Applying to US colleges

I’m a current year 12 student studying history, sociology and politics. My passion is to enter into law specifically corporate or human rights.

For the future, I want to work in the USA for the higher opportunities the country provides for areas in law. Also In general, I don’t want to live in England when older.

I’ve only recently been doing research into US colleges and types of scholarships provided etc, but I need help in knowing how to stand out in applications and whether or not I can apply for financial aid even though I’m not from a low income household. I would appreciate if any tips in general about applying as well!

Reply 1

marcus.0

US applications are a completely different ball game generally to any other, and are what I would say the most complex one out of all of them. Before you commit I'd like you to take in mind:

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Your long term prospects for staying in the US are unfavorable, even more so at the moment. If you are an international student, you require a H1-B visa to be able to work in the US, and that means you will need your employer to pay out lots of money for you and vouch for you. Of course, lots of firms would rather just hire from a domestic pool instead, and only top firms select internationals semi-consistently. This also means that these internationals that make it through are the best of the best, and come likely from US T10/T20.

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You are not eligible for FAFSA so you will need to apply for university-specific need-based aid. You will need to choose schools that are need-blind for internationals to not be disadvantaged, and the aid being need-based means universities will cover the remainder of the fees outstanding that you cannot pay. If there is reasonable proof to show that your family can in fact pay the full tuition fee, you will likely not get this aid.

If you're aiming high (anywhere in the Top 20), you need a competitive application to have a chance. At the bare minimum, this means a near-perfect academic transcript and 4 A-Levels if your school offers. Most schools are not test-optional anymore so you will likely need an SAT/ACT score that is 1500+/34+.
The most important parts of your application though are your activities and honors. You will need to fill in 10 extracurricular activities, and these need to have measurable impact in your community or on a national scale. These are unrelated to your academic interests, so you can do anything from helping out at an animal shelter to starting a cookie business. You will also want to participate in your fair share of international competitions, in your case I'd look at some essay competitions like the JLI Essay Competition.

Any after all of that, there are some people with perfect stats that still get rejected simply because of bad essays or the fact that the university has determined the cohort doesn't really need you. So yeah, rough process!
I wish you all the best though, and good luck in your admissions.