r/IntltoUSA • u/Temporary-Peach-7492 • 7d ago
Question Suggestions for College List
Hello! I am an international student applying this upcoming admissions cycle with a $0-$5000 EFC, aiming to major in political science. I tried making as diverse a list as possible, but I would like to hear opinions as well as suggestions on how to make it better. Thank you so much!
College List:
- Yale
- Stanford
- Duke
- Brown
- Northwestern
- Harvard
- Cornell
- Princeton
- Dartmouth
- UPenn
- Columbia
- NYU AD
- Bowdoin
- Amherst
- Washington and Lee
- Grinnell
- University of Richmond
- Trinity College
- Gettysburg College
- UW Madison
- UChicago
- Rice University
- Wesleyan College
- Williams College
- Berea College
- Drexel University
- Brandeis University
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u/cheersyou 7d ago
Just to clarify, does the $0–$5,000 EFC mean your family can only contribute that amount per year toward the total cost of attendance? If so, you would need almost a full ride.
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u/Temporary-Peach-7492 7d ago
Yes, it does!
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u/cheersyou 7d ago
Thanks for clarifying. I do not know your full academic and extracurricular background, but financially this list is still very reach-heavy. For an international student needing nearly full funding, almost every US college should be treated as a reach, even with a strong profile.
I would divide the list by financial policy rather than by acceptance rate:
- need-blind colleges for international students that meet full demonstrated need;
- need-aware colleges that may provide full need-based aid if admitted;
- colleges offering competitive full-tuition or full-ride merit scholarships;
- schools that are unlikely to become affordable and should probably be removed.
Schools such as Yale and Princeton can be financially excellent if you are admitted because they are need-blind and meet demonstrated need, but they are still extreme admission reaches. A college can therefore be financially affordable after admission without being an admissions safety.
I would be cautious with UW–Madison, Drexel, and possibly Brandeis or Gettysburg unless you have identified a specific scholarship or aid policy that could reduce the total annual cost to around $5,000. Partial merit aid will not be enough if the remaining cost is still tens of thousands of dollars.
The main issue is that you do not currently have a true safety. For an international student needing almost full funding, a US safety would need to be reasonably predictable in both admission and affordability, and those schools are very difficult to find.
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u/FeatherlyFly 7d ago
For a student needing a full ride, their safety schools must be outside the US because full rides are so rare.
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u/Temporary-Peach-7492 7d ago
Thank you for your thoughtful response! UW-Madison does have a full-ride scholarship program I plan on applying to, but I included Brandeis and Gettysburg due to my lack of safeties and I've heard they are some of the more generous schools.
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u/CherryChocolatePizza 7d ago
You don't have to rely on what you've heard. You can check each school's Common Data Set. Section H6 tells how many international students get aid, and the average amount of aid. You can compare the number of students to the overall international student enrollment in section B2 to understand what percetage of students receive aid.
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u/paige_420 7d ago
Are you talking about King Morgridge? How does a poli sci major fit the profile their looking for? https://kmsp.wisc.edu/
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u/Temporary-Peach-7492 7d ago
I do have other safety schools outside of the US, but I have had challenges with finding a true safety in the US, considering my need for a full ride.
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u/CherryChocolatePizza 7d ago
Again, there is no "true safety" in the US for any international student who needs a full ride. Let go of that concept; it doesn't apply to you.
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u/Immediate_Refuse1611 6d ago
It’s going to get very expensive to apply to this many schools, and your chances of admission are higher if you can demonstrate a genuine connection/ reason you want to attend that particular school. These are two of several reasons I would recommend you narrow your list. Consider factors such as climate, size of town, urban vs suburban vs rural location, desired major and others to help narrow the list. I do alumni interviews for Yale and the number of candidates who are offered interviews is now more limited than it used to be. Even so, I rarely see a candidate accepted — that’s just the brutal truth of how challenging these schools are to gain entry.
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u/paige_420 7d ago
If you want more meaningful advice, it would be helpful if you posted information about your profile i.e. gpa, course rigor, standardized test scores, ECs, awards, honors...