Admission Requirements for International Students

MYOS1634
Sun, 24 May 2015 22:49:54 +0000

Are you from Europe, Asia, Africa, Russia and the neighborhing states, Africa (North or Subsaharan), Latin or South America? This will play into your chances.

Keep in mind that there are 3,700 universities in the US. The top 370-380 are in the top 10% (there are various estimations of the last group from 300 on and it varies often). Those would include: Top 40 national universities, top 125 LACs, Honors programs at Top 41-100 universities, top 20 regional universities in each region, plus a few more depending on what you’re looking for.

If your family makes less than 45K a year, you have two choices: colleges that meet the full demonstrated need of international applicants (ie., if they admit you, they’ll make sure you can can pay, but the more money you need, the more difficult it is to get in, with a threshold at about 25K where if you can contribute less it becomes increasingly difficult to make it) and colleges that award scholarships based on test scores (there, you only need to be open-minded and work hard to get good scores.)
You need to have 2-3 “automatic scholarship” universities, then add 5 where you’re in the top 5-10% applicants, then a few more where you’re in the top 25% applicants. Once you have those, you can add “dream schools”.

If you can afford it, buy The Fiske Guide and start reading. You’ll quickly notice that each university has a “personality”. You need to find universities with personalities that “match yours”; this is called “fit” and is very important to admission officers.