A Few Questions.Extremely self-conscious right now.

Student Lounge International Students
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<p>I'm currently a high school student in the states( holding H-4 visa). I went to elementary school in the city I live now. I do hold Chinese citizenship and will thus be put into one of the most competitive international applicants pool. I have a few questions regarding the admission process and my chances of getting in schools and hope the lovely CCers might be able to answer some of them....??? But really just want to talk so that I don't stress myself out.
I applied to Rice ED, and got rejected( hurts a lot but is not devastating). Accepted by: Colorado school of mines( I live in Denver, CO), University of Denver. Deferred by: Case Western Reserve "because of my financial aid request", oh well( frankly, I didn't apply for much)</p>

<p>Stats and others:
SAT 2260, CR690, M800, W770 essay 10
SAT II: Chem 780, Math II 800
TOEFL: 114, SP/R/W:28, L:30
APs: APUS 4, AP Lan 4, AP Human Geo 5, AP Chem 5, AP Comp Sci 5, AP Chinese 5( only took for college credits, hope it doesn't look bad)
I go to basically the best public high school in Denver metro area( it's decent but definitely unlike those highly selective boarding schools)
GPA: 3.85/4.44 both will go up by about 0.1 if first semester grade of senior year is counted
Senior year course load: AP physics, Calc BC, AP econs, AP Lit, and Biology H. straight As in all of them so far.
class rank: top 5%. However my school doesn't show class rank on the transcript anymore.( because of the size of the study body they say)</p>

<p>I'm still applying to top schools for RD, but not requesting for financial aid any more( really underestimated the impact that would bring, OUCH)
Rice says on its website it doesn't give need-based aid for int. students applying for ED, but I accidentally sent them a CSS profile( it was stupid. don't do it) I still have no clue if it has anything to do with the rejection.
I have a few other things going against me too.
I spent my freshman year in China under a different grading system. The credits were transferred, but only counted as pass/fail grades.
I don't have any strong leadership. My sophomore year grades are not as strong and wasn't filled with many challenging courses either. ( 2 honors classes, 4 CP/selectives and all As)
My state test(TCAP) scores are not so well either and they are on the transcript. Technically colleges don't take them into consideration at all, but IDK really.</p>

<p>And here goes the questions:
Is it necessary for me to submit the original ninth grade score report?( it has horrible translation and might even be more confusing: "semester" is used meaning "school year". And all I have is just a piece of A-4 paper)
At this moment, I have Northwestern, Wash U in St Louis, and U Michigan on my list. Because of getting rejected earlier by Rice, I feel like I don't have much chance? Or am I just over thinking since there's always a factor of luck and I might not get in whatsoever?
And also, is having a class rank on my transcript actually gonna help?
I'm always really outspoken and vocal in class. I received a number of years of education in US( I did include it in my essay as a part of my identity). Are those going to be advantages? and if so, how substantial the advantages will be?( will it make up for my weakness in other words)</p>

<p>In the end, thank you for your time to all that read the post</p>

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<ol>
<li>Class rank does help but not a lot</li>
<li>Scrap out UMich. It doesn’t give any aid. </li>
<li>YES YOU DO NEED TO SUBMIT 9th grade script but ask the colleges for help. Tell them that it’s horribly translated and ask them how to deal wit this.</li>
</ol>

<p>Your GPA and SAT are fine. But, how much can you pay per year? Can you list your EC/Awards?</p>

<p>By the way, if you earned certain scores in critical reading, it’s not really necessary to submit toefl…</p>

<p>NU says:
International applicants who complete 3 to 4 years of their secondary school curriculum in English and score 650 or above on the Critical Reading section of the SAT Reasoning Test are not required to submit a TOEFL or IELTS score.</p>

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<p>A lot of colleges don’t care about the 9th grade. In fact many high school systems in the US are 10-12 (their middle school is 6-9). I wd contact each college individually to ask about it. I seriously doubt they will want it, especially since it’s from china.</p>

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<p>@paul2752, the OP doesn’t indicate that she actually needs fin aid to attend college, so keep UMich on. In fact, of the 3 schools you named, it’s the one you have the best shot at. May have a shot at WashU as well. Just keep all 3 on; you never know if you never try.</p>

<p>Don’t get why you’re so down; Mines is well-regarded for engineering & the odds are small at all the highly selective privates (so you have to be prepared to receive rejections).</p>

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<p>Oh, yeah, and to ask again: what can your parents afford?</p>

<p>What majors are you looking at?</p>

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<p>“I’m still applying to top schools for RD, but not requesting for financial aid any more( really underestimated the impact that would bring, OUCH)”</p>

<p>Well, unless your parents have told you that they can and will foot the full bill, then you’d best apply for aid. Mines is terrific for STEM fields. If that is what you want to study, and Mines is affordable for your family, you can quit now. Any other affordable admission would just be gravy.</p>

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<p>Thanks to all that replied. </p>

<p>@GMTplus7 Thx that’s what I thought too. None of the colleges called my counselor asking for the transcript during EA/ED season. Guess it’s a good sign.</p>

<p>@PurpleTitan I’m thinking about engineering-- a major reason I applied to Mines. Michigan has an outstanding engineering program and has the highest overall acceptance rate among the schools I’m applying. But it doesn’t release any info about int’l acceptance rate. It’s just a bit nerve-racking( and none of the other schools does either; Even Worse)
Most of my ECs are either related to the STEM field( I did compete in several contests). I’m applying to Carnegie Mellon University too, do you think I have a decent shot?
I’m exceptionally anxious plainly because I had no clue applying as international would bring so much disadvantage. I guess I was just not prepared enough for the competitiveness.
Anyway, your post somehow cheered me up. I appreciate the information.</p>

<p>@happymomof1 I checked with my family before. My parents are trying to get me apply to other schools actually. Finance is really a minor problem for me and the family( not so for colleges though SAD FACE)</p>

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<p>Well, if you’re going in to engineering, Mines is a fine option, so you can chill (still don’t understand why decisions are nerve-racking or why colleges are a problem if you got in to a good school for your interests; care to explain?), but if finances aren’t a concern, you could consider applying to other schools that are easier for internationals to get in to than your targets but are still highly regarded for engineering such as UW-Madison, UIUC, Purdue, and GTech. Their list prices for internationals are slightly lower than NU/WashU/UMich/CMU as well.</p>

<p>BTW, if you’re worried about being among academic peers, be aware that the kids in the top engineering schools will generally be as smart as the kids at many top schools (and employers know that).</p>

<p>For instance, the average ACT of entering UIUC Engineering students is 32+ (<a href=“About | The Grainger College of Engineering | UIUC”>http://engineering.illinois.edu/about/&lt;/a&gt;) . . . which is the same as CMU’s average ACT (<a href=“Carnegie Mellon University Overview | CollegeData”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=204&lt;/a&gt;) and higher than UMich’s average ACT (<a href=“http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=379”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=379&lt;/a&gt;) though no doubt the ACT score of the average UMich Engineering student is higher than that.</p>

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<p>BTW, while many of the smaller most selective need-blind meet-full-need privates certainly want to limit the number of internationals at their school from various countries, you’ll find that few public schools differentiate between a full-pay OOS applicant and a full-pay international applicant. That’s why Purdue and UIUC are the 2 schools with the most international undergrads in the US.</p>