African student deep trouble?

Northstarmom
Thu, 25 Dec 2008 13:43:37 +0000

Places like Columbia, Princeton, and Cornell rarely --if ever-- accept anyone with scores below about 600 on any part of the SAT. Those students who do get accepted with such low scores are likely to be nationally/internationally ranked athletes or children of millionaire donors.

Having such low scores would indicate that one doesn’t have the academic background to be able to pass the classes at such colleges where most students’ scores are 750 and higher on each section of the SAT.

There are plenty of other colleges in the U.S. where your scores would be fine, but if financial aid is a consideration, as far as I know, you’re not likely to have the requisite scores for U.S. universities that offer generous aid to internationals. Typically, to be accepted at the U.S. colleges offering financial aid to internationals, internationals have to have higher scores and stronger achievements than American students have. That’s because as stiff as the competition is for Americans, it’s even more competitive for internationals.

To see how your scores stack up, look in the CC forums for the colleges that you’re considering applying to. You can find the stats of accepted and rejected students.