Match a non-traditional international applicant

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Sorry for the lengthy post. Information included here reflects what is on my Common App, not my entire life. I’m older, so I hope to get some constructive feedback. Thank you.

Demographics:

  • Male

  • International

  • Independent school (ranked first in the region (a region within the country) when I was there; unsure now. Received government, institutional scholarships. Our area was originally a hilly/mountainous rural area filled with farming/grazing lands before being urbanized in recent years due to privatization)

  • First generation to college*

  • Lower-middle income (according to World Bank GNI); eligible for full aid at all schools who meet full financial need for international applicants

  • Athlete*?

*potential hooks, *?unsure if this is something I want to/can continue in college

Intended Major(s):

In order of preference and availability of the field of study in the college or university I am applying to

  • Materials Science/Materials Science and Engineering, and related majors

  • Electrical and Computer Engineering/Electrical Engineering/Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and related majors

  • Engineering Physics/Engineering Science, and related majors

  • Computational Science/Computational Science and Engineering, and related majors

  • Applied Physics/Computational Physics/Physics/Physics and Philosophy, and related majors

  • Applied Mathematics/Computational Mathematics/Mathematics/Mathematics and Philosophy, and related majors

  • Econometrics/Economics/Mathematical Economics/Philosophy, Politics, and Economics/Political Economy, and related majors*

*secondary field

ACT/SAT/SAT II:
Most recent scores

  • 990 TSIA2.0 Mathematics

  • 981 TSIA2.0 English language arts and reading

Additional notes:

  1. Applying test-optional, test-waived.

UW/W GPA and Rank:

  • Most recent coursework at US T5 (non-degree) in mechanics: A (3 credits), A (1 credit); electricity and magnetism: A- (3 credits), A (1 credit); writing in the sciences: A- (4 credits); and, economics: predicted A- to A (4 credits)

  • 90.87 percent out of 100.00 secondary school cumulative weighted GPA (no unweighted)

  • Top 20%

Additional notes:

  1. Secondary school only offered a single curriculum. No anything.

  2. Strong upwards trajectory from freshman to junior year. Senior year grades dipped because of family bereavement, but senior year grades also in upwards trajectory.

  3. According to the copy of the school profile provided to me, I was in the top 10 of the hidden internal ranking system for our class. No student in our class got 95 percent and above. Less than 10 percent of the class got greater than 90 percent but less than 95 percent.

  4. Graduated early. Explanation in the space provided about how I was considerably younger than my peers and related contexts, including being selected to be placed in pilot programs (such as advanced and extended mathematics and statistics classes) to support accelerated academic development.

  5. I don’t know why I’m blabbing so much when my secondary school records are only used as historical context in my application as I am old (older Gen Z).

Awards:

List and sequence as it currently appears in the Common App

  • Certificate of international recognition – science awards, awarded by a national (non-US) T5 university (post-graduate; international)

  • Certificate of national recognition – science awards, awarded by a national (non-US) T5 university (post-graduate; national)

  • Certificate of achievement – science awards, awarded by a global T5 medical school (post-graduate; international) (not as impressive as it may sound lol)

  • Honor Roll (9, 10, 11, 12; school)

  • Esprit de Corps awards (11, 12; school, state/regional, national)

Extracurriculars:

List and sequence as it currently appears in the Common App. Only quantified impacts and important context included below

  • Family Responsibilities. Head of Household, Primary Carer. Coordinated 50+ medical appointments, 5 surgeries, and 10+ court proceedings. Managed household budget. Cared for elderly and younger relatives. (9, 10, 11, 12, post-graduate; all year)

  • Community Service (Volunteer). Relief Strategy Analyst, Group Lead, Teacher. Directed USD 500M+ (equivalent currency in USD; equivalent to more than half of a minimum wage earner’s monthly pay) of COVID response aid, reaching 3M+ households. Sustained 10K+ scholarships. Tutored 52 low-income students to grade-level mastery. (9, 10, 11, 12, post-graduate; all year)

  • Research. Computational/Quantitative Research Specialist, PI. Extended the funding of groups I was part of by 74%. Advanced 7 peer-reviewed publications with citations in Q1 international journals. (Post-graduate; all year)

  • Academic. Reading Group Lead, Participant, Peer Mentor. Founded 2 and joined 7 reading groups in mathematics, physics, engineering, philosophy, linguistics, and economics. Mentored 43 peers into professional and graduate school admissions. (Post-graduate; all year)

  • Foreign language. Linguistic Analyst (Written), Independent Learner. Translated 100+ texts with socioanthropological nuances and accuracy. (Post-graduate; all year)

  • Dance. Corps de Ballet, Independent Learner. Ballet. (Post-graduate; all year)

  • Music. Concertmaster, Soloist, Independent Learner. Performed in 3 recitals, 41 orchestals, and 8 solos for violin, cello, and voice. (9, 10, 11, 12, post-graduate; all year)

  • Junior ROTC. Company Commander, Logistics (S4) Officer. Directed logistics for 44 cadets. Coordinated 70+ training operations. 3-peat champion in city and regional fancy and silent drills. (11, 12; all year)

  • Athletics: JV/Varsity. Volleyball: Varsity Vice Captain, Setter/Middle Blocker. Led 100+ practices. Guided team to 5 city titles and multiple podium finishes. (9, 10, 11, 12, post-graduate; during school year, all year)

  • Athletics: JV/Varsity. Swimming: Varsity Athlete, Back/Breast. Podium finishes in 12 relays. Contributed to 7 team city medals. (9, 10, 11, 12; during school year)

Additional notes:

  1. Family responsibilities take most hours per week and weeks per year.

  2. Awarded best research poster and best research presentation (first and corresponding author) at a national (non-US) T5 university science symposium (unsure if I should include this information, and where to, as all my sections are filled, including the Additional information subsection).

Essays/LORs/Other

Essays

  • 8 to 10 out of 10 Common App Personal Essay. One paragraph about mom’s death and what it meant. Rest of the essay weaves moments of my personal growth, obstacles and solutions, contributions and impact, what those experiences taught me, and what else can I contribute after those lessons.

  • 8 to 10 out of 10 Common App Additional Information. The Challenges and circumstances subsection provides clarifications about other hardships, what I did to overcome them, and what they taught me. It also briefly talked about my generational history of being “first”, which in my case is the first to apply to college. The Additional information subsection provides a numerical list of additional personal, educational, and environmental contexts, including contributions, changing circumstances, gaps and solutions, growing food, SAT test center and proper library being 5+ hours of commute each way, PIs remark of how I “saved the entire project”, etc. It also very briefly talked about a debilitating medical condition I experienced very recently.

  • 8 to 10 out of 10 college-specific writings.

Additional notes:

  1. External volunteer readers generally rated my writings 9 to 10 out of 10. They mentioned that my entire application goes back to one central theme (will not disclose here) while providing contexts about my experiences and growth from different lenses.

LORs

  • 8 to 10 out of 10 counselor evaluation. My secondary school evaluator is the school principal as we did not have a college or academic counselor. Based on what they showed me, they provided an exceptional letter and evaluation, with multiple anecdotes and superlatives about me, including a conversation they had with my late mom (which I did not know they had).

  • Unknown English teacher evaluation. Recommender is a faculty member at two US T5 RUs. They did their PhD at a US T5 RU. Enthusiastically agreed to write me a letter. They were also quick to send the evaluation and recommendation (recommender invitation sent a month after they agreed to write a recommendation), so I would like to assume it is good. I performed well in class and peer conferences. I was also the only student who wrote an original research paper for the class; everyone else wrote a review paper. Unknown evaluation as they did not voluntarily show it to me.

  • Unknown science (physics) teacher evaluation. Recommender is a faculty member at a US T5 LAC and was a faculty member at a US T5 RU. They did their PhD and postdoc at a US T5 RU. Also enthusiastically agreed to write me a letter. They sent in their evaluation and recommendation a few days after their fall semester classes ended. I would like to assume it is good because they promptly updated me when they submitted it and asked me to keep them posted about my future plans. Unknown evaluation as they did not voluntarily show it to me.

Other

Everything in the Responsibilities and circumstances subsection of the Common App Activities section applies and/or applied to me, except for Taking care of my own child or children.

Schools:

Additional notes:

  1. Only applying via regular decision rounds.

  2. Only applying to colleges and universities who meet full demonstrated need.

  3. The college or university itself needs to have strong civic engagement programs that support the continuation and expansion of my community work.

  4. The college, university, and/or its partners need to have current faculty and research in computational materials and/or topological band theory for semiconductor and/or energy storage materials.

  5. Already finished 14 applications. I can submit 6 more applications with the Common App fee waiver.

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You sound like a very strong candidate. I’m sure you know that being international and needing full aid will make things more difficult, but the fact that there is a strong central theme to your application and that you are “non-traditional” should work in your favor.

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How much college / university course work have you completed, what subjects was it in, how well did you do, and was any or all of it after leaving secondary school?

College / university course work after leaving secondary school could require you to apply as a transfer student rather than a frosh student, but the exact rules vary depending on the school you want to apply to. For transfer students, your college / university academic record is important, while your secondary school record’s importance varies depending on how much college / university record you have (more college / university record means less importance of secondary school record).

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How much college / university course work have you completed, what subjects was it in, how well did you do, and was any or all of it after leaving secondary school?

My most recent coursework was completed at a US T5 as a non-degree student. I took them in Fall 2024, Spring 2025, and Fall 2025, ten years after finishing secondary school. They are the following:

  • Mechanics (lecture and lab): A (3 credits), A (1 credit); science (physics) recommender
  • Electricity and magnetism (lecture and lab): A- (3 credits), A (1 credit)
  • Writing in the sciences: A- (4 credits); English recommender; my original research paper was introducing a revised density functional theory-based model to generalize the prediction of defect formation energies in semiconductor materials
  • Economics: predicted A- to A (4 credits); final exam grade not yet released; my final research paper (econometrics) for this class is currently under preparation for journal submission and is submitted with my college applications as supplementary writing/graded written paper; teaching staff commented, “The mathematics is impressive and well done. I really enjoyed reading that part. This is a well-constructed paper, and you should consider having it published one way or another.”

College / university course work after leaving secondary school could require you to apply as a transfer student rather than a frosh student, but the exact rules vary depending on the school you want to apply to.

Yes, I believe that is the case. I contacted in Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 the colleges and universities I am really interested in applying to. They confirmed that I can apply as a first-year applicant and should use the first-year application if my total college credits would be less than the equivalent of one academic year of full-time study (e.g. at least 32 credit hours).

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How do you know this - did you run every meets need for intl student Net Price Calculator, like Denison and Franklin & Marshall ?

Are you in the U.S. currently ? Or are the classes you’ve taken recently been on line?

I think because you’ve been out ten years that your app will be reviewed in a different lens.

I still can’t tell what you plan to major in as you mentioned so many but also noted a school needs to be civically engaged most likely are but how are you measuring this ?

Also, Junior ROTC - I wasn’t aware other countries had or called it that - I found that interesting.

I wish you luck.

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Is this most recent course work you list all of your college / university course work?

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Every college and university is different in how they accept credits. Thirty two credits, at my local universities, would be considered in this range for transfer.
Start with those universities, that you’ve contacted and ask about their funding for international students. They may accept your credits, but may not provide much in funding.

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Side question- even though you are a non degree student at the present time, are you sure in some cases you might not be considered a transfer? Are you sure about your visa status? Any reason you don’t just enroll in the school you have been attending, since it may be close to your family responsibilities that you have thus far handled? Has there been a change?

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Just a reminder when applying:

-Public universities are supported by their state funding and taxpayers. Many do not have funding to support non-resident students. International students are considered “cash cows” who pay full fees like Berkeley and Michigan.

Additionally, the admissions environment has changed dramatically since a decade ago.

-Your major interests are impacted at many universities. Not enough seating for the thousands of students who want to major in those disciplines. If you start in another major, you may not be able to change majors to the engineering/Science courses. Be aware of changes.

-Funding to universities has decreased and continues to be an issue such that the universities are holding onto their precious few dollars. “Qualifying for need” doesn’t exactly mean that you will get a full ride. The universities have their own methods of calculating need. They choose what to calculate as “need”, based on their finite budgets.
Also, you have to provide documented proof (Certificates of Finance, that you have a years worth of funds-combination of dollars, scholarships, etc. to pay for the first year).

-After 4 years of education, it is expected that you will return to your home country, with your diploma. You cannot expect to be sponsored.

Right now, domestic students are having difficulty procuring employment in some of those fields. Layoffs have occurred.
Many require US citizenship for Clearance eligibility. I don’t know what your future plans entail, but you need to be prepared.

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How do you know this - did you run every meets need for intl student Net Price Calculator, like Denison and Franklin & Marshall ?

I extrapolated this using a mix of NPC, endowment and financial plans, and email correspondence from financial aid offices of colleges and universities who meet full demonstrated need for international students without loans, whether it can be supplemented with work-study programs, and data from public forums.

Are you in the U.S. currently ? Or are the classes you’ve taken recently been on line?

Right now, I am not in the US. All my classes were live (synchronous) classes. They were the same exact classes with the same teaching staff as the on-campus classes. The only difference was the lab component where we had to use a home lab-version of the expensive equipment on-campus. This wasn’t a problem, though, as our labs were heavily computational in nature.

I think because you’ve been out ten years that your app will be reviewed in a different lens.

I wholeheartedly agree with this. I believe that if I did not have the time, I would definitely not have even an inkling of chance to compete against today’s traditional applicants.

I still can’t tell what you plan to major in as you mentioned so many but also noted a school needs to be civically engaged most likely are but how are you measuring this ?

Similar to what I included in the Intended Major(s) part of my post, my main target is materials science and engineering. I understand that not all colleges and universities offer this as a direct field of study, so I listed quite a few alternatives in the list. I can major in electrical engineering, engineering science, computational science and engineering, physics, chemistry, mathematics, and everything in between. The field I am currently working on and plan to continue pursuing (computational materials, topological band theory) is pretty niche but also pretty flexible; what you majored in has very little to do with the actual work and research you did.

From my perspective, as long as they put visible efforts (the school’s history of common good ethos, not just its ability to churn out funding) then that is a good school. It took me more than a year (because of the very limited time I can dedicate) of looking at the civic service histories of the 14 colleges I submitted my applications to (which are mostly LACs). This is the primary reason I posted a match me–to crowdsource for schools that fit this criterion.

Also, Junior ROTC - I wasn’t aware other countries had or called it that - I found that interesting.

I am inclined to believe it is because of the US military presence and joint military exercises in the country. My secondary school was Navy-based.

I wish you luck.

Thank you so much!

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Is this most recent course work you list all of your college / university course work?

If we are only counting coursework for credit (not counting non-credit and audit courses), yes.

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Every college and university is different in how they accept credits. Thirty two credits, at my local universities, would be considered in this range for transfer.

Yes, I would agree. Since I would only have 16 credits, I was advised to apply as a first-year applicant. This definitely does not apply to all schools since in a few schools, if you have at least 12 credits, you have to apply as transfer.

Start with those universities, that you’ve contacted and ask about their funding for international students. They may accept your credits, but may not provide much in funding.

Yes, I agree. Unfortunately, for some schools, being a transfer applicant either makes you ineligible for any financial aid or only eligible for partial financial aid.

For the schools I contacted and advised me to apply as a first-year applicant, they all mentioned that I will most likely have to forfeit my credits. They also mentioned that I can take the departmental placement exams if I want to be placed immediately in a higher class. This placement exam option is not exactly very enticing to me as it would not really make me graduate earlier. I would rather just take the classes and get As again, and focus on my research work early.

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Side question- even though you are a non degree student at the present time, are you sure in some cases you might not be considered a transfer?

In some schools, yes, I would be considered as a transfer applicant. I specifically did not and will not apply to those schools because, unfortunately, for some schools, being a transfer applicant either makes you ineligible for any financial aid or only eligible for partial financial aid.

Are you sure about your visa status?

Yes, very fortunate to not have problems in this regard. My country of residence also does not have full or partial suspensions in terms of new visa issuance.

Any reason you don’t just enroll in the school you have been attending, since it may be close to your family responsibilities that you have thus far handled? Has there been a change?

Main reason is it is expensive. The only reason I was able to take my recent coursework was because of the financial support from a close friend. If I had to pay everything out of pocket, I definitely would not have taken the classes, let alone earn at least the grades I did. Although my dad working significantly helps our financial situation, he is also technically past retirement age and should not really be contributing to any of my expenses anymore. He was also recently put on furlough, so yeah.

Current family plan is for my dad to retire, while other relatives fill my primary carer duties over my grandparents (which they should have really been doing because my grandparents are their parents). They already agreed to let me go.

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I definitely agree with all those points. This is why things like endowment, financial plans, Forbes college financial grades, and private (not-for-profit) constitute a significant part when I was narrowing my school options.

At the moment, I have no plans of staying in the US post-higher education. My plan is to work in the APAC region because it is undoubtedly the global semiconductor hub.

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I think I can finally rest. I’ve completed my applications to 20 schools (21 if we count an overseas campus), along with all the institutional merit scholarship applications where applicable. Here’s to hoping for the best come March-April.

Happy new year, everyone!

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Congrats on a fine effort.

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