Which University I should apply to ED as an International student? [who needs financial aid]

I will repeat what people told you last year when you were a freshman in high school.

It’s far too early to think about these things. You have absolutely no idea what your profile will look like when you actually apply, so there is no point in thinking about where you should apply.

Moreover, you really need to consider what you are looking for in a university in the USA, and why you want to attend that university. “Ivy League” is a football conference, not a description of the type of universities these are. In size they vary from Dartmouth College with 4,500 undergraduates to Cornell with 15,500 undergraduates. Harvard and Columbia are Urban, Dartmouth is very rural, and Cornell is somewhere in between. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses, and education in each of them can be very different.

Universities and colleges in the USA are far more varied than they are in any other country. Many are private universities (like the Ivies, mostly), there are public flagship universities, and public regional universities, there are research universities, universities that teach only undergraduates and those which have undergraduates and masters programs. The number of undergraduates can vary between fewer than 500 to more than 50,0000.

You need to figure out why you want to study in the USA, what you want to study, how you want to study, in what sort of place you want to study, and how much you can afford to pay. Then you can start looking for the optimal combinations of these.

If all you want is “I want to study at the most prestigious place possible, but I only have very little money to pay for this”, you’re unlikely to find a place in which you will succeed, and admission will be even less likely.

Go back, do as best as you can at school, figure out what you want, and then come back here in another year with more specific ideas of what you want and what your options happen to be.

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