Hello, thank you for reading me. First of all, I’m an international applicant, from Spain, senior high school student, who has recently been rejected from Stanford. However I had really good stuff to offer them, I got rejected, in my opinion, due to my low sat scores and financial aid. The question starts here: Now, I have to decide between 3 ways
1.- Start college in my country, Spain, and then try to transfer to a few colleges (MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, Yale & Princeton) considering that it is a quite low percentage rate 1-4% as I have read, and the financial aid is almost inexistent (I do not know yet how would I get 40-60k $ in less than a year while studying. At the same time, I would take again the new SAT and SAT Subject Tests to get as much score as possible. Is this the best option?
2.-Take a gap year, study as much as I can for SAT & SAT Subject Tests and at te same time try to get new projects and try to earn as much money working as possible in order to try to request the minimum amount of financial aid. And then apply as a freshman. I’m not totally agreeing to spend one year without education
3.- Finally, move to a late deadline application college (I’d like in San Francisco, at least in middle-north California) and then try to reapply for transfer from the US instead of from Spain, and take again SAT & SAT Subject Tests. For example, I think MIT is the only one that offers mid-year transfer, losing only a few months of course.
What do you recommend me? And if I take the first option, which I think is the most accurate, what should I do with the transfer? I know it’s too risky
@inshm2016 That was my fault, yes, I only applied to Stanford. I realised I wanted to study in the US in November, so was too late to complete all exams and applications correctly, so I decided to focus on one… and… fail
In Spain we start thinking into college search by the end of the second term
You have to be realistic: getting into schools such as Stanford, Harvard, Yale or MIT is a bit like winning the lottery. You can have top SATs and perfect grades and still get rejected. It’s even harder for a transfer student. These schools only have a few spots available each year.
It is also not realistic that you will earn enough money in 12 months to reduce your financial aid need at schools that cost $60,000 per year.
If you’re serious about studying in America, at an elite school, you could certainly take a gap year, study hard to raise your SATs/ECs and try again - but know that the odds are still dramatically against you getting admitted with or without adequate financial aid. Is that gamble worth it? Only you can decide that.
If you just want to study in America, you can take a gap year, raise your SATs/ECs and apply to a WIDER SELECTION of schools - from the most elite, to still very good, but lesser known colleges and universities. Again, the odds are still against you, if you need significant financial aid. That’s the reality of college in America: it costs a lot of money.
Thank you for your reply @katliamom . Yes, I knew that it is like the lottery, that’s why the rejection didn’t hurt too much to me. I think Berkeley with about 16% acceptance rate it’s more or less capable of entering in. I also know this about the transfer, only 25-40 spots, for example, are in Stanford, too crazy. I’d like to have lived the experience of freshman year in a top college
And yes, 60k its more than what a more or less well established family earn in my country, so unless I rock it, the odds will be against me. And as I think there is no school in top 50-100 California with the late deadline. I think if I start studying SAT now and do the exam in October-November I can get a good score, at least, 1800-2000, no? I got average (1500) with only 4 days study, that was my main fault, I applied to SAT in waitlist.
I would like to study in America, yes, this would be awesome, but… study in a college with the more or less same position than here, would not rather spend 20-40k $ and 10k km far away from my city to learn the same content. Besides of that, American Colleges are in a location with plenty of opportunities, so maybe I should start checking another college. The best will be to find one for that year instead of spending it in a gap one. I’m a mess.
Umm…well, the SAT has changed now, to a new 1600 scale, but the average score for Stanford before was hundreds of points higher than 1800, and higher than 2000 too. You may want to do some research about what stats students at these schools really have. They’re HIGH.
@bodangles I know, on that page they say average for Stanford is 2172 but I have seen in some yt videos and blogs that even people with 2300 are rejected. They are quite high. I’ll read more about the new SAT to see how it is.
Yes ^^ – the AVERAGE Stanford SAT score is 2210 – for an International student needing lots of aid, you should be in the upper 75th percentile to be competitive - around 2350. The numbers are similar for Harvard.
@katliamom whoaa, 2350… That seems I’ll need to start studying SAT & SAT Subject now I wish my counselor or anyone similar would have given me advice about applying to another college outside my country. I’m feeling like I have wasted an opportunity and a year. In fact… the only safety way that remains is to start here, try to rock it at SAT and then try to transfer… without knowing if I’ll need to study again some subjects of 1st course (not sure if all credits are validated)
@HRSMom whoa this should be frustrating. Do they consider SAT scores from international students same than from US students? For me without any preparation had been hard to increase the sat score, despite I’m on the top of my class.
There is no financial aid for international students at Berkeley (or any of the UCs, or CalStates)
From your post you have a lot of homework to do on US universities and colleges, and you need to start with money. First, figure out what you can actually afford to pay. There are 2 types of financial aid: merit and need.
For need-based aid, try running the ‘net price calculator’ (NPC) for colleges that you are interested in (it’s on the website). The results are variable, but it’s a start. The website for each college/university will also say what their policy is on financial aid for international students. A few will say that they “meet need”, which means that you give them all your financial information and they run their NPC and tell you how much they think that you can afford. Most will say that they are ‘need aware’, which means that they will consider whether you need financial aid when deciding whether to offer you a place.
There are also ‘merit’ scholarships, which colleges/universities use to encourage students with strong test scores to come there. These range a lot, from a few thousand dollars to full rides- but to get them you typically have either meet specific scores (University of Alabama-Huntsville, for example), or have scores in the top 10% or so of admitted students. There are also ‘named’ scholarships which also range from small to full pay- but the full pay ones tend to be very competitive. Again, policies on eligibility for international students varies considerably, so you need to check the websites.
One more thing: you said that you got a 1500 on the (now old version) SAT, and that was ‘average’. That was an ‘average’ overall in the US, but for Stanford 80+% of the class had more than a 2100. It is true that really strong international applicants can get into top colleges with lower SAT scores- but they typically have something amazing to offset it. The SAT has just be revised and is now scored out of 1600 (instead of 2400), and if you are looking at top schools I would suggest looking for a score over 1400.
@storrijos, to learn more about what it takes to get into the elite schools, read this website: the threads on the International Students subforum, the Ivy Leagues/Stanford subforums and Parents forums. There is a wealth of information available here.
One thing you should keep in mind is what HRSMom just wrote. When it comes to the elite schools “you just never know what they are looking for.”
And there is a reason for that – because these schools are trying to “build a class.” For Europeans, that’s a very unusual approach. Each incoming class of freshmen at the elite private schools must contain a certain number of athletes, musicians, artists, wealthy people’s children, etc. By the time you fill all these slots, very few remain open. So for example, you might have perfect SATs and great grades, but if the university orchestra needs a French horn player, you won’t get in, but your friend with lower SATs and grades might just because he also happens to play the French horn.
That’s why foreign students who need a lot of financial aid are always advised to apply to a wide variety of schools, in a wide geographical area. That’s how you better your odds. It’s simply not realistic to limit yourself to Northern California or only to Stanford, Harvard, Yale or Berkeley.
@collegemom3717 Thank you for your complete reply. I knew 1500 it’s too low, but was all I can do in a few days. I thought I had something interesting to offer, for example, 2 books wroten with 16-17 years old, some Boot Camps and more things, but seems that, as they said, if there’s someone more or less like you, without requiring financial aid, they will accept them, which I agree, as is the most benefit for the college
@HRSMom yes, if I try to apply next year for transfer, I will try a bigger range of school, in order to try to study there as soon as possible, as there is where I see my future. The problem as you said, apart of the low acceptance ratio is the financial aid. There colleges are really expensive, here with 2-3k, you pay tuition and 10-12k for dorms.
@yoyohi that college also looks awesome. Enjoy your freshman year
Here is a rough guide to estimate your chances at Stanford + Ivy caliber schools in the US:
SATs above the 75th percentile for that school’s admitted class (typically above 2300 total)
Good english speaking and writing skills (as evidenced by TOEFL or study at international english medium school)
Class rank which places in the top 5% of your school
Meaningful extracurricular activities which show a passion or skill that the college desires (artist, mathematician, future politician, etc).
Have several accomplishments that show international level recognition, and must be validated by an external source.The recognition should preferably be from a widely recognized body. Examples include: nobel peace prize, international olympiad, Intel ISEF, participating on your country’s olympic team for a sport, etc. You really have to have something jaw-dropping that would leave most people amazed (winning a few international spelling bees won’t cut it).
Now most top international students who apply are able to demonstrate #1 - #4 easily. Its only those students who are able to show #5 have a decent shot of being admitted. Since the financial aid pool is quite limited only a handful of schools are need blind for internationals.
Having said all of this, with your SAT scores, I really think it will be unlikely you will improve your scores from a 1500 range to over 2300 within a year’s time. This is almost impossible. The odds are stacked against you. If I were you, I would focus my efforts on attending a college in your home country, do as well as possible, and then look towards doing a master’s degree in the US.
I wish my counselor or anyone similar would have given me advice about applying to another college outside my country. I’m feeling like I have wasted an opportunity and a year. In fact… the only safety way that remains is to start here, try to rock it at SAT and then try to transfer… without knowing if I’ll need to study again some subjects of 1st course (not sure if all credits are validated)