<p>OM, I think admissions view foreign nationals and American expats differently. There just aren’t *that many *American kids who have actually had experience living overseas. As I said, the plus factor depends on the place: an applicant will get more life experience credit if s/he lived in Cambodia or Egypt than in France. </p>
<p>The amount of boost is impossible to quantify and the experience has to be expanded on in the application, but I’m convinced that high achieving kids from “interesting” international schools fare well at selective schools. It certainly was true for my son and his classmates. The key is to communicate in the application – in essays, recommendaitons, resumes – what your understanding of foreign culture can contribute to the campus, both in and out of the classroom.</p>
<p>Have you used an online calculator to determine how much need based aid you might be eligible for? If this works for you your daughter will have wide choices. If she’ll definitely need merit based aid, it will be a somewhat different list. Smith, for example, has terrific funding for women in the sciences.</p>