<p>Hi</p>
<p>I'm an international student from East Asia.</p>
<p>But I go to African International school. So, I'm compared to peers in Africa, right?</p>
<p>Does this mean I'm more competitive just because I live in Africa (or Arab)?</p>
<p>(Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying Africans are stupid. They are in fact very clever but it's just that most people don't have chances of education.)</p>
<p>Are you a citizen of this African country or of your parents’ country?</p>
<p>I believe the person or people in charge of international admissions at the colleges you are applying to make it their business to understand your particular circumstance, like if you go to a good international school where you are they should understand how that opportunity is different from attending a “regular” public school in your country.</p>
<p>OHMomof2/ thanks for replying</p>
<p>I’d say my school is so-so. We have really rlly small class size (10~20) -> Is this a green light in terms of admission? (I’m among the top 5)</p>
<p>Plus, about 1 student goes to ivy league in our school every year. This makes me feel so depressed… I mean I’m not like definite no.1 in my school but I want to go to ivy league school or schools that are on the par with the league. → Does this mean I can’t go to ivy league schools?</p>
<p>The odds of any student (US or foreign) getting into an Ivy League school are small, due to the high number of qualified applicants. It is good to hope, but be sure that you have applied to other schools with higher acceptance rates.</p>
<p>Your odds are about 1:20 and probably smaller now with the ED admission numbers.
HOWEVER if you choose your school only for prestige, you’re focusing on the wrong thing. Any school ranked in the top 25-30 LACs and National Universities is truly excellent (and highly selective). That’s 50 schools to choose from, right there - and they’re not only in the top 3% schools in the US, but also among the best in the world.
So, your choice is the following:
Apply to a handful of schools where your odds are 19:20 to get denied
OR
do as smart American students do: find 2 “safeties” (schools you like, can afford, and are sure you can get into - if you don’t need financial aid and you can define 3-4 characteristics of your “dream school”, it’s easy: just find schools that admit 50% students and that also have those 3-4 characteristics, and if you don’t have any idea, ask on College Confidential for “Schools like…, but less selective”); then, find 3-5 matches (schools where you’re near or at/above the top 25% line for stats and that admit 25-50% students); then, add as many reaches, wild cards, and dream schools as you like, all 8 from the Ivy league, plus Stanford, CalTech, HarveyMudd, Amherst, Williams, Pomona, Middlebury, Carleton, Bowdoin, etc, etc.</p>