Some advice/perspective for international students

CC_Admin
Thu, 07 Apr 2005 23:11:59 +0000

We are not internationals but we live overseas and my son has many friends who applied as internationals over the last few years. The results are less predictable than for US nationals, and even then the Ivy/MIT/Stanford results for US nationals are not so predictable anyways. As an international, unless you are attending a school with GC who really understand US admissions, you are obviously at a disadvantage in the whole process…

One of my son’s international friends was accepted to all 8 U.S. schools he applied to. No financial need, and he applied to schools with more moderate acceptance profiles (befitting his profile). Last year another was accepted nearly everywhere, including Yale and Pomona, with extraordinarily excellent credentials, but then was WL at other places (surely due to applying for financial aid) which are less selective…you never know.

If it is going to cost you a lot of money to go to school in the US, then you have to decide if it is worth it to you…schools are not cheap and you may well decide that you would rather go to a fine U in your home country than a less well known U in the US…and then try for the US again for grad school.

When we were looking at schools we saw large numbers of internationals in some pretty surprising locations- Franklin and Marshall and Grinnell, for example. I think that there are many fine US schools which love the added something internationals bring, and are willing to pay you to attend, but you might have to look past the ultra-competitive schools if what you value most is the US college experience.

AS for the inflating EC’s issue, just because some do it, doesn’t make it right. Those people lack integrity, which is a slippery slope in life.