#looking to cut down my list!

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

primal void
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Currently have 10 american colleges, don't really wanna spend $800+ on application fees to a bunch of long shots. All my target/safeties are going to be in Canada (the country i live in) so dw about that.

  • Location/Region: Toronto, Canada. Don't really care about where the school is.

  • Major: Comp sci / Comp eng.

  • GPA/Test Scores: predicted 39/42 IB (so far), 1560 SAT.

  • Curriculum: Doesn't really matter.

  • Size: Don't care.

  • Costs: I'm def gonna need aid, no specific budget but keeping it under 15-20k usd would be very important to me.

  • Schools You're Currently Looking At: Looking at: Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Harvard, Princeton, Yale (all have average cost after aid for internationals as lower than 15k according to this https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1otwtaKUYreI1MZsWzmKW5eu-mHVJLnZik8HP2HrTtZs/edit?gid=1549953579#gid=1549953579).
    I've heard getting into Duke as an international needing financial aid is much harder, but should I just do it anyways? Would really love thoughts on what I should change (or even if I should be cutting down my list at all). Thanks!

visual lion
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what are you actually looking for in terms of curriculum, school vibe, etc.

primal void
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yeah, really just went for lowest cost as an international

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i mean something i thought was interesting was yale's computing and the arts as i've been pretty interested in 3d art, but i wouldn't reject any school for not having something like that

visual lion
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you will also have to consider different application cycles since brown, cornell, dartmouth, duke are all ED and stanford, caltech, harvard are all REA

primal void
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yeah, unless i understood it wrong i basically can only apply to 1 college early which is probably not optimal

visual lion
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it depends what you mean by optimal

primal void
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in terms of optimizing for acceptance rate, although ik that is debated

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whether the boost is noticeable

visual lion
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you can still apply to a swath of colleges RD (unless you are accepted somewhere ED)

primal void
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true, and i'm sure i'd be happy at any of these places if i get accepted ed

visual lion
primal void
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yeah makes sense

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ig in terms of reducing my list i'm really looking at stanford caltech and duke because of their distance

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and probably if there are any others that are terrible for internationals or people seeking aid

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okay thanks

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how would i find out how much that affects acceptance?

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oh lol

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cuz ik caltech says they're need aware for internationals but also say that they're really generous?

visual lion
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i mean again i think it could be productive to consider why you want to attend these schools and what you are looking for in a college beyond just optimizing for acceptance rates

thick lodge
primal void
primal void
visual lion
# primal void yeah, i've heard cs hiring doesn't really care about what college u go to? and i...

cs is a broad field. software engineering is definitely more school-agnostic than, say, investment banking (i.e., more focused on projects & experience than name brand) but ML/industry research skews more towards a few top institutions. imo there are also many more considerations when picking schools beyond future career prospects because its not like the sole purpose of college is to get a job

primal void
# visual lion cs is a broad field. software engineering is definitely more school-agnostic tha...

yeah, so far i think i'm not as interested in ml or research, but obv that might change over the next few years. but also about college being more than just a way to get a job, i dont really know how i'm supposed to get a real idea of how each college actually feels like (outside of the content that the college itself produces). esp when i hear about people falling in love with colleges just to end up really sad once they get rejected, which is almost definitely gonna happen with my list so far lol. idk maybe i can try talking to alumni tho?

visual lion
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as for school-specific feels i think both academic and social fit both matter. for academic, look into the curriculum: e.g., brown is famous for its open curriculum, look into how easy it is to switch majors or double-major if you want to explore more, consider class sizes if you prefer more intimate discussions, look at some major requirements to get an idea of what you could take, certain schools like harvard stanford yale emphasize humanities a bit more than tech institutions like mit/caltech

thick lodge
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so its not like ur shutting any doors

primal void
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i'll def look into major requirements

primal void
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thanks both of you guys!

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i'm gonna do some research and come back with a better list

thick lodge
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gl

primal void
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thanks!

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u too

naive moth
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not sure if you can request fee waivers but i think thats a possibility

river wing
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idk if they do this for candian level intl, but cornell is also intly need aware

tall oyster
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Tbh all the schools you listed are really difficult to get in needing aid, not just Duke.

However, the good news is you don't need full aid, only... a lot haha. They take into consideration the amount
of aid you need to determine acceptance (so the less aid you need the better). The only schools that don't do this are MIT, Princeton, Yale, Harvard. Bowdoin (no engineering), Amherst (no engineering), Dartmouth, Georgetown (no engineering), University of Notre Dame. Most of these schools are on your list anyways so that's good.

The other thing is these are suuupper competitive schools to get into, you can check to see if they give fee waivers to international students, though.

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The list you referenced is really good, I would look through it to see if there are any schools that offer full need or select merit scholarship opportunities for international students.