International competition

fiona_1
Sun, 09 Nov 2008 05:50:35 +0000

As an international applicant, I am aware of the intense competition I face. No matter what, American applicants are at an advantage. USA applicants, do not worry, because:


The number of schools which can provide full scholarships to needy students from less-developed countries is very little. Not even all the Ivy Leagues are generous with funding - Cornell’s stingyness is infamous, I haven’t heard of any Singaporean student who applied for FA being accepted. Only HYPMWAD can afford to dish out the money needed to recruit poor and brilliant students. Forget about the public universities.
The number of students that these schools admit is very few. Yes, the colleges want more students to apply, so they can choose the best students from the pool. But they can’t accept all the outstanding new applicants - Harvard’s international enrollment has stagnated at about 3500 (including graduate students)


In all honesty, the protagonist of the article will probably not make it to his dream school. The numbers are too large, and without a medal in that competition, he won’t stand out.

The competition for spots in the top universities is still rigidly defined by citizenship lines. American students compete with each other, International students compete with each other. My acquaintance who went to RSI, got perfect 2400 SATs, and is generally a genius was rejected from MIT. A girl from the nation’s top school, who’s trilingual, and medaled at the International Physics Olympiad, was rejected from MIT. (btw, girl physicists are in short supply) The truth is, American applicants don’t need to worry about international applicants because the number of internationals getting in is so small.