Can I get into Princeton University?

Regular Decision

Ohk
So can I do anything in the next 2-3 months to improve my application.

There are thousands of colleges in the US. IMO, it’s silly to waste your single choice early action on a school that is so far out of reach.

Well, My alternate options are Community Colleges.

Why?

I cant afford a lot of colleges. My budget for 4 year tuition is like 100k
My dad is really keen on sending me abroad but only to a place where I can get absorbed directly into the market instead of searching around a lot for jobs.
I am gonna apply to princeton only because they can help me get financial aid if i get in.

With $100,000 to work with, community college is not your only option. I’m sure you can find a good 4-year college/university you can afford.

I am not really familiar with a lot of colleges under 20-25 k tuition.
I have researched a few options tho like USF and UCF but I’m not really sure.
Can you help me?

I hope you mean job market in your home country because it’s becoming increasingly difficult for international students to stay after graduation and work in the US. H1B1 visas have changed dramatically under the current administration.

If US employment is your end goal, you need to rethink your plan entirely.

Agreed.

I am going to give you a long list of colleges to research. The issue you are going to face is that your stats are likely not high enough for admission to the top schools with the best financial aid. I also think you should look at EU schools.

When you are working on finances, $25K is a good sum but that will have to cover tuition, room and board, travel, personal expenses and mandatory US health insurance…that will be difficult to achieve, not impossible, but difficult.

Also, please answer these questions:
-Cumulative unweighted GPA
-TOEFL score
One thing you might do to better your chances is to re-take the SAT. Is that a possibility?

Schools to research that have CS and generally have at least 10% internationals, in no particular order…most of these schools do not meet full financial need. CS is one of the most competitive majors at all schools, as such, your stats generally need to be higher than the average student’s profile.

U Alabama - Tuscaloosa and Huntsville
Illinois Institute of Technology
Florida Institute of Technology
Missouri Science and Tech
South Dakota Science and Tech
U San Francisco
U of Indiana
Youngstown State
U Texas-Dallas
Appalachian State
Seattle University
Univ of Tulsa
Fort Hays State
Lafayette University
Skidmore College

That will be a good start, also paging @MYOS1634 for her input.

The University of Alabama may be a possibility if they are still awarding scholarships to international students and if your Indian grades are deemed equivalent to a 3.5 US GPA. The University of Alabama Huntsville is another possibility. Are you able to study and retake the SAT? Higher scores may lead to a larger scholarship.

Thanks a lot. am gonna give TOEFL on 23rd of August.
I would consider these school but retaking the SAT may not be possible at this time.
BTW community colleges are not a good option?

I may not be able to take the SAT again. But I also considered UA as one of the prospect colleges.
thanks a lot.

There are 3,700 colleges in the US. Would you be willing to consider any in the ~top 10%?
If so, we (cc community) can help.

Clarifying a typo in post #30…should be U of Indianapolis rather than U of Indiana. Apologies.

No. Extracurriculars do not offset below-par (for Princeton) grades. You are competing with people who have near-perfect grades, scores, AND are internationally accomplished in one or more extracurricular areas.

Nobody wants to say it, but your chance of getting into Princeton is pretty much zero. It does not matter how much of a dream it has been for you. You need to recognize that. You need to be very realistic about your own strengths and weaknesses so that you can apply to appropriate colleges. There are a lot of options between Princeton and community college.

The reason the admission rate is higher in the REA round is because of athletic recruits (you are not one of them) and other “hooked” candidates who Princeton feels it absolutely MUST have. If you apply REA, you lose your chance to apply ED anyplace else and lose your chance to apply EA most other places.

Also Princeton admits about 50 applicants via Questbridge (which would also not apply to the OP), which helps account for the part of the SCEA acceptance rate.

Ohk, guess I need to start looking at other colleges too.