Australian Applicant's Questions (long)

Student Lounge International Students
1

Hi all, I am applying to US universities from Australia and I am in need of some help.

First of all I do not know if I goofed up or not, but I made a common app account earlier this month thinking that I was getting a good head start. So I started filling out some of the essay responses, when I discovered that the new admissions do not open until mid-year. My first question is do I stop filling things out completely and get my teachers and principal to hold off in case things change, or do I keep going ahead?

Secondly, I want to know, being from another country, how heavily they take my school grades into consideration? I am in the top 5% of my cohort of 120, but I am worried that in comparison to the US system, they may be too low.

I am intending to pursue a Physics degree; so I have structured my choices mainly around that. The 6 choices I am sending my scores and applications to are:

  1. California Institute of Technology
  2. Cornell University
  3. UC Berkeley
  4. Princeton University
  5. Stanford
  6. Harvard

Finally, I am going to take the ACT and two SAT subject tests (Maths II and Physics). As I am only going to be able to take them once, I have decided to put whatever is needed into performing well on these tests. My subject tests are in May, and my ACT is in June. Yesterday I sat my first ACT paper to set a benchmark, (it was the one from the “Preparing for the ACT” pdf on the ACT website) and my composite score was 28. Now, I know it is out of a total 36 composite, but I am wondering how a 28 ranks overall. My question is what prep materials can anyone recommend for these tests, given my current timeline, in either online or in print form.

Many thanks to any help contributed, it is just so daunting applying into a system that is so vastly different to your own.

2

If you are applying for admission for fall 2017 or later, nothing you do in your common app account now matters. CommonApp will clear all content between the current admission cycle and the next. (It’s still good to get a head start so you know what the application looks like and can plan and prepare accordingly, but there’s no point in actually filling things out now.)

Your class rank is WAY more meaningful than your grades, if your counselor is willing to provide a rank on the school report. (Grades are almost impossible to interpret without either a class rank or statistics on the distribution of grades at your school.)

An ACT score of 28 would be solid but on the low end for the universities you are interested in. (Harvard’s mid range is 32 - 35.) A score of 28 should be around the 90th percentile of all ACT test takers - you can find the exact number online. It is a good baseline to start preparing from.

If you want specific recommendations for preparation materials, you’ll get better answers in the test prep section. You’ll need to be more specific about your weaknesses and where exactly you see room for improvement. (Are you running out of time on the reading section? Is there a specific type of math question you cannot answer because you haven’t seen the material before? Etc.)

3

Hi b@r!um, thank you for the reply. It is good to know for sure that it gets cleared, I guess I was just in an unfortunate position where I was in between times. As for the class rank being more meaningful, it is a good thing to know, I will have to notify my counsellor and make sure she includes it. I will ask around in the test prep area for some information regarding specific prep materials.
Once again thank you for clearing some of these things up for me.

4

To get a notion about whether or not you are a viable applicant at the places on your list, contact the counselors at the EducationUSA advising center closest to where you live. They will have useful ideas for you https://educationusa.state.gov/find-advising-center?field_region_target_id=&field_country_target_id=284&field_center_level_value=All

5

Are you planning to go to university in the US no matter what, or only if you get into one of those colleges? Even for domestic students those are exceptionally competitive universities (3 of them have acceptance rates in the 5-6% range, and the others are in the 8-12% range, iirc- and typically international students make up about 10% of that group).

Obviously, the unis you have listed are amongst the stars for physics in the US, but if your goal is to be in the US I would suggest adding some universities with somewhat higher acceptance rates as well. Note that the core physics curriculum for physics majors is highly standardized in the US: any academically selective college or university will prepare you for grad school. Obviously, bigger universities will have more course options and often more in-term research options (with the trade-off of bigger classes in the early years), but you can get into top drawer physics PhD programs from a broad range of colleges and universities.

I’m assuming that cost is not an issue- not all of those meet need, and all are north of $50K/year x 4 years.

As for the ACT, review to see what you struggled with. Speed is usually the biggest challenge, which is great, b/c most people can pick up the pace with practice. Also look for nomenclature issues- sometimes different word usage between the US and Aus (or the UK or Ireland for that matter- can throw you off. An ACT over 32 would be a rule of thumb- not that it will get you in, but it will move your score from a negative to a neutral.

6

For physics, include Lawrence university (WI) and ASU Barrett.
For the colleges you listed, you want 32+ on the ACT.

7

@collegemom3717 , My family is actually moving to California next year for work, and seeing this as an opportunity to go to some of the best universities in the world, while also staying with my family, I decided that I either go to the top end or nothing as I would be better off just staying here. I do realise how competitive these universities are and I would be lying if I said that I did not feel intimidated by them. However, I believe that I can push hard enough to at least get accepted into one. I will take what you said about finding schools with higher acceptance rates into consideration, but I really would need to feel that they are extensively different to what I can do here. On that note do you think that you could offer maybe one or even two suggestions to replace on my list? As I do want to limit my application to 6 schools. Thank you for the tip about increasing speed, as I go along in my practice I will keep an eye on that and try to increase my times.

Thank you for your help.

8

The six universities you have listed are intensely competitive, so it is rather unrealistic for just about anyone to think that they can “at least get accepted into one.” Every year there are posters to this forum who have applied to only elite schools and have been shut out. Consider for a moment your competition. There are 37,000 high schools in the US. That means that 100,000+ students seeking to enter college every year have graduated either first, second or third in their class. Now add in all the top international students who are applying, the outstanding athletes, the legacies, and the children whose parents have enough money to build a new physics building on campus. You can see how formidible it becomes.

The common app opens up August 1st. Until then, work on improving your test scores. Apply to the six you have listed, but add a further 8 to 10 matches and safeties. Look at the Forbes top 100 US colleges list, and then see whose physics departments are good. For example, if you are looking at Cornell, consider the University of Rochester, too. Good luck to you.

9

@Dropbear, given the cost disparities between Aus & the US, I understand the impetus to either ‘go big’ or stay home! And, depending on your overall goals, the differences at undergraduate level may not be that important. The courses for a physics major at UMelbourne are pretty much the same as at an American uni. The main differences would be:

=> at some US unis you could have more ‘breadth’ requirements,
=> at larger unis you would have other course options within the physics major
=> at most unis (and many colleges) there would be opportunities to do research at the undergrad level. The grad-school bound physics undergrads that I know (even at smallish LACs) will have done research (and frequently have been co-authors on a couple of publications) during the summer breaks and/or during term.

As for other options…

The [url=<a href=“http://www.shanghairanking.com/SubjectPhysics2015.html%5DShanghai%5B/url”>http://www.shanghairanking.com/SubjectPhysics2015.html]Shanghai[/url] rankings puts Melbourne in the 100-150 group, and there are dozens of US universities in the 0-100 groupings.

QS world currently ranks Melbourne as #45 for physics globally. Although I take all rankings with a lump of salt, and subject-specific ones tend to relate more to grad than undergrad, some other US unis that they rank ahead of Melbourne include: UPenn (#44), UTexas (Austin) (#38), UMaryland (CP) (#34), UMichigan (#32), UIllinois at Urbana-Champaign (#30), UCLA (#17), UCSB (#15), and UChicago (#12).

Note that UCs are one application, so you can do B, LA, & SB at the same time, and I would add Irvine as well. QS doesn’t rate it particularly highly (100-150), but Shanghai does (45), and I know a professor there who is doing great stuff with his undergrads.

Penn & Chicago are private, not state, unis and have admissions rates of 10 & 8% respectively. The others all have strikingly higher admissions rates, and you could add any of them to your list.

The UCs are the most expensive for out of state/international (and you won’t have state residency for California for at least a year after arriving), but none of them are as inexpensive as Melbourne. Btw, some are more expensive for international students than out of state, so if you have your US address before applying there can be some savings there. If finances are an issue and you test well there are some great merit scholarships, though typically at somewhat lower ranked places.

Finally, the College Data Common Data Set (collegedata.com) will give you a lot of info on admissions, including what the uni says is most important to them and the breakdown of stats on admitted students. For example, for CalTech, the ACT score range for the middle 50% of admitted students was 34-35; how rigorous your secondary school course load was way more important than whether you did volunteer work; the admissions rate for males was 6% and for females 16% (and 3x as many males as females applied); and from an initial wait list of 615 they took 47 people last year.

Oh- and I suppose that you have worked out the Early Decision / Early Action element? With ED you say that you promise to come if you get an offer, and your prize is that you know in December if you are in, deferred to regular admissions or out. You can only apply to one uni ED. With EA the uni tells you early, but you don’t have to commit until all your decisions are in- usually works best if you are somebody they are likely to want. Single choice early action (SCEA), which Princeton uses, is also non-binding but you can only apply EA to one private uni (state unis are fine).

10

Why do you want to limit your options to 6 universities?
You’d need one safety and two matches (universities with acceptance rate arount 40%), which would only leave 3 reaches for you to add.

11

Check out the physics program at the College of Creative Studies, a HIGHLY COMPETITIVE division at University of California, Santa Barbara. UCSB has an outstanding physics department - among the best in the US - and the College of Creative Studies is only for the very best incoming undergraduates. (College of Creative Studies calls itself “A graduate school for undergraduates.”)
https://www.ccs.ucsb.edu/

12

@Dropbear, if your family is going to live in California, then perhaps apply to some of the University of California schools (Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, etc.) What’s great about those schools is that it is just one application, and they all have strengths in the STEM fields. A school like the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign would be a great fit (it is always in the top ten for STEM fields, and has a great physics program). Also consider the University of Michigan and Georgia Tech.

I am quite familiar with Australian universities (my avatar name is “theaussie” after all) and universities like USydney, UMelbourne, and maybe even UNSW are comparable to most of the schools I have listed. I wouldn’t cross Australian universities off your list just yet. If the cost is a factor for you, then they will definitely be much cheaper than American colleges. Schools like Cornell and Stanford are certainly much more exciting, but just make sure you don’t get your hopes up!