Hi, I am worried about my chances at elites college in the US when I have extremely limited resources for college. I am a Vietnamese female living in a small town in Northern Vietnam with little academic opportunities. I went to the province’s only gifted high school, top 8 prestigious high schools in Vietnam, and have many achievements:
SAT 1: 1390 (I think that shouldn’t be shown because it is quite low)
SAT 2: Math 2: 800; Biology E:670 (i also think it is not high enough)
Ielts: 7.0
GPA: 8,5/10 ( Vietnam have a different grading system)
There is no AP class available.
Treasurer of School’s English Club (which raise a lot of money for charity by throwing job fairs, holiday events, career consultant conference,…)
3rd Prize of Province’s Biology Contest
3rd Prize of Province’s Physic Contest
English for low-income children volunteer campaign: Teaching assistant
Community services at Hà Temple.
School Drama Club: President.
“Tiếp sức mùa thi” Entrance exam support campaign: Academic assistant.
Blood donation campaign: Publicist
School newspaper: Reporter/Writer.
Freshmen Mentor.
School’s woman badminton team
Co-founder of a school club about technology.
Organization board of School Job Fair 2018.
Charity for Vietnamese Heroic Mothers
My list of schools:
College of the Holy Cross (ED)
Agnes Scott
Whitworth University
Beloit College
College of the Atlantic
Hampshire College
Hobart & William Smith
Depauw University
Allegheny College
I especially have high hope for Holy Cross, since it is always my dream school but with the amount of money my family has, I even think about applying for a community college as a safe choice.
Thank everyone for your time.
It’s still fairly early in the morning on the east coast of the US-- most of the people who can answer your question are probably still asleep.
I am absolutely NOT the right person to answer this, but want to ask a question:
Won’t transportation to and from the US eat heavily into that $6,000 per year? Would it make more sense to consider schools in a country that’s much closer? I know nothing about the Australian system, but geographically I would imagine it would make more sense.
For the schools on your list your SAT score is probably fine to send. But the bigger issue is finances. There are very few colleges (and by few, I mean 4 or 5) who are need blind and meet 100% of need for International students. There is definitely some money for International students at other colleges, but it may since you are basically looking for a full ride, it is going to be hard to come by. You need to reach out to the financial aid departments at the school you are interested in, to get a better understanding of the amount of aid available for International students
OP, talk to the schools on your current list. If you would like additional options, look at these pages. they list some of the schools that give the best financial aid to international students:
College of the Holy Cross (ED) - Aid is awarded to United States citizens and permanent residents only based on a need analysis. Academic merit scholarships are also extremely limited. There is limited funding for international students.
Agnes Scott - offers merit-based scholarships that are highly competitive.
Whitworth University - Whitworth aid does not offer scholarships or other financial aid that covers the full cost of attendance, and we do not guarantee need-based aid to applicants. The maximum merit scholarship is $25000 and the cost of attendance is $55136 for students staying on campus.
Beloit College - Beloit College values a vibrant international community and awards generous merit-based scholarships to its international applicants. (Note, maximum of $27000) Yet, we cannot guarantee that we can meet the full need of every applicant.
College of the Atlantic - COA will meet 100% of determined financial need for Davis UWC Scholars. Financial aid for other international students is limited.
Hampshire College - Hampshire College offers a limited amount of financial aid (grant) assistance to international students who demonstrate financial need.
Hobart & William Smith - The average package typically equals more than half the annual cost of tuition, room and board. Highly competitive applicants will be considered for a full tuition scholarship.
Allegheny College - All international applicants will be considered for scholarships, the majority ranging between $5,000 and $30,000 per year. Please keep in mind that Allegheny College is unable to meet 100% of need.
All the information above is copied from the schools’ websites. If your family can afford only $6000 per year, then you need to scrap this entire list. Every single one of them has to go.
My daughter and I toured Whitworth at the end of June. Our guide was a rising junior (not an international student though) and he told our group that the amount of financial aid he received covered not only his tuition, but his off campus room and board too. He joked that he actually was going to get more money than he needed, and it was like getting paid to go to school there. Thought his comment was unusual, but no reason to disbelieve him.
The quote from @gigichuck from the Whitman U website refers specifically to international students. There is a full-tuition scholarship for in-state students, and need-based aid on top of that would lead to the situation your guide talked about, @PepperJo, but would not apply to the OP.
Agnès Scott, DePauw= you must apply by the easiest deadline and it’s highly competitive - not ure you’re truly competitive but you can try.
Everything else on your list has to go.
Beloit can be really cheap. Has great FA. I’d leave that on the list.
Mt. Holyoke has aid for international students and you might find a home there. It’s a lovely school and their best FA can dip as low as $7K total payment from families. They also love international students are very empowering of women. https://www.mtholyoke.edu/ Georgeous campus. Also free buses to four other colleges where you can take classes.
You may want to try entering the two full scholarship competitions that I’m aware of–
Since you like College of the Atlantic, a similar school in Vermont (not Maine) is Marlboro. (https://www.marlboro.edu/ ) It’s a similar size and has a similar approach to education. Also the nearby towns, while not on the ocean as COA’s campus is, it’s in a gorgeous area of Vermont with cute towns nearby. Marlboro has a full scholarship competition here (this is last year’s prompt and I believe they are posting this year’s prompt soon. You can call them or email them to find out) – https://minds.marlboro.edu/
One more school that you may want to consider is Union College in Schenectady NY. The FA for low-income students can be extremely generous. Also, they need women – it’s a boy-heavy school. They have a wide variety of academic offerings for an LAC including engineering. One caveat – the culture of that school is very Greek heavy – fraternities. If you’re okay with that, then it may be a good match for you.