State/Location of residency: middle east/ Egyptian
Type of high school (or current college for transfers): Specialized STEM School
Other special factors: first generation to college
Cost Constraints / Budget (High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.) zero
Intended Major(s) Computer Science
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores GPA: 3.9 unweighted
test-optional
Unweighted HS GPA: (calculate it yourself if your high school does not calculate it)
Weighted HS GPA: (must specify weighting system; note that weighted GPA from the high school is usually not informative, unless aligned with the recalculation used by a college of interest, such as CA, FL, SC public universities)
College GPA: (for transfer applicants)
Class Rank:
ACT/SAT Scores:
List your HS coursework
(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)
Science: (including which ones, such as biology, chemistry, physics)
History and social studies:
Language other than English: (including highest level completed)
Visual or performing arts:
Other academic courses:
College Coursework (Transfer Applicants) (Include college courses taken while in high school if not included above.)
General education course work:
Major preparation course work:
Awards
Extracurriculars
1-
Other Club/Activity
participant
1000 Girls 1000 Futures Program, The New York Academy of Sciences.
Coached by female STEM experts. Acquired access to college readiness and leadership coursework. Engaged with other STEM-passionate girls.
2-
Other Club/Activity
participant
The Experiment Digital Youth Leadership & Community Service.
Engaged in cultural exchange activities. Learned to lead community service work from various leaders. Worked solo on a sustainability project.
3-
Community Service (Volunteer)
Co-Founder
Girl Up STEM Salty Sisters (GUSS)
Led 8 mentors. Initiated GUSS program, included +220 diverse girls. Volunteered at local girls’ school, to introduce STEAM fields to them.
4-
Community Service (Volunteer)
Volunteer, Food Prep. and Donation Coordinator.
Resala Charity, feeding branch.
Assisted in food prep for community members in need. Gathered donations, made ads, bought ingredients. Organized & participated in feeding initiatives
5-
Other Club/Activity
Instructor
STEM English Activity (SEA) team
Tutored 45 students. Directed 2 sessions about English skills such as reading & writing. assisted preparing content materials.
6-
Debate/Speech
Vice-president
STEM Alex Model United Nations (MUN)
Planned the team’s vision. Selected qualified high board. Interviewed applicants. Led 150+ member. Organized conference.
7-
Robotics
Student
Access 4 scholarship by Robokid academy Egypt
Taught robotics basics. Constructed 5 electronically projects. Built an UGV robot, and programmed it using Arduino for line follower competition.
8-
Computer/Technology
participant
Star Girls Africa (SGA)
Mastered web development using HTML and CSS. actively engaged working in a team to achieve capstone project. applied software skills.
9-
Career Oriented
participant
Future Generation of Scientists (FGS).
Learned about working on STEM and NON-STEM fields. worked in team to do final project, earned the best team certificate.
1-Finalist - Undergraduate Research Forum (UGRF), Selected among top 30 projects (out of +580).
National
2-Third Place - Open Robotics Competition Egypt (ORCE), Ranked 3rd out of 15 teams
National
3-Passed STEM High School Admission Test, Ranked 56th out of over 10,000 applicants.
National
4-Second Place - NASA Space Apps Alamein, out of 5 teams.
State/ Regional
Essays/LORs/Other (Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)
Schools
Swarthmore college
Reed college
Williams college
Middlebury college
If a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below; also, for colleges that admit by major or division, consider that in chance estimate.
Assured (100% chance of admission and affordability):
I’m hoping @AustenNut gives his assessment of your chances. In my opinion, all are reaches except Reed which I think is a likely but not assured admission.
Reed is very different than these other three colleges.
Does this mean that you have no cost constraints (i.e. your family is willing and able to pay $90k+/year for some of the schools on your list)? Or does this mean that your family can contribute $0 to your higher education?
How did you calculate this GPA? Oftentimes it’s best to also share what the grade/GPA would be in your country’s grading system. Even if many posters here aren’t as familiar with international grading systems, there are posters who are, and the admissions offices at the schools on your list are likely to be familiar with them as well. Tagging @MYOS1634 who might have more insight here.
Additionally, have you or will you take any other kind of a test? Perhaps like an IB test or something else?
Although these colleges don’t accept students by major (they’re just accepted to the college), computer science is a relatively popular field of study. Swarthmore, Williams, and Middlebury are reaches for even the strongest of students, and the popular wisdom is that admittance rates for international students is about half the rate of admittance for domestic students. So those schools are possible, but they are long shots.
Reed is a school that tends to be right for a certain type of person/personality. If it’s the right fit, it’s great. If it’s not, then it’s really not great. @Andygp’s son recently considered Reed, though I don’t recall if they ended up making a visit there.
As it appears as though you prefer smaller liberal arts colleges, you may want to consider Wesleyan in Connecticut.
Additionally, are you set on wanting to study in the U.S.? If so, I would recommend adding schools that are likelier admits. If you’re not set on school in the U.S., then I would make sure you have some sure things in your home country. @DadTwoGirls may also have some insight about smaller Canadian colleges that would be good for CS, if you’re open to that option.
Respectfully, you are not answering the questions asked of you. If you want feedback, please respond in more detail so posters can provide the guidance you seek.
The most important thing you could do to improve your application is to prep for, take, and achieve a high SAT score. Without that, i do not think your chances are good because everything else is subjective.
This is a great question and I don’t know that it’s ever been seriously discussed on CC: Does it ever make sense for an international applicant to apply TO?
I do not understand whether this means that there are no cost constraints, or if the total budget is zero and 100% aid is needed. If the latter, have you run the NPC and does it predict that each school will be affordable?
How does this compare with other students in your high school, and in your country? I have seen some high schools (such as where I went to high school) where this would make you the #1 top student in your high school, in which case you would be very competitive for the schools that you listed. I have seen some high schools in which this would put you perhaps in the top 20%, but not in the top 10%. As an international student this would make all of the schools that you listed high reaches.
This will depend upon the budget, which at this point is not clear to me. The small schools that we are familiar with in eastern Canada are way less expensive compared to being full pay at a US school, but do not meet full need for international students and will not be free.
This will really depend. I think the key here is verifiable academic strength. My general rule of thumb is: if the school consistently sends students to prestigious US colleges, we can assume that the school’s academic rigor is established amongst AOs. In this case, transcript is “credible” and TO shouldn’t be a problem. However, if the school is “off the AO’s radar,” or there’s simply not a record of previously admitted students for AOs to rely on to read the transcript, then AOs will likely need additional verification of student’s academic abilities. SAT/ACT, or even AP exam scores, could all be helpful!
I’m going to slightly disagree with that- it’s not school-dependent IMHO, like it would be for US students, but educational-system dependent. A lot of European/Middle Eatern countries and a few south Asian ones, for example, have very hard school-leaving exams (A-Level, Abitur, Maturita’, French baccalaureate etc, often with accurate predicted grades. SAT/ACT might be helpful at the margin, but both my children have had very similar college application results (on comparable academic/activities profiles), both with and without tests. Unless testing is required, it very much depeds on what curriculum you have studied. A typical A-Level student who takes Maths, for example, will have learnt more in the subject (and been tested harder) than any US student with a high grade in AP Calculus BC. How important is then SAT maths? I believe the answer is too country-dependent to be meaningful, IMHO.
Thank you for that! That does make sense. I think it comes down to whether the AO understands the applicant’s grades. If there’s a structured, reliable system in the student’s country AND the AO understands that, it shouldn’t be a problem. A counter-example is China. While Chinese public high schools have a rigorous Gaokao system, students usually don’t apply with a Gaokao score but with their transcript, which is more school dependent.
Yup, that seems accurate (though I’m not familiar with the Chinese school system)! I guess it’s important for the Indian subcontinent as well when students are not on the British-based system. My own (limited) experience is mainly IB/European based, which might be a bit of an outlier in terms of high-stakes final exams, transparency and AO knowledge. BTW, from what I’vehappened to read from you, you are a great addition to CC in terms of knowledge and presentation/communication. Thanks for having come around!
There is a long history of falsified transcripts and invalid standardized tests in the applications of students from 3rd world countries, such as Egypt and China. In fact, we have only to look back to the “Varsity Blues” incident to find such in our own country.
This student is coming from Egypt. Their credentials look great, but without a standardized test to confirm their transcript, the transcript might be considered suspect.
My understanding is that the student is not attending a school that offers an internationally recognized curriculum, e.g. IB, A-levels. If I’m incorrect, the OP should have clarified. Whether the school has successfully sent students to the universities listed is unknown.
As for the general question of the validity of an international applying SAT/ACT TO, it’s really not an option if there are test centers available. Well, it is an option, but the admissions success rate is not good, particularly if the school is unknown.
Cost. I will let other users try to explain to the OP the shortsightedness of this reasoning, given that there will be costs involved in attending college regardless of aid package. The OP also needs to understand that colleges that meet need meet their definition of full-need, which will likely differ from what the OP thinks they need. Additionally, almost all colleges are need aware for international applicants, so admissions decisions are based, in part, on need