3 Options I face for this year - Important decision to make - International Student

Answered

You received an excellent financial aid package considering the cost of attending Wooster is $68,300. Your $17,000 cost is basically the cost of Room & Board +$4,000. I don't think you can do much better than that considering your 3.36 GPA. Now if you had a 3.8/3.9 GPA then, you could apply to more higher ranking need-blind schools. However, the only thing that bumps up your stats is your 1440 SAT score. While it is a good score, it doesn't put you in the running for schools like Williams, Amherst, Wesleyan, or Swarthmore and certainly not Elites and Ivy school. It might get you into Skidmore however your GPA is still low, so it's a roll of the dice at Skidmore.

Honestly, with how competitive college admissions are going to be this cycle with more international students applying and the prevalence of applicants having both very high GPAs and Test Scores, I'm not sure I would risk my scholarship at the College of Wooster to be shopping around for a better deal. Typically full-ride scholarships to Intl students are only available to the very best applicants who have A/A- GPAs and show evidence of high academic achievement through honors, awards, test scores, and competitions.

You said your "goal is to get the most cost-effective offer for your undergraduate studies in the US" and in my opinion, your cost is less than what an American Citizen would have to pay to attend a Public University with the same GPA and Test Scores. At my HS perhaps 100 out of 330 classmates have a better GPA than you and similar test scores and are attending state schools like the University of Oregon, Oregon State, and are not getting any merit or financial aid. They are paying about $30,000 per year to attend, nearly twice your Net Cost. And any students attending Community College living away from home are paying more than $20,000 as well.

The other thing which I don't think you researched enough is that 99.99% of deferred admissions do not give you free rein to shop for a better deal. For the college to grant you a deferred admission, you have to enter and sign a deferred admission contract. This is not the same as a college acceptance for ED. You actually have to agree to attend the college in 12 months from now with the stipulation that you 1.) Will not apply to another 4 year college, 2.) Will not take College Courses at another college, 3.) If you are attending a post-graduate program like a PG program at a boarding school, you have to agree to keep up your GPA and course rigor and succeed and graduate, 4.) You will not engage in anything that will jeopardize your admission or scholarship like criminal activity which will result in your arrest. If you don't adhere to your deferred admissions contract, your scholarship and admission will be rescinded and vacated, meaning you'll have to start all over again. I don't know if they have a black list, but perhaps they do.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.