<p>Ashkay, when you are researching your school, the main question to ask is if there are funds, merit and financial aid available for internationals. With top academic credentials, the chances are better for you than for other internationals without such a profile that you would gain admission in a college that is not needblind to internationals. Such schools are often generous to those internationals that they do accept. It’s just that you will not be admitted once they have run out of money as they will not admit a student and not fund him. That search alone is going to be tough going. Once you get into a school, you can start planning a path to banking. But unless you have contacts in the field that are willing to take you under their wings and give you their accounts and introduce you to the right people, the way to get into IB is lots of hard work and expertise in the area. If you already have the contacts and the clients, you don’t even need a college degree.</p>
<p>I had visited this place called Anahem (near DisneyLand) in California more than a decade ago and still regard this experience as one of the most pleasant memories of my life. That place wasn’t exactly a concrete jungle (at that time, atleast), but such a place is what I’d least expect for a college setting - and WILL BE CONTENTED with it. </p>
<p>If anyone is familiar with that place as it was 12 years ago, you know what my least expectation for a college setting is.</p>
<p>In fact, an economics major from a TOP LAC is fine for me. So, compared to Anahem, how are the settings of the LACs - Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Amherst, Swarthmore, Haverford, Carleton, Davidson, Williams, Middlebury, Bowdoin, Brown and Dartmouth ?</p>
<p>Is there any other GREAT college (for UG business/Economics or Lib Arts) that you’ll may have crossed off due to my city setting preferences ? I’m still deliberating on the CLIMATE issue - but definitely don’t want to live in HARSH and EXTREME weather conditions.</p>
<p>Carleton, Middlebury, Bowdoin and Dartmouth have pretty harsh and extreme weather conditions, in my book. Amherst and Williams are both in Massachusetts, definitely a northern state. Brown is nothing like Anaheim either. Things get a bit milder near Philly where Haverford and Swarthmore are but you are still going to get a true winter.</p>
<p>Anaheim has great weather, but other that that all of the towns of your schools are much nicer. The CA colleges both have pretty settings and Anaheim’s weather. Williams and Dartmouth are 2 of the most beautiful places on the planet but rural and have very cold winters. Middlebury and Bowdoin also very pretty, isolated and cold. Brown slightly less cold but cold, a small/medium sized city rather than rural. Amherst, sprawling suburbia, closer than others to a major city (Boston), and more going on because of associated colleges near. Cold, but not Williams/Dartmouth frigid.</p>
<p>Akshay, I’m a bit disappointed in your posts. You seem to want it all - great school, leading to a great job, free ride, and then great weather to boot? Most kids would be glad to get good fin aid to a great school no matter what the weather. Besides, as an Inv B. you’d neve see the outdoors anyway.</p>
<p>Yes, it is well known that some schools send more to wall street than others. BUT, is it the school, or is it the students? Some students already have the connections to get the internships that lead to the jobs. I bet most get in that way. Some have the smarts to stand out most anywhere. Some peer groups push in this direction, some don’t.</p>
<p>I think you’d be better off focusing your efforts on where you can afford to go. The info on financial aid for foreign students is not hard to come by. You might start checking some web sites and tell us who will fund your education. Then you can start prioritizing. We are wasting our time talking about some of these schools, as they never give fin aid to foreign students.</p>
<p>Ah, to be young. So many of them start out that way, they want it all, the rep, the money, the location, the atmosphere, the perfect major, the path to the perfect job and wealth. And some do find it easier than other to get the ideal path. Nothing wrong with dreaming and hoping. It usually becomes clear soon enough what the realities of the situation. There are ever so many top students out there who want/need full dollar scholarships, and there are simply not that many to go around. What you think that your family can afford to pay, what your family thinks it can afford to pay may well not agree with what the numbers end up saying they have to pay. I have seen kids with top academic profiles and fantastic resumes get turned down, never mind any scholarship. But no reason not to try. If you can start with the ideal criterion, and then start elimiinating or cutting slack on the less important things you can ge a list that has a number of things that you want on it. What you end up being offered is really your choice but you are not going to get in where you did not apply. </p>
<p>I agree with you Newmassdad. OP will have enough challenges finding a school to fund him. Once he gets that, he can then try to find his way to graduating with the grades and resumes to get a job in the field he wants. As he matures, he’ll see more clearly what he wants to do and what he does not want to do.</p>
<p>Heartfelt thanks OH MY MENTORS and also CC, for all the beautiful advice that I have received from you people. A student just can’t do without CC for matters relating to studying in the U.S.</p>
<p>However, I also apologise to anyone who may have been appalled with my outrageous posts and tastes, and I hope that my PERPETUAL DOUBTS and COLLEGE LISTS haven’t started to ANNOY you all.</p>
<p>I admit that STRIKING OFF good colleges only because there is COLD WEATHER there OR are in the NORTH isn’t exactly FAIR, but I guess I’ll stick to only SOUTH colleges.</p>
<p>So here’s my newest list and it consists ONLY South colleges - Yup, I know this is crazy.</p>
<p>BUSINESS MAJOR
1)University of Southern California (Marshall) - DREAM SCHOOL IF I GET THAT COVETED FULL RIDE…</p>
<p>–</p>
<p>ECONOMICS MAJOR (merely beacause they don’t offer BUSINESS) (Colleges are in no specific order)
2)Stanford University
3)Duke University
4)University of California - Los Angeles
5)University of California - San Diego
6)Vanderbilt University
7)Rice University
8)California Institute of Technology
9)Pomona - LAC
10)Claremont McKenna - LAC
11)Harvey Mudd (where is it? & est-il LAC ?)
12)Davidson (where is it? & est-il LAC ?)</p>
<p>–</p>
<p>Should I apply for ECONOMICS or BUSINESS in these colleges ? (Which DO allow applying to both programmes ?? - and I’m not talking about DOUBLE MAJORING)
13)University of California - Berkeley
14)University of South Carolina – Columbia
15)Emory University
16)Tulane University
17)University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill
18)University of Florida
19)University of Georgia
20)Georgia Institute of Technology</p>
<p>–</p>
<p>Any other GOOD SOUTH COLLEGE that I missed out ?</p>
<p>–</p>
<p>Since my college list is pretty big, I NEED TO SHORTEN IT TO HALF
So,
A) Which of the colleges in this list (particularly UCs, Stanford and Rice) are not good with INTERNATIONAL STUDENT ‘aid’ (need-blind or whatever) & ‘scholarships’ ?
B) Still any colleges above, where there is cold weather (particularly Duke, Vanderbilt and Uof North Carolina)?</p>
<p>Akshay, Harvey Mudd and Davidson est LAC. You need to shorten down your list. A few (3-4 reaches), a few (2) matches and a few (2) safeties would be ok.</p>
<p>If you have UCLA and UC Berkeley, I don’t see why you need to have UCSD except that the form is the same. Tulane by the way gives generous merit aid for high SAT students.</p>
<p>Thought UCSD would be more generous with aid since UCB & UCLA both are much more competitive and better known</p>
<p>I don’t know…both are UC schools. I could be wrong.</p>
<p>I was under the imrpession UC’s don’t give aid to intls</p>
<p>Ya, none of the UCs offer aid to int’ls. They are off my list.</p>
<p>Ashkay, You are ubiquitous! As I and several other parents have already advised you, you need to START your list with those colleges that offer financial aid (preferably need-blind) and merit money to internationals. There just aren’t that many of them.</p>
<p>Secondly, if an American degree is important to you, then you need to be realistic about your chances of acceptance at a very selective school. Perfect SATs are a wonderful accomplishment, but for the kind of schools on your list, they are not all that unusual. Don’t get me wrong, you have great qualifications, but so do thousands of others and you are competing for a very small number of slots. After you find out which schools you can afford, then take a looks at their acceptance rates. Try to find some in the 30-40% range.</p>
<p>What about other kids at your school? You seem to be operating in a total information vacuum. Do you have a counselor, principal or teacher who can help you?</p>
<p>Sorry Momrath,</p>
<p>I think I will have to start all over again with the college list. And this time I’ll start with top colleges that are known to be good with int’l student aid and scholarships. The weather condition factor should have never been my primary college selection criterion. I was unduly concerned with climate.</p>
<p>Akshay, don’t be sorry. It’s great that you are asking questions and learning as you go. The American college application system is bewildering even for people who live in the US. The good news is that ethic and cultural diversity is a big draw at US colleges these days, especially at LACs. This can be a big plus for highly qualified international students who are not white or Christian.</p>
<p>The next step is going to be writing those essays and gathering up your recommendations. Stay tuned in . . .</p>
<p>Akshay, if you can stand the cold weather, I’d recommend Williams which is generous with aid and Colgate. Colgate is definitely looking for diversity and for a student with great stats such as yourself, Colgate is a possibility. I would look into it. I don’t know how generous they are with international students, though.</p>
<p>Williams is hard to get into but is also possibly looking for diversity…I could be wrong.</p>
<p>And by the way, the cold seems daunting for someone from India but it isn’t bad and even enjoyable for young people. So I wouldn’t shut out the entire Northeast because of the cold…you never know, you might actually love it.</p>
<p>In answer to your question, Harvey Mudd is in California and Davidson is in North Carolina.</p>
<p>I’ve a friend who got into George Washington Univ for his Masters this year, and he’s all set to experience snow for the first time and his life’s coldest winter… His response will be very important to me…</p>
<p>Akshay, I am from the Indian subcontinent; it isn’t that big a deal, the snow. It’s actually exhilarating when you are young and watch the snow for the first time. But I guess it is a personal decision. I know someone, also Indian, who loves the snow so much that he goes to Finland and Scandinavia for vacations; and not in summer but winter!</p>