Hello there! I guess it’s that time of the year when seniors have just one thing on their mind, and I’m no different. As I await the decisions from some of the colleges I applied to early, I was just wondering as to how I might be considered. I am by nationality an American, but I have never studied in the US. I have been living in another country for all my schooling years, and needless to say that my experience has been quite different from a normal American student. I’ve never really had the kind of opportunities that I’ve read about or heard of when college students share their stats and ECs; and I’ve studied in an Indian curriculum (9th and 10th) and then IBDP (11th and 12th), so when blogs and websites say that an ideal GPA would be ___, I have no idea where I stand. So, how would my application be considered? Would I be compared to other American students or international ones? Would this background disadvantage me in any way? This might be quite a silly question so I’d like to apologize in advance, but asking questions here just makes me feel more at ease knowing that someone might have answers to my stress-induced thoughts.
Your app will be considered in the context in which it was submitted. So if other students from your school, or perhaps comparable schools in the region, applied to some of the schools you applied to, your app will be considered in much the same way as any other apps.
Colleges will probably be pretty familiar with applicants from the Indian subcontinent. They will understand how to interpret your GPA and ECs. I don’t think your nationality will be a deciding factor, but that might depend on some of the colleges you applied to. For instance, you might be an appealing applicant to a small LAC who finds you’ll add interest to their mix of students.
My son has a similar background. He is a US citizen but was educated entirely in Asia. He also completed the IBDP program. I understand your frustration at trying to figure out how the IB grades compare with a “normal” GPA, but in general, US colleges like to see the IBDP, as they believe it is good preparation for college work, and if you’ve done well from an IB grading perspective, schools will understand that. My son applied only to smaller LACs, and is now a sophomore at a school in the Midwest. It did not seem his background disadvantaged him in any way in the application process, and I think it probably helped him at at least some of the schools he applied to, as he added diversity. I hope you get some good responses from your early action schools, as that will take away a lot of pressure.
Based on your description, you would be a domestic applicant (and eligible for financial aid as such, though without any state residency for state universities) with an international education record.