So we all know that international students from East Asia, notably those from China and South Korea, are in one of the most competitive pools of students, but we don’t see many students from Japan (not Japanese American students) applying to colleges in the States. Do you think the chance of Japanese students getting into elite colleges like ivys (or top 20 colleges) is any different from those from China and Korea, or are they all considered similarly as students from East Asia?
should be similar
Colleges like to say they have students from X number of countries although they do not offer X number of scholarships. Therefore, they are equally competitive.
Remember that international students are even more likely than domestic students to apply to the famous names. So, while it is possible that there is somewhat less internal competition, you still have to stand out relative to the regional and global pools.
On top of that, per your other thread, you are coming from a US NE boarding school, so your application will also be considered in that context.
And of course, the schools you are talking about take a tiny % of their applicants to start with. So take a school with an 8% admissions rate, and pull out the places for the approx 12% of international students and you are looking at pretty tiny numbers.
Put together, and imo it won’t be any meaningful amount easier for you. Sorry.
I would not say it’s similar.
Probably easier (than coming from China or India).
But also a bit besides the point.
Your individual characteristics and achievements (and the schools you apply to and in what round) will determine the viability of your application.
The last two points are quite critical, BTW.
Vandy/WashU are quite a bit easier to get in to than Stanford/Harvard, for instance.
And some schools accept a considerably higher percentage in ED than in RD.