<p>Dear topsecret,</p>
<p>You are doing very well in high school. Nevertheless finding an engineering school in the United States that will cost you less than $10k per year is going to be very tough. International students needing substantial financial aid face fierce competition for admission to U.S. colleges.</p>
<p>MIT, Cornell COE, Carnegie Mellon, and Columbia SEAS are some of the most competitive engineering schools in America. Though it is remotely possible that you can get into one of them, you cannot count on it. MIT, Cornell, and Columbia all have strong financial aid programs, but I do not think they are need blind for international students. Carnegie Mellon is known to gap some of the students it admits.</p>
<p>Lehigh and Lafayette both have good engineering programs, but will be reaches for you as an international student needing substantial aid.</p>
<p>There certainly are lots of engineering schools in the U.S. that are less competitive for admissions than the ones you list. The problem is that most of those will not have strong financial aid for internationals.</p>
<p>Macalester, Bates, and Hamilton are not engineering schools and do not offer engineering courses. They are excellent liberal arts colleges where you could study economics. Macalester has a reputation for enrolling lots of international students, so they must be offering financial aid to top internationals.</p>
<p>My advice would be to apply to some U.S. colleges (who knows?..), but be sure to apply also to universities in your own country where you have a good chance of being admitted and of being able to afford the cost.</p>