Being International- Advantage or Disadvantage?

Applying to College
1

Most Private Universities will say that they choose applicants purely on merit(Sometimes race too) and nothing else is factored in. But, it is widely known that schools do hold thresholds if not outright Quotas for other countries and sometimes states. Most schools have had a consistent number say 10% for internationals, do they consider international applicants in the same light, do they even understand the different systems of education in the different countries so that they are able to assess the applicants credentials properly. On a side note is standardized testing somehow extremely more important for international applicants, I know a person who got into UCLA with a B-, C+ average (Standard testing same test throughout country in 10th) under our countries system, I had straight A’s, he had about a 100 point advantage on his SAT versus my ACT, in the end I was waitlisted, which also made me question whether the prestige his school has versus my school (relatively unknown) was factored in in any way, our EC’s were equally focused and impressive the only thing we did not have in common was that he applied for econ and i applied for CS.

How does nationality play a role in admissions, does a relatively unique nationality somehow drastically increase one’s chances to get into the most prestigious of schools. Would admissions take an extra country in their class list with an underqualified applicant over someone overqualified from a competitive international pool.

Let’s take 2 students-
Student A-
Academically near perfect, good EC’s, good essays but is part of a dangerously competitive international pool like India or China, and molds into the stereotype a bit but not completely.
Student B-
Comes from a unique country, the schools gets maybe 3 or 4 applicants from the country and this guy is the best among them but still underqualified and is around or lower than the 25th percentile scores of the school.

Which do you think the admissions office would prefer and why?
Let’s discuss this topic that needs to be addressed.

2

The one that can pay full price. Also, they would want the one who has the most chance of succeeding. But it also depends if the person has an EC that would fit a niche or that they have been told they should have students from 25 countries instead of 24. Also the whole reason for standardized testing is to sort of level the playing field…grades can differ but SATs are SATs.

3

I don’t think a school would take an “under-qualified” applicant no matter what country he/she comes from. Colleges have plenty of very highly qualified applicants pouring in from countries all over the world – I don’t think the top colleges are especially concerned with getting a student from one additional country.

4

No.

Neither. At top colleges, the international admit rate is half of the overall rate. Student B clearly would not be admitted; s/he does not have the track record that would indicate academic success at the college. Student A does not stand out enough to warrant his/her acceptance over many many other international applicants.