Please Match Canadian Asian male to T20 [4.0 UW, 1580 SAT for Chemistry or Math]

Chance Me / Match Me
21

I think you will do fine.

The reason most of us here will tell you any UC or Most State Uni are reaches is because so many people apply to them and relatively few get admitted. Unlike places such as CSU Humboldt, ASU (somehwere), and UT San Antonio where over 80% of applicants get accepted, any schools for STEM with acceptance rate lower than 20% are not considered “safety.” UCI for example, plenty of high stat kids get rejected, just look thru the official posts and you will see bunch of angry parents ranting.

But since you are applying to about 20 schools, I would say chance of getting into one of them is pretty good. you just don’t know which one.

Sounds like you have enough family support that if you do get into a “dream” school money will come through.

22

The reason that your initial Safeties and Matches were not correct is that, unlike most Canadian universities, US universities use holistic admission. They look at more than stats. It is sometimes interpreted to mean that they can admit and deny whomever they choose, regardless of how strong an application appears to be.

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23

Please please do not jeopardize your family financial situation just so you can attend a college here. You have enough money to attend a number of colleges that have auto merit aid…without selling what is a financial plus for your parents.

Look at University of New Mexico, University of Arizona, University of Alabama, for example.

And the Canadian universities as well.

Plenty of truly affordable options.

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24

Re: net price calculators.

  1. They are currently set for students starting in fall 2024 and that is NOT this student.

  2. They likely won’t be accurate for an international student.

25

I think selling the family home for the last two years does not constitute having enough family financial support. My opinion.

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26

Adding…as an international student, you will need to complete a certificate of finances documenting that you have full funding available now for all four years of your college costs. You will need to do this to get a student visa.

This can include already approved loans and school financial aid.

It can NOT include potential proceeds from any real estate transaction that will happen in the future.

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27

For a Canadian student, it makes no financial or academic sense to attend any US university outside of the top 20. McGill, UToronto and UBC would be far cheaper and more academically rigorous.

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28

I would assume OP is aware of his own financial situation.

30

And also because there are so many applications for so few spots. https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/admissions-statistics

31

One more thing…

If your family income is $120,000 USD, it’s highly possible you could get aid at some of these colleges that DO give need based aid to international students.

You need to check each website for info. For example, University of Michigan has very limited aid for international students.

From the CMU site:

Carnegie Mellon offers need-based financial aid to applicants who are U.S. citizens, permanent residents or have DACA status. International students aren’t eligible for financial aid at Carnegie Mellon

Here is the info for Georgia Tech

https://isss.oie.gatech.edu/content/financial-assistance-international-students

And the CA publics will give you nothing.

BUT there are more affordable options that you could consider IF you feel the Canadian colleges just aren’t what you want. But I agree…you are a strong student who would do well at the ones mentioned above…for a reasonable cost

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32

Yes, these tags are a mistake. I had attempted to remove them.

33

I deleted the one, and changed to class of 2025. Is that accurate?

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34

I really don’t understand why your parents and grandparents are willing to throw their savings/security to put up so much money to cover your education in a US school. The Canadian universities are exceptional and they’re well priced. I’ve learned a lot about Canada (I have a new son-in-law from Canada).

When you’re done with your education in the US, you’re going back home to Canada.

When you’re accepted to a US university, you’re a guest of the university, and the country, for four years. After the four years are up, your student visa expires and you are expected to return home.

As previously mentioned, the UCs will not give you a dime. They are public universities, funded by the taxpayers of California. But we, the residents, will take your parents’ money since our state budget is always tight and underfunded.

That’s where your parents and grandparents money comes in, If you are even accepted. The competition to get into the UC system is extremely hard. The universities get well over 100,000 applications per year, per school.
Did I mention that our universities have limited housing? You may have to fund a full apartment, because housing is not guaranteed and the real estate/land is insanely expensive and it does not come cheaply.

The State of California, and travel to California, is very expensive. We also don’t have the great medical system that you have in Canada. It just seems absurd to me that your parents are willing to sacrifice their savings and security to pay the coffers of an American University.

Also please note if you self study an AP exam it is not viewed in a positive manner by a number of universities. They want to see what you do in the classroom.

Please rethink your list. You can apply to the top tens but there’s no guarantee that you’ll get in. Your safeties and matches are not in the US. Your safeties in matches are in Canada.

Edited to add: the University of Southern California is over $90,000 a year. They have some scholarships but as an international student I don’t think your chances are good. Plus it’s LA, a very expensive city.

That’s one thing that my son-in-law was very surprised about in California. The cost of living is crazy expensive.

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35

Just asking, because I don’t know. Canadian students don’t need a student visa (just need an I20) to attend uni here, so are they limited in how much they work?

36

Some places in Canada are also very expensive for cost of living.

But university education and medical care are the two places where US costs are much higher than in Canada.

37

The student visa is waived (in that, they don’t need to obtain it in advance and have it stamped in their passport like other foreign students), but they have to follow the same eligibility criteria - getting an I20 from the university, registering in SEVIS, showing proof of funds, ties to home country, etc.
So they are international students, and the 20 hours per week does apply (when school is in session).

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38

That sounds like a bad idea when you can get a similar, near identical education at other US schools.

Chem is chem, won’t have great outcomes.

Math will have great outcomes - from mostly anywhere.

To go to school with a two year funding plan is not a good idea.

And to have the - oh well - to pay for the last two years we have to sell a home - and dent their finances.

not a good idea.

Sorry - find a cheaper flagship - because guess what, you’re likely to end up in a similar role. Or stay at home as @TomSrOfBoston noted which is probably the smartest thing to do.

Often times one has to let budget drive a decision - and this is that time.

You are talking about severely impacting your family financial situation off of a hope and dream of a name…no assurance …and it’s going to end up impacting your family for the rest of their life when you can have similar, at a third or half or 2/3 the cost at - in the end - like schools.

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39

Agree with above posters based on your family finances and the areas you are pursuing. Given your accomplishments, I’d drop the “non meet full financial need for international students” colleges and take your shot at 2 to 4 of MIT, HYP, Bowdoin, Amherst, Dartmouth and Brown (with FA requested) but have your Canadian schools as backup. Plenty of opportunity looking at grad programs in math or chemistry in the US which often will be fully funded PhD programs.

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40

And indicate that you need financial aid.

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41

With a 4.0 GPA I would expect the Canadian universities on your list to be safeties, and these are indeed all very good universities. I suppose that you could add Queen’s, but I don’t see why you would need to given the excellent quality, relatively reasonable cost, and very high probability of acceptance to the Canadian universities that you already have on this list.

By the way, we currently live in the US but both daughters and I have dual citizenship. All three of us applied to Canadian universities and considered them all to be safeties with grades and SAT scores that were slightly lower than your stats.

You should at a minimum budget for a full 4 years of university. A master’s is possible for either a chemistry or mathematics major, which suggests that you might want to budget for 6 years. In Canada my understanding is that a master’s degree is usually funded, but in the US it usually is not and can be somewhat expensive.

However, one reasonable option to consider would be to get a bachelor’s degree in Canada and then a master’s or other graduate degree in the US. I know multiple people who have done this, or are about to do this (one daughter starts her PhD in the US in a few months). This can cost less than just a bachelor’s in the US, since a master’s degree is generally somewhere between one and two years so you would be paying the big bucks for a much shorter period of time. Of the people I know who did this, one got his bachelor’s degree at Toronto and his master’s degree at Stanford. I also used to know someone who got her bachelor’s at Toronto, and then both a master’s and a PhD at Princeton. The others have also attended very good graduate programs in the US. Even the highest ranked and best known universities in the US know how strong the top universities in Canada are.

Many of the highest ranked universities in the US are need-blind for admissions (Harvard, MIT, Princeton, and Stanford come to mind – edit, oops, I forgot that Stanford is not need blind for international students). You might as well apply for financial aid. You can run their NPCs to get an estimate for what they might cost you assuming that you apply for financial aid and get accepted (if you Google “Net Price Calculator Harvard University” you will for example find the NPC for Harvard).

The Universities of California will almost certainly be full pay for an out of state student.

The full cost of attendance at a private university in the US can often be somewhere in the US$80,000/year to US$90,000/year range, although apparently there is at least one that is now up to $95,000/year. By the time that you get your bachelor’s degree, you could very likely be paying over US$100,000 per year at a private university in the US. The public universities might be slightly less, but only slightly. I do not understand the point of paying this much for a bachelor’s degree when the alternative for 1/4 the cost is on the level of Toronto, McMaster, Queen’s, McGill, and UBC. I would urge you not to start at any university in the US without knowing for sure how you are going to pay for four years without taking on any debt.

Do not plan on being allowed to stay in the US after getting your degree down here. International students who attend university in the US are expected and generally required to return to their home country after graduating. Also, at least in my experience (admittedly from many years ago) Canadian employers often seem to prefer to hire from one of the excellent Canadian universities rather than from top US universities (even at the “MIT, Stanford” level).

One small NIT is that I do not think that UC Irvine is a safety, but on the other hand I do not think that this matters because I think that Toronto and McMaster are safeties for you and are excellent universities.

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