Hey guys! I am a Nigerian and I applied to Northwestern, Johns Hopkins and Georgia Tech last year (2014). I met all their requirements but I did not get accepted. Please do you know what might have been wrong? I decided to check out UK or Canada but I am having difficulty picking out the universities. I want to major in Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering and I would love to know your insights and possibly your pros and cons. Thanks!
What are your standardized test scores?
To meet their requirements as an international, you typically need to be well above the median for GPA and Test scores due to preferences given to US Citizens, in-state, athletes (unless you are one), large donors, alumni children or US minorities/first in family college students.
Admission at those three universities is very difficult for US applicants. It is even harder for international applicants. There is nothing that you can do that would absolutely guarantee admission to any of them. To find out if anyone from Nigeria has been admitted to any of those universities, and to get an idea as to whether or not you really are a viable applicant at those universities, contact the EducationUSA office that is closest to where you live, and speak with one of the counselors. There are two offices in Nigeria: https://educationusa.state.gov/find-advising-center?field_region_target_id=&field_country_target_id=173&field_center_level_value=All
@bouders, 1900 on SAT, @TooOld4School, thanks for the info, I was beginning to think that it was cos I am Nigerian. I’ll be sure to check out the links @happymomof1, thanks!
Your scores are below the 25th percentile for Northwestern and Johns Hopkins, by about 200 points. That puts them really out of reach. They are at the 25th percentile for Georgia Tech. Overall, your scores were simply too low. To have a better chance, your scores should be higher.
Canadian universities are very score driven. 1900 may be too low for University of Toronto, Waterloo, University of British Columbia and McGill if you are applying for engineering. You may have luck at some of the smaller universities.
Okay, I’m retaking SAT and mine is in November, I’ll try really hard to do better.
My cousin and friends applied to some Canadian universities and they got accepted and all, they did the whole process (paid all fees, etc), met all their requirements but were not given Canadian visa. It practically took a year and 3 months for the universities to refund them. Do you have any idea why that happened? I’m currently being advised against applying to Canada.
There are a few possibilities as to why your cousin’s and friends’ visas were denied. Immigration may have decided that the students were intending to work or stay in Canada. A health issue may have been present. They may not have had a clean police record. They may also not have demonstrated that they had sufficient funds for the duration of their studies. These are not the only reasons that they may have been denied.
For an international applicant not to be given a Canadian student visa it was most likely that they could not produce documentation of sufficient finances. Either that or they appeared on a suspect list.
If you’re looking at UK universities too, check out this page on choosing a university in this country: https://www.studential.com/applying/choosing-a-university
and also check out university rankings for Chemical Engineering in the UK at the Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/education/ng-interactive/2015/may/25/university-guide-2016-league-table-for-chemical-engineering
which gives you some idea of the best universities for this subject (although don’t choose on rankings alone). Hope this helps 
“… I did not get accepted. Please do you know what might have been wrong?”
Please understand that your target schools are three of the most admissions-competitive colleges in the United States. Northwestern and Johns Hopkins receive thousands of applications for a limited number of seats, while Georgia Tech is a state university whose first obligation is to admit and educate citizens of the State of Georgia.
So, the bottom line is that you didn’t do anything wrong, except that perhaps you should have broadened your list of target colleges. Admissions to U.S. colleges is not exclusively based on an applicants scholastic statistics, unlike most of the rest of the world.
Thanks @snowflake85 and @LakeWashington. I really appreciate your inputs.