Match Me 3.5UW GPA, 1 of 130+, School President, Int'l, Need [full] Financial Aid, Weak Extracurriculars [chemical or environmental engineering]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Guidelines

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Demographics

  • US domestic (US citizen or permanent resident) or international student : International Student
  • State/Location of residency: Nigeria
  • Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Government
  • Other special factors: (first generation to college, legacy, recruitable athlete, etc.)

*Cost Constraints / Budget
Dependent on a full scholarship. Very low budget.
(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)

Intended Major(s)
Chemical Engineering or Environmental Engineering
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: (calculate it yourself if your high school does not calculate it) 3.50

  • Weighted HS GPA: (must specify weighting system; note that weighted GPA from the high school is usually not informative, unless aligned with the recalculation used by a college of interest, such as CA, FL, SC public universities)

  • College GPA: (for transfer applicants)

  • Class Rank: 1 of 130+

  • ACT/SAT Scores:
    No Scores. Will not be reporting test scores
    List your HS coursework
    (Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)

  • English: Structure, Vocabulary Dev, Oral English, Writing, Comprehension

  • Math: (including highest level course(s) completed) Algebra II, Statistics, Calculus (Differential and Integral), Engineering Maths

  • Science: (including which ones, such as biology, chemistry, physics) Biology, Chemistry,Physics

  • History and social studies: Civic Education

  • Language other than English: (including highest level completed) French (Grade 9), Hausa (Grade 9)

  • Visual or performing arts: NA

  • Other academic courses: Geography, Economics, Marketing

College Coursework (Transfer Applicants)
(Include college courses taken while in high school if not included above.)

  • General education course work:
  • Major preparation course work:

Awards
Bronze Medalist State level Chemistry Olympiad
Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)
School President, Volunteer Tutor, Peer Counselor, News Writing (Paid), Phone Repairs, Show Making, AV Team (Church)
Essays/LORs/Other
(Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)
Personal Essay was about Financial Constraints and Hardships growing up. This year’s will be about Experience, Impact and lessons from Tutoring.
Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if unsure, leave them unclassified)
Stanford University EA, Lafayette College ED 2, Loyola Marymount university, Bowdoin College, Miami University, Lehigh University, TAMU
If a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below; also, for colleges that admit by major or division, consider that in chance estimate.

  • Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability):
  • Extremely Likely: Miami University,
  • Likely: Lafayette
  • Toss-up: Loyola Marymount, Boston university
  • Lower Probability: Lehigh, TAMU
  • Low Probability: Stanford University, Bowdoin

Got admitted to Penn state, university of Pitts, Arizona state, Colorado state, Barry university, etc last year but no full scholarship.
Rejected Cornell, Stanford, Dartmouth, TAMU, Tufts

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I am from a very poor background. This is my second time applying. I want to try again. I have 2 siblings in college and we can hardly cater for family’s need. I need suggestions on college’s to apply for that meet 100% need. Otherwise, cannot afford.

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What would you study at Bowdoin, which doesn’t offer its own engineering program?

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I think funding is going to be a huge obstacle for you.

What have you been doing this past year?

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So just some general guidance.

It is EXTREMELY competitive to get the level of aid you are seeking in the US as an International applicant. Most US colleges simply don’t have it, and those that do have it can afford to be extremely picky about who gets it. I note among the colleges that do have it, many don’t have engineering, so needing an engineering college that has such aid for Internationals is further limiting the possibilities.

And even if they are nominally need blind and meets need for Internationals (a very short list of colleges), this invariably just means their general standards for admission for Internationals are incredibly high, such they are not worried about too many high need Internationals getting admitted.

In this context, I think the best bets are to identify engineering colleges with at least the sort of International aid you need available sometimes AND for which you are arguably overqualified by their normal standards for International admission.

And answering that second question is difficult, because it is very hard to know exactly how competitive you are in the context of your country. Your GPA probably means nothing (which is fine), and 1 of 130+ sounds somewhat promising, but really the question is more how do you compare to other successful applicants to US colleges from your sort of school in the past?

I don’t mean to be discouraging, but I think it is important to be realistic. Like, Lafayette does have Engineering, and does say they are 100% meets need for Internationals, so that’s good.

But while Lafayette reported in their last data set that they had a 44.0% admissions rate for US domestic applicants, it was 6.1% for International applicants:

And Lafayette is need aware for Internationals, so it was likely even harder than that for high need Internationals.

So I don’t know if you actually have a good chance of getting the offer you need from Lafayette. Maybe, but it will take you being an extremely well-qualified applicant within the International pool that applies to Lafayette.

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I am a huge fan of Centre College in KY. I saw that they are now offering two new engineering majors. They do not have ABET accreditation yet but should soon. Contact them for more info.

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Will this college provide full funding for an international student? This doesn’t make it sound like a sure thing.

https://centre.smartcatalogiq.com/en/catalog-and-handbooks/catalog/admission-and-financing-a-centre-education/admission/international-students/

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No definitely not a sure thing but they do offer 10 competitive full ride scholarships each year. With it being such a small school, that’s better odds than most.

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Chemistry

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Working and taking college first year classes

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Thank you so much for this. And yes, I am being realistic. I currently have an admission to one of the best colleges in my home country, but study abroad has been a dream for a very long time.
I’m simply just trying my best. If I don’t get it, that’s completely okay. I’ll be contented and make do with what I have. I just want to try, I never know what might happen. You miss all the shots you don’t take. Thank you so much.

And btw, do you know any of those competitive schools that you think I can TRY?

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An issue is if you’re taking college classes for credit you will be ineligible for financial aid everywhere in the US. (If you’re just registered as a national requirement for health insurance or whatever and are auditing but not getting credit, you’re still eligible.)
Colleges that offer FA only offer it to freshmen applicants.
You can apply 1-2 years after graduating high school (if you work) but not if you have started taking classes for credit after HS graduation, as a college student.

What job? (Colleges will need that).

It is entirely pointless to reapply to colleges where you were rejected last year. The admission officer will see your application and won’t go “oops I made a mistake last year”.

Why not apply ED1 to Lafayette or Bowdoin?

1/130 is the rank in your school so hard to estimate for international admission… but if you look at your CAE or final exam results how did these compare in the country? Would you be top 1% or top 2-5% in the country?
Your conversion to a US GPA is wrong and cannot be 3.5 (it’s not bad but in the US a student with a 3.5 GPA is not 1st nor are they applying to the colleges you are targeting). Except at very strict boarding schools the valedictorian (student ranked 1st) would have a 4.0. Perhaps there was a problem if 3.5 is what you sent.

It would be in your interest to have a SAT score quickly. If you can’t afford to take it, would someone be able to raise the funds for you?
A 1500+ score opens merit scholarships at some public universities. Very few have full rides nowadays but only one that I know if with no score requirements (it used to have a 1500 score minimum though).
You need to apply to UT Dallas NOW so you can get your portal and number from them (it may take a couple weeks) and apply to McDermott.

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Just clarifying for others…this is for international students in most cases.

This poster will be applying as a transfer student. In my opinion, that lowers their odds of acceptance significantly.

This is great. Perhaps you can come here for grad school if undergrad doesn’t work out (acceptance and affordability). I think you have a nice, positive approach to this.

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Many schools will require you to apply as a transfer if you take college courses after leaving high school.

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For internationals, there’s a distinction between registering at college and auditing classes to keep sharp or because otherwise you lose health insurance or are supposed to join the military or…(Lots of situations) And actually enrolling as a full time college student with the intent of taking classes toward credit and graduation. Keeping in mind that tuition is often free or covered, the “auditing to avoid unnecessary administrative headaches while preparing an application to a US college” is fairly common; US colleges understand the case when students work as many hours as they can find and audit classes around their job.
American colleges want to see a transcript and if there’s no transcript for instance it makes no sense to apply as a transfer. It’s considered similar to a gap year. The key is being able to justify how the gap year was spent. (Usually: working&saving money.)

IF OP is enrolled as 100% full time toward a degree and has/will have a transcript, as an international they’re ineligible for financial aid. They’re supposed to complete their degree and apply during their 4th or 5th year to a graduate school program.

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So one of the things I was trying to suggest is this sort of question really requires an assessment of your competitiveness that I am not qualified to offer.

But MYOS1634 is offering you some useful insights.

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Just skimming through, here are my thoughts:

Which Miami are you referring to as being likely to be affordable and what led to you to that conclusion? Miami University Ohio is public, so it will not provide need-based aid to internationals. Average aid for internationals is 19k vs cost of attendance 58k. The University of Miami, in Miami, FL, is private and provides some need-based aid to some internationals, with average aid 43k vs cost of attendance 94k.

BU doesn’t give need-based aid to internationals, with average merit aid 45k vs cost of attendance 90k. LMU average aid for internationals only 4k vs cost of attendance 89k.

For freshman international applicants hunting for merit scholarships, not submitting a test score would hurt, though I don’t know about transfer applicants or international transfers specifically. I would be very skeptical that you are going to find any of the schools on your list to be affordable if you are admitted.

If you really want to study in the US, I like the idea of coming for grad school, though I don’t know about availability of financial aid for international grad students.

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Obviously it very much depends on the program, but at least in the PhD programs I know about, Internationals could get research and/or teaching assistantships. I don’t know the details, but I believe their visas usually covered the up to 20 hours of work required per week.

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No, I’m taking college classes online. Not registered in a school or taking them for college credits. I’ll be applying as a fresh student.
My friends in college sometimes take online classes and I get the materials.

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I’m not taking classes for college credits. I’ll be applying as a fresh applicant. I have an admission but have not started.

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