Demographics: International student from Central Asia; moved to Italy in 2025 to attend an IB boarding school. First-generation (would be first in my family to attend college).
Intended Major(s): Computer Science, strong interest in Business — looking at CS+Business dual-degree programs where they exist.
GPA, Rank, Test Scores:
IB Diploma, predicted 40/45 (HL: Math AA, Computer Science, Physics; SL: Business Management, English B, Russian A Literature)
Previous school (before transferring for the IB): GPA 5.0/5.0, top overall school award
SAT: sitting in August 2026, targeting 1520+
IELTS: 7.0 currently, likely retaking for 7.5–8.0
Coursework: IB HLs above are the most rigorous available at my school. Also completed a research fellowship equivalent to 3 transferable US college credits (see Awards).
Awards:
Full-ride international scholarship (~€100K value, ~2% acceptance) — currently funds my IB Diploma, and would fund university too, but only at a fixed list of ~25 approved partner universities (renewed yearly on GPA + staying in an approved major)
Research fellowship, full scholarship, ~5% acceptance — wrote and published a paper (has a DOI) on decision-making biases in venture capital; earned 3 transferable US college credits
Selective STEM/entrepreneurship fellowship, full scholarship (~$10K value), ~5% acceptance
Admitted to two other ~5%-acceptance summer programs at top US universities; had to decline both — family couldn’t cover the cost. Mentioning this because it’s a pattern: everywhere that offered funding, I went; the two that didn’t, I couldn’t
Math olympiads: international-level win, national district-level win, several city/school-level wins, one international finalist finish
CS olympiads: national city-stage win, silver medal at a 33-country regional competition, top 15% at a 15-country contest
Hackathons: 3rd place at an international AI hackathon ($1,000), two 1st-place wins ($700 and $300), Global Nominee at NASA Space Apps Challenge, finalist at a national innovation competition
Extracurriculars:
Co-founded and lead a 6-person software dev studio since 9th grade — shipped a paid commercial website for a real client, plus two apps still at prototype/concept stage (ed-tech, AR/web); the team has kept working together through two international relocations
Elected student council president of a brand-new school — built the student government from scratch, organized 10+ interschool events, twice served as acting principal for a day
Co-founded a cross-school programming community in my home country (peer mentorship + hackathon team-matching between schools)
Two independent side projects: a navigation app for blind users (computer vision + OCR + voice, national innovation-competition finalist) and an eye-tracking PC control tool (C++/GTK4)
Black belt in taekwondo (ITF), training since early childhood, city-level bronze medal
Essays/LORs/Other: Personal statement and supplements currently in progress.
Cost Constraints/Budget:
Not a problem
Schools:
Reach: Stanford, UC Berkeley (M.E.T. OR CS), UPenn (M&T OR CS), UChicago, Columbia, CMU
Target: NYU Abu Dhabi, Georgia Tech, UVA, WashU
Safety: Ohio State
What do you think — do I stand a chance at the reaches, and is my target/safety split realistic? What would you recommend to strengthen my profile?
The ten colleges you are targeting as Reach, Target, and Safety - are all of them “approved partner universities” with guaranteed full funding if maintaining certain GPA & meeting major requirements?
With most domestic U.S. applicants, I recommend applying to ten schools (8-12); with international, I recommend 20 (15-25) schools. It’s more difficult for international students to assess odds of gaining admission. Many colleges have percentage quotas for new international students, usually around 10% of the incoming class. What about the other 15 schools on the approved list - not interested?
When will you graduate from high school. Is there some reason you did take the SAT or ACT sooner?
This funding sounds like a great opportunity. Are you applying to any of these colleges?
You say that college costs are not a problem, but at the same time say your parents couldn’t afford a summer program? Is this correct? As an international student there are some colleges where your financial aid will be limited. Does your family qualify for need based aid? On one hand it sounds like no…but then you say they could not afford a summer program…
I think tOSU is a very likely acceptance for you.
Where do you plan to reside and work once your student visa has expired at the end of your college studies?
@secret_cat if this is your real name, I would urge you to change it asap. Here is how:
Then you may want to consider applying to all of them. Perhaps exclude five you have zero interest in attending. There is no way of knowing which colleges would admit you. (e.g. you could get admitted to MIT yet denied to the University of Virginia). Not sure which schools on this list, if any, allow international applicants to apply ED or EA. If some or all of them do, then, of course, apply early to your top choices. Almost all of them are “reach” schools, I would agree.
You should target a minimum 770 SAT read/write & 770 math, the higher, the better. (SAT composite 1600 within SEM range)
I graduate high school in June 2027. I’m taking the SAT in August so I still have room for retakes in September and October if I need to hit my target score.
On the scholarship — yes, I’ll be applying specifically to schools on that approved list. The catch is they’re all reaches.
Re: the money question — that was on me, sorry for the confusion. It’s not that costs are a problem in general, it’s that without this scholarship I unfortunately couldn’t afford studying in the US at all. That’s exactly why I’m limited to the approved list.
As for where I’d want to live afterward — still not sure. I’d like to end up somewhere in California, but I’m not ruling out moving back home either.
Will you be applying to any other colleges that are not reaches? You are a strong applicant, and a strong SAT will support that. And you might get accepted to some of these reach colleges…or not.
My opinion, you should be also researching other affordable options.
NYUAD has a 2.9% admit rate, and it’s somewhat weighted toward Emirati nationals. So unless there is something related to your scholarship program that gives you a boost, it’s definitely a reach as well. You’d probably do better admissions-wise at the New York campus.
To stay in America after graduation, you’ll need to find a sponsoring employer (or marry a US citizen). Neither is guaranteed, so you should expect to return home.
Is it realistic to find an internship while studying at university and then get a job right after graduating, or is it not that easy? As far as I’ve heard, the employment rate at such colleges is pretty good.
You need to carefully look at the conditions of what work is allowed on your student visa. Do some research on CPT and OPT. It is harder for an international student to get a job in the US because after OPT is used up (12 months after graduation for most business degrees/added 24 months for STEM degrees, but possibly less or even none depending how you use CPT or OPT for internships) companies will have to sponsor you for a H1B work visa/status, which is costly and time-consuming and often not worth it for junior positions - and in addition to that, it is a lottery that is weighted towards higher earning positions so all that effort may not even result in a visa. Anecdotally, companies have become less keen to hire those on OPT too. Regardless where you go to college, you absolutely cannot rely on getting a long-term job offer and sometimes not even a shorter-term one.
I have linked a college page to CPT/OPT as it explains it quite clearly but this is something you would always coordinate with the international student office of wherever you end up. CPT vs. OPT | Arizona International
Do note that even an unpaid internship requires you to use CPT/OPT as appropriate.
I would just say Georgia Tech is not a target for anyone OOS. OOS acceptance rate overall was 8.9% this cycle. International student acceptance rate specifically for CS was 7.3% this cycle (1557 applied, 113 accepted)