Chance an international in the US?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi, I am an Indian (Asian) who has been studying in the U.S for the past 8 years. I do not have a green card and proably won't anytime soon. I'm a rising senior and am looking to apply to some international-friendly safeties and some top schools. Are there any schools I should apply to and expect a good chance of getting in? would uc berkeley be a reach? Would I even be a cali resident?</p>

<p>Background info: Indian male who's moved quite a few times (3 dif. high school, 2 dif. middle schools and 3 dif. elementay schools, in 2 countries, spanning 4 american states.) Right now, im in california (8th,9th and 11th).</p>

<p>Stats:
SAT: 2310 (740cr,800m,770w)-first time (224 on psat, but will not qualify)
Math2:800; Bio:790; Chem:780
Ap's-5's on bio(soph),chem,comp,stats,calc bc, us history, physics mech and 4 on physics e&m.
Generally i've taken the toughest courseload possible with the exception of freshman year.
I'll be taking 4 ap's next year (econ,gov,lit,spanish) and statics/multivariable calc at comm. college.
G.P.A: All's a's except for 2 b's in photography (freshman year). Unweighted:3.93ish; Weighted: 4.5ish. Rank 2 out of 550 in unweighted and rank 1 in weighted. However, this could drop drastically in my senior year as im taking community college courses over high school ones, and there is severe grade inflation combined with lots of ppl with straight A's in all ap's right behind me. I should be safely in top 5%.
School: mildly competitive public and athletic oriented school in california. usually 1 person gets into top-notch colleges. </p>

<p>Financial situation: family income was 61k last year, and it will be around 25k this year and next. We have some debt and at most, with help from relatives and friends, will only be able to squeze 10-15k per year.</p>

<p>EC's: Crap..this is my weakest area. Ok..the only consistent club that ive been involved in, except for freshman year, is math team, of which im now president. i qualified for aime and scored 2(worthless?). Im shooting for 6+ next year, but maybe not as its probably not worth it. I went to New England/states in ct with my math team. I also did something called quiz bowl in ct, which is like jeopardy, but they dont have it my current school. My science teahcer recommended me to science olympiad, and I got to join the A team and went to states. (I was lucky to have gotten in as its a very exclusive club that hardly accepts new members; all of the other A team members have been doing it since middle school and continue it in high school.) I'll also have about 100 hours of hospital service and 100 hours of tutoring, almost all in my junior year. Im also currently in a summer biomedical internship sponsored by ucsf; a program that accepted 7 out of 70 or so applicants. I work with a doctor and help him in his research/observe surgeries etc...its about 200 hours over 6 weeks.</p>

<p>Sports: Ive been playing basketball since 9th grade, but not for a team. I did volleyball in soph year to hang out with friends and did track in junior year for the same reason. Played a lot of cricket in India.</p>

<p>Im interested in math/natural sciences and am looking for safeties that could help me with financial aid and also I would be grateful if you guys could assess my chances of getting in to the top schools. I havent started on college apps yet, but Im a decent writer, or so my teacher thinks so, and so my essays, hopefully, will be fine. any colleges that I should do early action to? Thanks..and sorry for making a long post</p>

2

<p>Ok. This is going to hurt…A LOT. You’re chances for UC Berkeley are…almost nonexistant. Your SAT I scores are EXCELLENT - and so are your SAT IIs, but, with all the FA you are going to be needing, and the fact that you are in state, I think your chances are going to be hurt. Due to the economic crisis, Berkeley is in its own crisis - the amount of full pay OOS students accepted has increased exponentially. They are in dire need of money - or so I heard. </p>

<p>Also, with the lack of ECs…I think you should apply somewhere else. Your grades are excellent, and so are most of your stats, but UC Berkeley is just in the middle of a crisis. I think you could have a chance at any other Top 30 school - maybe one that’s need-blind. You could check into Cornell and maybe think of EDing there, but of course, being Asian will also hurt your chances too. I hope I was of some help. :)</p>

3

<p>thanks for the reply. I figured I had low chances, but I still hold some hope. last year, An asian girl similar stats to mine, (2300+,international, high need for financial aid) got accepted into berkeley, but pretty much nowhere else in the top 20. Im assuming she did not get much aid, as she is not going there. also, would you mind listing some colleges that are still pretty good that I would have a good chance at getting into? Ive heard amherst college does not care if one is international or not…</p>

4

<p>Well, you only have low chances at Berkeley. Don’t give up completely! Here’s a list of schools you could probably get in that give either good FA or good merit scholarships:</p>

<p>Vanderbilt (great FA)
Emory (great FA)
USC (good, but EXTREMELY competitive, merit $$, good FA also)
Tulane (excellent FA and GREAT merit $$$)
U of Michigan (being OOS might hurt, but it has good FA).
Cornell (need-blind, but EDing could get you in)
Brown (also need-blind, but with your stats, you should definitely try - maybe think of EDing here instead of Cornell…I dont know - your chances are higher at Cornell)</p>

<p>And that’s pretty much all I can think of now… hope it helped though :)</p>

<p>Oh, and Amherst gives some pretty decent FA, but their acceptance rate is extremely low :(</p>

5

<p>I dont think cornell and brown are need-blind to international students. I found a site that states taht only hyp, amherst and some colleges like middlebury and williams are need-blind to internationals. Thanks for giving me the list though-ill be sure to apply to them. I dont want to ED anywhere, however, as im afraid that I might be forced to go there and not get enough aid.</p>

6

<p>I think you will get into Berkeley but Josh is probably right that you won’t get the aid you need.</p>

<p>Expanding on the mention of Tulane, they have a Deans’ Honor Scholorship (DHS) that you would have a good shot at, I think. It covers full tuition for 4 years, and I believe is open to all students, including international. It is very competitive, but you definitely have the stats. Take a look, it might be just what you need. Given your families financial situation, they may help cover a lot of the rest too.</p>

7

<p>

Nope! Williams isn’t need-blind to 2015ers and later students. </p>

<p>those need-blind-to-2015ers tycoons are:
Harvard
MIT
Princeton
Yale
Dartmouth
Amherst</p>

<p>as for Cornell, well, their school webpages relating to need-blind policy say that they are “need-blind to applicants”, but don’t specifically point out whether there’s different policies for domestics and internationals.</p>

8

<p>so where do you guys think I should apply? so far ive got emory, vandy, usc, tulane, umich, cornell?, brown? uc’s…</p>

9

<p>That’s a pretty good list. You could add Washington University in St. Louis, but they are not need-blind. You should get into Tulane for sure, especially if you let them know you are seriously considering it and applying for the DHS. You could add Rice also.</p>

10

<p>could you match/reach me into these schools: emory, vandy, usc, tulane, umich, cornell, brown, ucb, rice, dartmouth, amherst, wustl, hyp…</p>

11

<p>Sure, as long as you understand chancing people on here is usually pretty meaningless. It only helps when someone is either reaching unrealistically high, or severely underselling themself, the former being more common than the latter.</p>

<p>Emory - match
Vandy - match
usc - likely
tulane - highly likely with merit money
michigan - likely
cornell -match
brown - reach
ucb - match
rice - match/likely
dartmouth - reach
amherst - reach
wustl - match/reach
hyp - reach</p>

<p>All the Ivies except for Cornell are always a reach for everyone. Cornell is tough too, but should be more of a match for someone with your record. The Ivies get far more applications that are a match statistically than they can possibly enroll, so it is a crapshoot even for the best students. WUSTL I only added the reach because they are not need-blind and they have a reputation for waitlisting candidates that are likely to go to Ivies. If you decided to show strong interest in WUSTL, I would change that to a match.</p>

<p>You probably need to add one more likely/highly likely (what people call a safety, but I don’t like that term).</p>