Vertix Advising

Top 40 Universities that are Need-Blind (Universities that don't care about the amount of financial aid you are requesting and who don't consider it on your admission decision):

1. Harvard University
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
3. Yale University
4. Princeton University
5. Amherst College
6. Dartmouth College
7. Pomona College
8. Williams College
9. Swarthmore College
10. Bowdoin College
11. Columbia University
12. University of Chicago
13. Johns Hopkins University
14. University of Pennsylvania
15. California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
16. Claremont McKenna College
17. Davidson College
18. Hamilton College
19. Haverford College
20. Vassar College
21. University of Notre Dame
22. Scripps College
23. Middlebury College
24. Skidmore College
25. Wesleyan University
26. Reed College
27. Barnard College
28. Grinnell College
29. Oberlin College
30. Sarah Lawrence College
31. University of Virginia
32. University of California, Berkeley (for in-state students, and for out-of-state students, it's need-blind for those who receive institutional aid)
33. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (for in-state students; some need-blind policies may apply to specific programs)
34. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
35. University of Rochester
36. Boston College
37. University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) (like UC Berkeley, it has need-blind policies for in-state students and certain conditions for out-of-state students)
38. University of Southern California (USC)
39. Washington University in St. Louis
40. Duke University

Notice: Some colleges might not have a need-blind policy for international students, but we generally listed most of the need-blind schools you could apply to.

Dear members,

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So feel free to reach to us and we’ll answer your questions within 12 hours.

Do you know the difference between need-blind and need-aware when it comes to your financial aid?❓


While considering Financial aid in your application, Universities are mostly classified into need-blind and need-aware Understanding the difference between need-aware and need-blind colleges is important as you consider your options.

✅ Need-Blind Colleges: These colleges do not consider an applicant's financial situation when making admissions decisions. They evaluate applicants based solely on their academic and personal achievements. However, being need-blind doesn't necessarily mean they will meet 100% of your demonstrated financial need once admitted.

✅ Need-Aware Colleges: These institutions do consider a student's financial need as part of their admissions process. This means that your ability to pay for college can influence the decision, especially for international students or towards the end of the admissions process when they are managing their financial aid budget. However, need-aware schools can sometimes offer more comprehensive financial aid packages to those they admit.

Knowing whether a school is need-aware or need-blind can help you strategize your applications, especially if financial aid is a significant factor in your decision.✅

If you have any questions regarding college application, our mentors are willing to answer each and every one of them so feel free to drop them in the comments 💬

You are lucky🍀!!!

Have you guys heard about "Sage"?
Sage is a college counselor that is working to edit your essay, recommend college lists and even predict your rates of acceptances to that college.

You might wonder on how AI exactly review essays. We tried it! Sage gave us precise score out of 10 on what our essays strong suite is and what needs improvement. Sage has learned deeply about college counseling and know more.

If you are guessing on where to find him: Go to Collegevine.com and immediately create an account. Don't worry, sage won't steal your essays. They are safe and protected.

Good Morning 👋!

Since we’re mostly in regular decision cycle, we thought of giving you ideas of supplemental essays beforehand.

Since supplemental essays are the most time taking and exhaustive part, we decided to break it down into several categories so your brain could be ready before approaching them.


1. Why did you choose this major?
2. Why did you choose Our school/university/college?
3. Why did you pick this extracurricular activity?
4. What will you bring to our Community once you get admitted?
5. What is a challenge you faced?

These are the short questions that have the most repetition. But there are some weird essays: some essays ask like University of Chicago. Their supplemental was "If you were a tree, what kind will you be". These seem extremely weird questions, but the university put them there for a reason. They want to assess who you are and how you think. Some colleges may even ask you write a letter to your roommate(a person you don't know yet) and some may even ask you to write a Thank You letter for someone you haven't thanked before. So when it comes to these questions, take your time and answer it wisely. It's okay if your answers are "weird" because the question itself is weird too. The colleges exactly want the weird perspective.

Homework of the day:

Check up the University's supplemental essays for the ones you want to apply to on the common app!

➡️❤️👍

📖Top Books that can transform your perspective about writing essays that makes you outstanding.

Ranking by mentors preference:

1. College Essay Essentials (The College Essay Guy)
2. 50 Successful Harvard essays
3. 50 Successful IVY League essays

If you believe your not a gifted writer, our mentors recommend to start with these books ✍️

Top Extracurricular activites that can get you in to an IVY league school.

1. MUN / Mock Trial
2. Student Government
3. Debate club or team
4. Coding club
5. Music & Instruments
6. Community service
7. Internships
8. Athletics and Sports
9. Volunteering
10. Family duty (taking care of sibblings. As simple as that)

We ranked them in order as they are highly valued and look fancy in your college application. Know that activities vary depending on the students interest and background. We will share opportunities for similar extracurricular activities but keep in mind that these aren't the only limited ones.

We will be introducing our board very soon! 🔜👏

📌Tips of the Day:

1. When Colleges say it's "Optional" consider it as required. To excel in college application as an international student, we need to be exceptional by submitting optional materials as if they are required.
2. When writing your essay, try not to inform the admission officers what you are about to tell until the last paragraph. This is because they will be confused. Confusion leads to curiousity, meaning they would pay attention till the end.
3. While building your college list, try to pick schools that offer better financial aid primarly because it doesn't matter if you get accepted while you still couldn't afford it.

share for more tips ⬅️

Good Morning everyone 👋!

We are glad again to have you! Today, we will be starting our main session. It's better to follow what we recommend as we aready passed through your position right now. Some of you guys might know it and First thing is first: Open a common app account as well as a new email account so that you exclusively do it for colleges.

We believe most of you already have done it. Proceedingly, on building your college lists, use these websites as they are really amazing to compare with other universities and to check wether you qualify for the university.

niche.com

Unigo.com

Collegevine.com

Choose a single platform that you believe is most suitable and makes you feel comfortable.

Subscribe for more tips 📣

Welcome to Vertix Advising🎓 ☀️

Are you frustrated by the college application your working on? If YES, you've come to the right place. Vertix is a platform where we match outstanding and high-performing students with mentors that attend elite universities in the US to guide them through the College Application process. Looking back, we have gone through the struggle we believe you’re facing: participating in every opportunity and activity available, studying for the SAT, working hard to get a solid 4.0 GPA, and the worst part: WRITING COLLEGE ESSAYS!!!

That's why we came up with Vertix, a place where we help fellow international students apply to US universities without any difficulty.

In this channel, we'll be posting important information about college application, host monthly webinars to answer your questions and invite guest speakers on sharing their application journey. We believe that this platfrom will be a spring board to your success in college application. ✅

Stay tuned for more information and make sure to share it to friends and family.📇

If you have any questions, feel free to commend below 👇