Milwaukee School of Engineering

MSOE is a specialist engineering, computing and business university in downtown Milwaukee, running on a quarter calendar with three start dates a year and rolling admissions, with no application deadline and no application fee. Two things distinguish it for a Kazakh applicant. MSOE does not consider SAT or ACT scores in admission at all, so the entire weight falls on the secondary school record and the English test — the SAT cannot be used to strengthen a weak transcript or to waive English, as it can at Butler, Gonzaga or Rose-Hulman. And international students are required to live on campus for the first two years unless they are a transfer or graduate student or have a relative within 30 miles, so two years of housing costs are effectively compulsory and must be built into the budget from the start.