Please understand that the colleges that are both need blind for admissions and guarantee to meet full need for all accepted international students have low single digit acceptance rates.
If you are a female, would you be interested in women’s colleges
Paging @MYOS1634 to this thread too
I’m a male, sorry. My list of places currently is Amherst/Brown, Berea, and Bowdoin, though I’m not so sure about Bowdoin anymore because of what @circuitrider said about the role size would play in my chances. Berea is my safe school, what’s your opinion on that?
This is a common misconception. The premise is that your odds of admission are better at a need-blind institution than one that is need-aware. This ignores the fact that the large discount rate in tuition (Total number of students x tuition minus total grants awarded) typical of a need-blind college, attracts more applicants and more applicants per college usually translates as longer odds of admission.
But in terms of need-blind schools, take a look outside the northeast. Take a look at Vanderbilt, Washington University, St. Louis, Rice, and Emory.
Those colleges are need-aware for international students though, right? I am not from the US.
Yes, all those schools are need aware for internationals. But, they do fully fund some internationals each year.
I wouldn’t call Berea a safety but will wait for myos1634 to weigh in.
As far as I know, there are only five colleges in the US that are considered “truly need-blind for internationals”:
Harvard
Yale
Princeton
MIT
and Amherst
Is Brown not one of them starting from the class of 2029?
But, they do fully fund some internationals each year.
See, when I read this all I can think about is how much more excellent you’d have to be, compared when applying to a need-blind school, to be accepted into a need-aware school and be funded fully. Is this a flawed way to think about this?
Where money is concerned, there is no avoiding a premium on credentials. It doesn’t matter whether it is being offered by a so-called “need-blind” college or a need-aware college. Chances are you are going to have to demonstrate superior qualifications in order to get college funded tuition and other grants.
Yes to Brown. Dartmouth is also need blind for internationals.
Of course, that makes sense. You’d have to be exceptional either way, but from reading some of your answers I realize that it isn’t as simple as “with a given set of credentials my odds are better at a need-blind institution rather than a need-aware one, since the asking of aid does not work against my odds in the case of the need-blind institution”.
I’d like to know what to look for in a school then, other than merely need-blindness and a larger class size, to decide how much of a shot I have at getting in. You named Brown for example, why is that?
I would look at schools located within a city. It’s just easier to live life as an adult when you don’t have to worry about a hundred undergraduates having keg parties every weekend on your dorm floor.
I would love to have the luxury to factor in something like that when looking for colleges, but with my situation I’m naturally trying to start by making a list of what places I have the best shot at.
Only after I get into one of them, I’ll think of that stuff alongside other things to decide whether to proceed with attendance.
What major(s) are you most interested in? What type of job/career?
Look at it this way: apply to schools where your circumstances, your background, the age differential won’t look so out-of-place. You want places that are naturally cosmopolitan in vibe. I would add Vassar to the mix. It’s not need-blind, but you would have an advantage as a male applicant.
I feel like I should pay for this, because it’s more insightful than whatever solo research I’ve done about US colleges over the past year. How would you compare Vassar to Berea?
If you apply and you get into 1 school, but they don’t offer significant financial aid, what will you do?
You have to apply to schools where you may have a chance of admission with funding. That’s the advice that the posters here are trying to provide for you.
Vassar is wealthier socio-economically. WAY wealthier.
That kind of school is exactly what I’m looking for. My aim isn’t any good college, it’s one that I would have a shot at getting into, and if I do where I get sufficient aid. I just don’t know what criteria to search for such schools would be, but I’m saying I’d prefer to think about stuff like surroundings and lifestyle later on because I wouldn’t want to avoid a certain school just because it’s not in the ideal location.