<p>It’s just that there are alot of international applicants and they can’t take them all. So chances are that they would take someone who has for example an international science award over the person who only has a national science award in his country. Internationals compete against internationals for positions. </p>
<p>I don’t believe there is a set quota of how many domestic students they have to take. Harvard has a 6% acceptance rate. In 2013, Harvard had 35,023 applicants and only admitted 2,047 students (11.1% were internationals approximately 227 students). </p>