<p>Hi collstu,</p>
<p>We were talking about this in another thread. You’re obviously a good and hard-working student, and I’d say your chances are reasonable, but be sure to cast your net wide, both to US universities and in other countries. Even with your very good performance in school, the United States is dealing with economic problems that are making it more difficult for overseas students from India and other countries to attend. Also, it’s becoming much more expensive to attend school in the USA, and college loans can be very dangerous. So definitely keep your preferred US schools in mind, but be sure to look for many options in different countries.</p>
<p>I’m an educator myself, and at a recent conference focused on international students from your country and others, the nation that was most positively rated for international students was actually Germany. The German Universities are high-quality and low-cost, and they’re also quite meritocratic, so if you’re a good student with good potential, there are great options for you there. And Germany and its neighbors are high-tech countries, so there are good opportunities for you to work and learn more at different firms.</p>
<p>You’ll of course have to learn German, but from what all the international students said, it’s not difficult if you’re motivated, and it’s very valuable to know as for example the top companies and university networks are increasingly requiring some knowledge of German anyway, and German-speakers in almost any country earned far more after graduating. Other countries that got a good rating were Switzerland, France, Sweden and the Netherlands, all relatively affordable so long as you learn the language, work hard and do well.</p>
<p>In practice it often helps to stay and work at least a few years in Europe after graduating, as this cancels out any remaining tuition costs and helps you to get a foothold (another reason that the students in the conference all recommended learning German, and maybe some French or Spanish if you can). But whatever the case, make sure to look at as many options as you can, in many different countries.</p>