I’m 22 south korean just curious about US college admission. College admission process of my country had been oriented final exam (but it has changed to american style). So test score has been only crucial factor.
As I know, US college admission is holistic approach. It evaluates his or her entire personality.
So is age also being considered one of significant factor like SAT, GPA, Extra Curricular, Essay etc?
Thanks for read, sorry for my poor English. And how can I delete my thread?
Since it’s holistic it might be considered in some aspects - maturity, life experiences, etc. My D just finished her first year at Princeton and she was in a program with other freshman and she said there were a couple of International Students that were already 21.
Thanks for sharing your anecdote.
Age is a factor, but as others have said, it helps to fill out the larger picture of you as a person. Different schools have different policies regarding older students. Often they are called “non-traditional students” or nontrads for short. Some schools offer admission to their regular programs for nontrads. Some have specific programs for nontrads, and some of those programs are the same as the regular program or they can differ for a variety of reasons.
For example, Reed College and Sarah Lawrence and Hampshire and I think MIT (and many others) seem to welcome nontrads as part of the general student body, recognizing that people mature at different times, people find other things to do before attending college which can be quite interesting, people are veterans and have served overseas for several years, people were professional athletes or dancers and put off their education, etc.
Some schools have special admission programs for nontrads of a specific age. Brown I think is age 26 and Yale’s Eli program I think is also for students about that age. Many women’s schools have special admissions status for women who have children and/or are of a specific age, for example Wellesley, Mt. Holyoke, Smith, Bryn Mawr, Agnes Scott, Simmons. Tufts has an interesting nontrad program as well. These programs are rumored to be fairly generous with financial aid although I’m unclear how that works for international students. Probably it depends on the individual school’s policy.
Harvard’s nontrad program is DIFFERENT from its other undergrad program – it’s called The Extension. You can enter freely and take classes. Achieving a specific GPA in a certain number of those classes determines whether you can stay in the program to earn your BA. You’re treated as a Harvard alumni afterwards, but again your classes are separate generally from regular Harvard undergrad classes and I think the financial aid is minimal to nonexistent.
Schools such as UPenn and Columbia U have nontraditional COLLEGES alongside their other undergraduate colleges and at least in the case of Columbia the education is identical to the CU college (but not to its other undergrad schools of Barnard and the School of Engineering). CUs is called School of General Studies, for example, and while a larger percentage of students are accepted into that college, the students tend to achieve a higher GPA compared with the Columbia University Columbia College students. The GS school offers the exact same education as CU college, with the following differences: housing is not guaranteed (a big deal in NYC); financial aid is not as generous; students can take few classes or many classes each semester, depending on their other obligation as fully fledged adults; and the diploma is printed in English rather than Latin.
What you should do is to look at individual schools and their programs to see what interests you. Best of luck.
Many South Korean students come to the US to study after completing their military service. Often they study in an intensive English program for a semester or a year before applying to colleges or universities. Usually intensive English programs have formal relationships with the college or university where they are located and can offer provisional admission at that place once the student finishes the Level of English needed for enrollment. I used to teach in that kind of program. The students in my English classes had very specific career goals and knew that they could continue at that university if they passed all of the English levels. Some found other universities that they liked better and applied there instead.
Thank you so much for many infos! It’s gonna be very helpful for me!
In south korea, some percentage of admission process are determined by only standardized test. So it is not rare that old people in campus as freshmen, even those who have already bachelor’s degree or top college in the south korea. (Of course, it is pretty common that changing college while attending another college)
I’ve recently been checking top US college’s admission homepage. As I know, mostly they don’t give second bachelor’s degree and only way to change college from another is transfer. So is there an old freshman (older than 21) in the top US university? I’m just purely curious and don’t have any another intention.
Thanks for read and I hope that pointing out my overall grammar inaccuracy.
Yes. There are freshman here who are 21 and older.
Thank you for answering! so useful for me.
I was 24 when I returned to get my master’s degree (after working for a couple of years) and was a much better student due to being a bit older and more mature. In my experience students who are in their early to mid 20’s tend to be very good students regardless of whether for undergrad or graduate school.
If you were 60+ I am not sure whether age would be an issue. However, at 22 your age will not be a problem for universities in North America.
I’m really appreciate for this hopeful comment. Thank you so much.
Excuse me, I come up with another question. I dropped out my local college. I’ve checked that many US college writes that person who finished one semester at another degree-grant institution should apply as a transfer applicant. But some school (e.g harvard, yale, MIT, amherst etc) writes it’s one year or two terms.
So the question is that can I apply as a freshman for these latter college?
You need to contact each place on your list, and ask them whether you are a freshman or a transfer applicant. Each place sets its own policies.
You probably will need to have your college record formally evaluated. Evaluations done by WES.org are accepted everywhere that I know of, but again, you need to ask about that.
OK. I will do what you mentioned. I’m so grateful these lots of help.