International student .. lost in the pool ... + many inquiries ?

[zxzz74]

<p>Hello all ..
I am an international student and have those inquiries</p>

<p>I want to study abroad , probably in the states and i lack many info that cannot be found on the net </p>

<ol>
<li><p>if i took 1 gap year after high school ? how would this affect my application , exclude the ivy league coz i even dont dare playing the game with them.</p></li>
<li><p>if i joined least known universities , like michigan uni , Saint louis , nebraska uni ... etc does this mean that their study programs wont be that good ? how to know that and am far away ?</p></li>
<li><p>what is my chance for a full tuition scholarship in those universities if i have the following :</p></li>
</ol>

<p>SAT score 1420
SAT II ( chemistry 780 , math level IIC 800 , physcis 790 )
Toefl score 630
school GPA 4.00/4.00 </p>

<p>more than 300 hours volunteer , speeches , seminars and many ECs </p>

<p>..</p>

<p>Any advice towards that would be more than just appreciated </p>

<p>Thanks alot</p>

[CC_Admin]

<p>umich is a public uni so if you are an intl you wont get any kinda finaid and scholarship is like extremely limited. if you want more scholarship, check out the top LACs like Williams, Amherst, Middlebury, etc., they're generous in giving intls finaid. but try to up your SATs a bit and make sure you have a hook. As for the ivies... they're famous for being ultra unpredictable, if you wanna go to the US make sure you apply for some safeties. Schools like Umich are actually very famous and have very high education qualities, dont get too obsessed with the ivies, which is sth most intls tend to do... actually many ppl give up ivies for schools like Williams or Amherst. Prestige doesnt mean everything - whether the school fits you is the most important thing, afterall you'd spend 4 yrs there and the last thing you want would be having a terrible experience in a famous school.</p>

<p>gap yr is nice. but make sure you do sth meaningful so that you could stress the gap yr experience in you app. gd luck!</p>

[mrtambourineman]

<p>There are two threads about people who took a GAP year after high school. To sum up: most (if not all) were very succesfull in crafting great college applications and got into very good colleges. </p>

<p>Unfortunately, I do not know anything about those universities you mentioned but in general lesser known universities and colleges give less aid to internationals compared to Ivy League schools or top liberal arts colleges.</p>

[hummer]

<p>About the aid--not necessarily. If a college really, really wants you then they will tend to give a lot of aid. You can check up on the net for financial aid ratings--some colleges are much more generous than others. There are a lot of really good schools in the US. The Ivies have the name and reputation. The first thing I did when trying to decide colleges was buy an info book. I know it seems a little gay but it's great to have all the facts together in one place.</p>

[adides]

<p>"The first thing I did when trying to decide colleges was buy an info book. I know it seems a little gay but it's great to have all the facts together in one place."</p>

<p>:D hummer...u are a homophobic, arent u??? :p why does buying an info book look gay??</p>

[zxzz74]

<p>Thanks to all of those who replied </p>

<p>actually my inquiry wasnt all about the gap yr but you know am totally scattered and surfing the web makes it more comlicated ..</p>

<p>for those who have info about financial aid
Where can i find those universities ?
can you list me 10 of the most generous
sorry am not lazy but i cannot predict wether the info provided online is right or wrong</p>

<ul>
<li>about the SAT .. i cannot do better coz simply i have never taken english at school and learnt everything by myself .. every word one by one .. so u can say am fed up and the toefl score might be a subtitude.</li>
</ul>

<p>Note: i have 2 nuclear projects ( done individually ) + shared in two confrences .. hope this would higher my chances for a ***ll tuition scholardhip</p>

<p>Thanks to all again</p>

[CC_Admin]

<p>wow thats amazing! i must say a 1420 is VERY IMPRESSIVE. you might wanna state that in your app and im sure the admission commitees will be impressed too. its hard to list the 10 most generous schools... but go check out USnews and you get a list of gd schools then you check on their websites whether they're needblind to intls. for unis there're only a few really really top ones like harvard, princeton n yale are need blind to intls while the others arent. LACs like Midd, Williams, Colby, Amherst, etc are more generous in terms of intl finaid. and yeah go look up a college info bk or go to some college search website (like princeton review.com)</p>

[bogororo]

<p>If you have not taken english at school, and earned 1420 on the SAT then BRAVO, I must say. Be sure to emphasize that in your essays, although I agree that upping the scores a little would not hurt.
About FinAid, I suggest looking into certain groups the top 50 USNews Colleges (<a href="http://www.usnews.com)%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.usnews.com)&lt;/a>, top 25 US Unis, Ivy League, International Unis based on the US system (like IUB or IUG, there is a whole thread about them).
What kind of "nucular";) projects do you have?</p>

[zxzz74]

<p>K all </p>

<p>what affects the financial aid application or scholarship ?</p>

<p>nothing is explicit in their sites ?
did anyone get full tuition scholarship? what did he do for that?</p>

<p>note: it shouldnt be one of the ivies .. any internationallly recognized university would be fine .. just need to be enrolled with the tuition paid for me</p>

<p>thanks you</p>

[hummer]

<p>I'm not sure how much you know so I'll just give a basic description. There are two types of admissions processes: need-blind and not need-blind (haha). Need-blind means that the admissions committee will look at your application in isolation (without looking at financial concerns) to offer you admission or not. If they offer you admission, they will then review your financial aid admission and give you what they feel is a fair estimate of your needs.</p>

<p>Not need-blind admission is when your application for financial aid weighs heavily on your admission decision. If there's a close run-off between you and another student and you have asked for aid whereas the other one hasn't, then the other student will most probably get the positive response. Most US schools are need-blind for US citizens but not for International. The Ivies seem to be the primary exceptions to this rule.</p>

<p>It is possible for you to apply to or be considered for merit-based scholarships, in which case your need is not really looked at. So that is another avenue for receiving FA. You can check the princetonreview.com website for FA ratings (average aid given to freshmen, etc.). Basically, if you can demonstrate that you do not have the finances to pay for your tuition but are an exceptional student, you will get as much aid as you require. I cannot answer past that because I'm not on one of those admission councils. :D</p>

[zxzz74]

<p>Thaaaaanks alot Hummer .. ur response was more than just useful.</p>

<p>ok one more thing </p>

<p>would they consider where am i from when looking at the ECs .. coz oover here fisrt there arent much of them and the kind of society not always allows the girl to share in whatever she likes </p>

<p>so i somehow lack ECs .. but at the same time , iin my country they are considered more than just WOW ?</p>

<p>anybody has an idea how would that dilemma go on ??</p>

[PaladinDave]

<p>If I were you, I would think about improving your SAT score, to at least 1500, if you can. If you're aiming for colleges like Williams and Amherst, 1420 is average for the kind of people they admit. </p>

<p>As for financial aid, I found good resources to be:
<a href="http://www.princetonreview.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.princetonreview.com&lt;/a>
<a href="http://www.bibl.u-szeged.hu/reac-europe/intfinaid_awards.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.bibl.u-szeged.hu/reac-europe/intfinaid_awards.html&lt;/a>
and <a href="http://www.eca.com.ve/counselling/College%20program/the%20list.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.eca.com.ve/counselling/College%20program/the%20list.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Admittedly, the first link is getting a bit outdated as it is 2002, but it still bears relevance in my opinion. Dartmouth, where I have been accepted, is missing for some reason. In my opinion, you should try for some of the Ivy League universities. Harvard, Princeton and Yale are too competitive, but Dartmouth and maybe Brown are appropriate reaches.</p>

<p>If you're from Asia, the best scholarship that I know of that will pay for everything is the Wesleyan Asian Freeman Scholarship. The need-blind universities - Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Williams, Amherst and Middlebury - will give you all the financial aid you need, based on how rich you are.</p>

[zxzz74]

<p>thanks alot PaladinDave .. but i kinda didnt get it </p>

<p>Well am from asia and specifically " the persian gulf " .. as small island in it called Bahrain. and very rare people from this area goes to the states and specially the Ivy league.</p>

<p>as i have mentioned that all my subjects at school aint in english and I managed to understand phsycis and chemistry and bla bla bla in the other language and know all the terms in english and into which am not used to at all ... Shouldn't this be taken into account ?</p>

<p>Plus .. am not aiming for the Ivy league .. just any university that is recognized and can give me financial aid " hopefully full tuition"</p>

<p>one more thing , I dont want to go to college but university , coz college even if they give the same syllabus is considered as an institute in my country and wont be equal to the bachelors degree.</p>

<p>From where shall I start now , i will graduate this summer ( june 2005 ) but will apply for fall 2006. </p>

<p>Any more tips would be more than just appreciated .</p>

<p>about the Wesleyan Asian Freeman Scholarship .. i searched about it and found out that its just for students from east asia .. what to do ?</p>

<p>thanks to all</p>

[mrtambourineman]

<p>i want to attract your attention on something: a full tuition scholarship is not a "full ride" scholarship. Therefore if you earn a "full tuition scholarship", you still have to pay room and board which sometime can be very expensive (10000USD).</p>

[zxzz74]

<p>OK ... how to start applying to that anyways !</p>

<p>i dont wanna waste my money and apply to all</p>

<p>should seek something that suits me .. and all in all am lost and have no experience about that thingy</p>

[zxzz74]

<p>AWWWW ppl now ?? WOULD my bad scores really affect </p>

<p>WHAT to do .. how would it look .. plz give me sufficient info</p>

[bogororo]

<p>SAT score 1420
SAT II ( chemistry 780 , math level IIC 800 , physcis 790 )
Toefl score 630
school GPA 4.00/4.00 </p>

<p>The SAT is OK, really. If you want, though, you can try to take the New SAT as you have no Writing score - which is quite helpful for adcoms. I retook the SAT and I increased my score from 1420 to 1580, although I am not sure how helpful it was admission-wise. It would not hurt, anyway!
The SATIIs are fabulous. I mean, do not retake the Physics or Chemistry by all means!
The TOEFL should be fine, but I am not used with the PBT - is 630 maximum? It does not really matter as long as you are over a certain cutoff.
The GPA is outstanding - but how big is your school, which courses did you take?</p>

[zxzz74]

<p>Well here is our school system </p>

<p>\first the whole country follow the same system , our subjects are not in english , and there are three main sections ( scientific , commercial , literature) .. am in the scientific section and we follow the hours system like we have to finish 156 credits in those three years and the gpa is accumulative, so we have to work for 6 semesters and if we didnt do well on one of them it affects the whole gpa. We have physics , chemistry, bio , maths each semester but its like the chemistry ( Organic chemistry then the next sem. they give us a book about physical chemistry) and so on... </p>

<p>Am from an arabian country ( Bahrain) a small island located in the persian gulf and not many ppl join us universities here. So would this be taken into consideration ? there arent lotsa opportunities to share in ECs over here .. i hope they take this into account. </p>

<p>From where to start , where to apply ? i wanna guarntee full ride scholarship...</p>

[bogororo]

<p>'Ahlan-wa-sahlan, sadiqi!
I was asking about the courses, because I wanted to know how much you fulfil the course requirements. Since you are in the scientific section, that should be best. Let me bring to your attention that everyone's GPA is affected by screwing up one semester - sure, I might have gotten semestrial GPAs in Romania, but they were all averaged at the end of high-school.
Anyway, the fact that you are from a small country, with not so many people applying puts you, in my opinion in an advantaged position. I don't know how big this advantage is, though, and any debate on it would result in fruitless hair-splitting.
Of course, most adcoms (I hope) are aware of the fact that there may be little opportunity for ECs in your country. They even post that on some info for intels pages (Carleton I think). About applying, I'll give you a list I compiled an year ago in the next post - numbers might have changed, but the picture should be about the same with these institutions.</p>

[bogororo]

<p>Ok, this is the list I looked into - bear in mind it is neither exhaustive nor 100% accurate, but every college here advertised 100% of need met for Internationals! People, correct me if I was wrong!
1. Amherst College
2. Bates College
3. Bowdoin College
4. Brown University
5. Carleton College
6. Chicago University
7. Colby College
8. Colgate University
9. Colorado College
10. Columbia University
11. Connecticut College
12. Cornell University
13. Duke University
14. Harvard University
15. Haverford College
16. International University in Bremen (Bremen, Germany) - <a href="http://www.iu-bremen.de%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.iu-bremen.de&lt;/a>
17. International University in Germany (Bruxhalle, Germany) - <a href="http://www.iu-germany-de%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.iu-germany-de&lt;/a>
18. Lehigh University
19. Macalester College
20. Middlebury College
21. Oberlin College
22. Pennsilvania University
23. Princeton University
24. Sarah Lawrence College
25. Sewanee University
26. Skidmore College
27. Saint Lawrence University - <a href="http://www.stlawu-edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.stlawu-edu&lt;/a>
28. Stanford University
29. Swarthmore College
30. Trinity College, CT - <a href="http://www.trincoll.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.trincoll.edu&lt;/a>
31. University of Richmond - <a href="http://www.urich.edu%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.urich.edu&lt;/a>
32. Vassar College
33. Wesleyan University
34. Williams College
35. Yale University</p>

<p>Unless otherwise noted, the web adress of these institutions is obtained by taking the University/College denomination from their name and putting the .edu extention at the end.</p>