VANHALEN1884

Greetings CC Community. Do you have any idea about how difficult or how easy it is for foreign students to get into the top colleges in the U.S.? Please feel free to post your opinions. Thank You.

pingpingpong

freaking hard

VANHALEN1884

Why do you believe that it is hard for foreign students to get into top American colleges?

CooleyP1

its not hard....top schools WANT to be diverse so they accept as many eligible foreign students they can so there is quite a chance for foreign students to get accepted

fiona_

There's an entire forum for this...

International Students - College Confidential

luceverita

less than 3% of applicants are admitted in most top schools. for example MIT takes about 130 out of 3500 applicants. numbers are similar for harvard, stanford and other schools.
also, like most of the applicants to these top schools the foreign applicants are very competitive, so it is overall very hard to get in

thebigcheese121

If you are asking for aid, your chances of an acceptance take a nose-dive.

gapyearstudent

"less than 3% of applicants are admitted in most top schools. for example MIT takes about 130 out of 3500 applicants"

MIT's is especially low because they have a quota of 4% for international students.

That being said, other top colleges are no cakewalk either. Yale's international acceptance rate is about 3%, Harvard's 5%, Stanford's 6% (3% if you apply for aid) and on and on. At need-sensitive schools, your chances go down a lot once you need aid.

When you go down the rung (not that much down), if you apply for FA as an intl, chances go way down. For example Vassar which has a 25% acceptance rate for domestic students, has an 8% acceptance rate for internationals. Bates, 30% domestic, 9% international. Bates College Profile - Information for International Students

mom2collegekids

It's hard for all students (domestic and int'l) to get accepted to top schools.


If you are asking for aid, your chances of an acceptance take a nose-dive.

Very true at schools that aren't "need blind" for int'ls.

It's just a guess on my part, but I think that many schools are hesitant with int'ls that need aid because it's hard for US schools to verify their need. It's too easy for int'l students to hide money, not fully disclose income/accounts/assets/investments, etc. It's no wonder that most schools don't give aid to int'ls. It's too hard to know who really has need.

schoolgirl

^actually, even at "need blind" schools, your chances of admission as an international student are practically zero. Unless you have something really different and special to offer, they would rather take a domestic student who can pay the tuition full b/c you know, it really boils down to politics and money when you get to that "top level" of schools. If you're an international student who can pay the tuition full and have decent SAT scores, you might have a chance at the "lower" ivies, but again, there's not a guarantee that you'll have an easier time than anyone else.

fiona_

If it were easy for international students to hide money, then internationals from England, Australia, Singapore, etc would be preferred over internationals from Vietnam, China, etc in disbursing aid to internationals. But I don't see that.

It's because the majority of private schools don't have much institutional aid, in the first place. Many international students have high need and the money just doesn't go very far. I go to Harvey Mudd which is really poor as far as institutional funds for internationals go, they pay for like three internationals a year.

amarkov

The thing is, people can be rather nationalistic, Americans especially so. The average donor to a university doesn't particularly want a lot of their money going to finance the education of people from foreign countries.

mom2collegekids

^^^

LOL...that's why it's so easy for Americans to get financial aid to go to school in other countries....Not.

ISUClub

I had a H-4 dependent visa when I applied to my colleges. I believe I was a competitive applicant, but I was poor, and I got rejected by every private school I applied to. My counselor told me to "not give up on my dreams" and apply to more top notch schools. Apparently she thought I was a genius. That dumb@$$ better wake the hell up before she screws someone else.

Yea, if you file for financial assistance without a FAFSA, which only come if you have a green card, you're DONE. Use the admission cost to buy a freaking new laptop.

But if your family is stinkin rich and is able to afford the FULL cost, some colleges won't mind and will place you in the same pool as their native applicants. I remember Stanford University does that.

Kujalulu

it is even harder if you come from countries like China, India, South Korea, where there are lots of students applying