<p>I’d like to know what would be a competitive score for the SAT, if I’m not looking to apply to any IVY league colleges, but instead some high and medium ranked engineering schools like Gatech, Caltech, etc.
I’m from India, so kindly keep that in mind.
I also NEED financial aid, like at least 50%.
My academics are excellent, extra curricular activities are good too…</p>
<p>The middle 50% ranges vary substantially among colleges so how good you need to do depends on college. For example, you mention CalTech. Well, Caltech typically has one of, if not the, highest middle 50% ranges for SAT scores, about 2170 to 2350, in the nation, whereas GTech’s middle 50% range is about 1840 to 2100. So essentially you need to get as high as you can and choose colleges for which your score may be in the running.</p>
<p>A different issue is financial aid. You can search for sites through google that give lists of colleges that provide need-based financial aid to internationals. Majority of US universities do not and that includes GTech and other public universities in general and thus for many your only hope for aid is possible merit based awards for which you will often need a very high SAT.</p>