Vietnam, Kuala Lumpur…My head is spinning…
Can your family pay for your education like 10k a year? If you need a lot of scholarship money, you should consider totally different set of schools. You are fluent in English and have SAT 1510… So what is the goal? Is it go to USA? Are you interested in LACS? You also may have a better luck applying at other countries with cheaper tuition.

6

hi! ethincally i am armenian, was born in turkmenistan, and for the past 10 years I lived in Malaysia, I did most of my voulenterring in the other countries as part of my school service and action programme. Currently I am studying in china though. I am a citizen of both russia and turkmenistan I will be applying as a turkmen citizen. The goal is to go to the US yes :slight_smile:

7

Then in my opinion, you need a very different list of colleges if you need a lot of financial aid. As noted above, most of the schools on your list will likely be unaffordable.

If you give folks here some additional information, they might be able to help you:

  1. How much can your family contribute annually towards your college costs?
  2. In the U.S. what exactly are you looking for…urban/suburban/rural, college size, geographic location, potential majors, ease of transport to go home, etc?
  3. Have you researched colleges that are affordable in whatever your home country is (I agree, this is very confusing).
  4. Where do your parents reside? Here, that will be considered your permanent residence…you don’t get to pick and choose.

And

  1. When will you finish high school?
8

Here some unpleasant truth that you probably do not know:

  1. All public schools in the US are state schools funded by local states and are not obligated to provide financial aid. If they do, money is given to their state residents since they pay state taxes. Everybody else do not get money, unless it is Federal Pell grant that comes from Federal (aka country) taxes but you have to be US citizen or permanent resident for it. So you can cross over all public schools. None of them are safety even if school is in the middle of nowhere and lacks enrollment.
  2. Private schools are very expensive. They are private, so they need to get money either from tuition or from donations. As a result, there are very few full ride scholarships. Those are at very top schools that get a lot of donations.These scholarships would go to US residents in need. Very few partial scholarships can go to foreigners but since there are soo many apply, you have to be top of the top. Your chances to get there are extremely low.
  3. Your only chance are very small private schools that maybe interested in diversity and your stats (i.e. you will be one of top students). However, these small schools do not have big donations and therefore cannot give you full ride.
    People asked you several times how much your family can pay per year. If nothing, forget about the US…
    If your family can pay $10k or more a year, you possibly have a chance at those small schools.
    Keep in mind that these schools are small and people outside of the US will not know much about them…
  4. Getting BS in the US doesn’t give you visas to stay or work in the US after graduation.
  5. You need to have safety schools outside of the US. Your chance to be accepted in the US is very slim.
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9

I think your background is very interesting. As an example of the kind of smaller private school that some of the earlier comments suggest, take a look at Denison University in Ohio. It’s a very good school that will meet the full financial need of any international student who is accepted. That doesn’t mean the school does not consider your financial need in deciding whether to accept or not, but if they accept, they will meet full need. The school also offers generous merit scholarships. My son was a psych major at Denison, graduating last year, and had a very good experience. He is a US citizen but grew up in Japan and did the IBDP at an international school there. Denison is the school that I am most familiar with, so I use it as an example, but there are a number of other schools that you could look at if you can consider a smaller private college.

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@tkoparent brings another interesting aspect that you probably did not realize. All small schools will want first your family financial profile (in case of small schools usually very detailed CSS profile) before accepting you. It is not your academic first, then lets see who can pay…If they see that you can’t pay and it too expensive for them to pay for you (you need too much money), they will not take you or waitlist you. Waitlist in that case is a soft denial to say you are good but sorry we can’t afford you…

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Your best bet is to find an affordable university near you.

Are European universities affordable for you? I don’t think the US public universities, that you seem to want, will be affordable, nor will they guarantee admission without full payment by your family.

Those schools, funded by their state governments, don’t have any spare money to give to nonresidents.

Also, your major of psychology, has plenty of students majoring in that field in the US. It is not something that is lacking in the university community. A bachelor’s in psychology, typically requires graduate level studies. You would have to seek out another university setting where the focus of continued psychological studies involve an area that you want to continue to study under a professor/program involved in that particular discipline. Not easy, typically competitive, and you would have to figure out funding, if they fund.

So why does it have to be a US school?

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Are you relying on merit scholarships or need based aid. Please clarify.

And can your family contribute anything to your college costs annually?

@meowmeowmeowmeowmeow

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both, my parents will be able to support a max of 20k a year

14

it doesnt have to be a us school, I do have other UK and Europe schools on my list but consider ranking and general scholarships as well as job opportunities I am looking into US univeriestes in more depth as compared to europe

15

Please read my first response above. I looked up all the schools you had on your list, and really only a couple even have the potential to meet your financial limit. Also, what we don’t know…is this what they WILL contribute or is their income higher and will colleges compute a higher family contribution based on that?

And as mentioned, many of the (unaffordable anyway) colleges on this list are need aware for international students, which means that your amount of financial need can be considered when your application for admission is reviewed.

As I said, your original list as posted here needs to be reviewed. Actually, you need a different list of U.S. colleges…based on the info I found, which you can look at yourself by going to “international student financial aid” on each college website. Please do this.

Good that you have some other possibly more affordable options elsewhere.

16

Consider applying to Rhodes College in Memphis, TN. Dd studies there. There were 2 girls from Kazachstan this year. One guy from South Korea and many more foreign students.

17

If you are accepted for admission to a US university, they will educate you, but they are NOT obligated to provide you with a work visa, nor any guarantee of employment.

The US Immigration Service controls and deals with permission to work. As a non-US citizen, you won’t have permission to work outside of the campus and for less than 20 hours while you are on a student visa.

You are expected to return to your home country when you graduate since your visa will expire.

The US Immigration Service has very strict policies.

As a psychology major, there is no shortage of domestic applicants, so competition for clinical placement experiences will favor US applicants.

Your chances for admission to US schools, are already limited by your need for financial aid as well as your major, and your countries of origin.
Consider those European universities to continue an affordable path for your education.

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