“Why didn’t JPA and Petronas choose me?!”

Every year, after the scholarship results are out, many students complain of not being able to achieve their dream of studying overseas because they were not awarded those scholarships. But hey, it is NOT the end. Most of the students are not aware that many of the colleges and universities in the US do give out lots of financial aid and scholarships to international students.

For, those who would otherwise not be able to afford it, there are basically two ways to finance your education in the US. First, merit scholarships and the second, need-based financial aid. Merit scholarships are pretty much self-explanatory. However, merit scholarships are rare among the most selective schools like Harvard, Yale, Williams etc. These colleges and universities employ the latter, need-based financial aid. This means that you only pay what you can afford to pay. Need-based financial aid covers everything(yes!), tuition fees, accommodation, living expenses and such. Let’s say the price tag is 40,000USD per year, if your family can only afford to pay 5,000USD, you pay that amount; if you can only afford to pay 10 USD, yeap, 10 USD it is.

Now although many universities award financial aid, the fact is that many universities take into account whether one can pay or not when they admit international students. These universities are need-aware in their admissions. When these universities look to admit you, they consider how much you are able to pay when making their admissions decisions. This is the opposite of need-blind, where the university is rich enough to not consider your ability to pay when they admit you. There are six need-blind colleges/universities that I know of. Harvard, Princeton, Yale, MIT, Williams and Middlebury. In these six institutions, let’s say you can pay 20 USD and another international student can pay 40,000 USD, you will not be discriminated by that factor. Although the other colleges/universities are need-aware, fortunately, many are rich enough to be generous to international students. Some colleges that are particularly fond of internationals are Carleton, Macalester and Oberlin just to name a few. Just because you haven’t heard of them does not mean they are not good. The education at these colleges is comparable to those at the Ivy League. Don’t make the mistake of only applying to universities that you know and assume all the others are not as good.

About applying, the intake for US colleges is usually in Aug/Sep. But do be aware that the deadline for the most selective colleges is in early Jan. So you need to start early if you want to apply. One should start preparation at least by May/June the year prior to enrollment.

For entrance requirements, SPM is enough but I would recommend a pre-u qualification because it will make you a much stronger candidate. So yes, even STPM students should not lose hope. Studying overseas is still a very real option even if one doesn’t have enough money to do A-Levels in a private college. Opportunities are all out there, one just needs to know where to look and work to get them.

Relevant links
For more information on the application process, read http://tinkosong.blogspot.com/2006/02/yale...need-blind.html by Elizabeth Wong

Nice link, thanks for sharing 
Well, not being able to secure a scholarship after SPM is not the end of the world 
One can still apply for scholarship after STPM, after degree, after masters, and even after phD
Work hard, and you'll shine one day 

Thanks for the awesome share. I'm planning to study in overseas but I just don't have the confidence to. :\

invinciblebunny, I can't help but notice all your threads start off with a reference link to some webpage. If lucky the topic gets picked up and commented on, if not it stays a one-post thread.

I'm glad I'm not the only person noticing it.

Look back at your threads. More than half are threads with 0 (zero) replies.

You need a blog, seriously. Compiling articles is one thing ppl use for blogs.

On the contrary I actually think he/she's doing a service to many SPM students who do not know of the opportunities in other countries besides the UK/Aus, mainly because of the sheer volume of students going there. I disagreed with his/her old approach of dissing other systems instead, but I think it's perfectly fine to sell the US system. But that's just my opinion.

What annoys most people is he usually spam one liner topics starting with a link and then very little info and of course if he were to diss other systems that will provoke others to come in and go against him. This subforum is not his private blog ^^"
he should create one topic on US education and financial aid and stick to it. Easier for people that wants to find info to find a compiled version and won't spam so much topics that most of the time nobody reply to as there's basically nothing to discuss.

Indeed, if what he wants is just to let people know about US education instead of bringing in discussions with others about it (but rather more of a QnA stuff), a blog with comments will be a lot more appropriate than spamming a forum - unless he claims ownership of it.

Here's a link to a spreadsheet that you could do some referencing for average aid amounts and gauge 'college generosity'.
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pbj...wBA&hl=en#gid=0

Notes regarding the cost figures in the spreadsheet
1. Most of the figures are obtained from the colleges' common data set 2007-2008 if available.
2. Figures that haven't been cross-referenced have been entered as text, indicated by a green arrow/ a hyphen entered before the figure (does not affect calculations).
3. The above figures are only 70% accurate as of 2005-2006 and should be only used as a rough reference/estimate to calculate the cost of attendance per annum (Total cost).

Notes regarding middle 50% SAT scores in the spreadsheet
1. The scores are obtained from Princeton Review.
2. The scores are the average per section, where the lowest and highest are taken when colleges post different scores for each section. (i.e. 560-640 for Maths and 600-680 for Critical Reading would generate a 560-680 figure)
3. Average interquartile range of SAT scores is 100.
4. 90% of cases where a certain section's average is significantly higher, the critical reading score will be higher than the maths score.
5. ACT scores are converted where SAT scores aren't available.
6. A considerable amount of colleges do not regard the writing section of the SAT I.
7. Scores from admitted students are on average lower than the scores of accepted students.

Additional notes
1. The Princeton Review selectivity rating is to be viewed in tandem with the other information provided as there are non-quantifiable factors in the admissions game.
2. Some of the cells are unfilled, resulting in a unrealistic 'Total cost'.
3. Colleges which provide Merit aid and Need-based aid usually award a higher amount of merit aid per person, thereby making figures unreliable.

The issue with a blog is that it may not reach a very wide audience, unlike this forum say, and given the numbers of people coming here for advice I think it's probably a good thing to do, since a US education does have its own advantages vs. other countries which are often unknown to most SPM leavers.

US colleges do offer international transfer student financial aid. It is not easy to find out how many international transfer students were aided per year but you could email the institutions you are interested in attending to find out more. On the other hand, do not ignore merit aid which ignores your financial need. Check for institutional scholarships etc that may be quite generous.

Though he must also take note on
Considering that rule
Look at this
List of topics opened by invinciblebunny
and judge for yourself.

Though he must also take note on
Considering that rule
Look at this
List of topics opened by invinciblebunny
and judge for yourself.

TS, try to start a thread with "Study in US/America". I know there is this one thread being linked by a sticky up there, but it's not as informative as the UK and Aus thread. Click into theirs and see what they have on their first few posts, check out their older versions also. It's informative, isn't it?
Check out the other course-specific sticky also, like the architecture one. Those are good compilation of info, presented in a nice way for readers to read.

If you were to concentrate your information and gather up people who want to study in the US, doing that will be a lot more effective than what you are doing now. Of course, to keep the first page nice, tidy and informative can prove to be a challenge, but then, since you can be so determined to make so many posts, you should be able to write up few posts that are informative about US education.
Think, if some blur SPM folks were to click into your thread, what do they want to know, not what you want to tell.