Hi I am an international student applying for fall 2021. As the decisions start to come out, I got really worried that I might not get into any college I wanted, since my situation is really different from most of the students. Here are my stats.
Korean female, international, no Financial Aid needed
Have no GPA because I dropped out of high school in 11th grade, but until then it was 3.8 UW average (out of 4.0), competitive Korean high school (if that means anything-the students here rarely go to US colleges)
No AP/DE because my school did not offer them (so Weighted GPA N/A)
No ranks
Took Korean GED and got an average of 95 out of 100 (I’ve checked and am only applying to the universities that accept international GED students)
1500 SAT (700 English, 800 Math, took once)
105 TOEFL (took once)
Student Activities Director, Student Council
Founder/President Math Club
created a statistics database website in Statistics Club
After dropping out, worked part-time as an Academic Instructor and as a barista at a local cafe
Volunteer translating Korean books to English and sent them to the underprivileged students around the world (ever since I was in 6th grade)
Sports Captain in high school
LOR’s from teachers I know quite well
So the schools I have applied to are: Early Action: GTech, UIUC, UGA(deferred) Regular Decision: UT Austin, Penn State, Boston College, UVA, UMass Amherst, Purdue, Clemson, Ohio State
I am applying to Mathematics major for all of them.
Can anyone tell me what they think my chances are to these schools? I am worried because of my obvious lack of GPA and a high school diploma. Plus, this whole COVID thing made University admissions really unpredictable. Should I apply to more safety schools? I would really appreciate any kind of thoughts on my situation. Thank you.
Your deferral (in contrast to a denial) at UGA may indicate that your application will be considered seriously at the schools to which you already have applied — your GED status notwithstanding. As an opinion, you are likely to receive one or more acceptances from this group.
For further ideas, see if you can find a print edition of Princeton Review’s college guide, which includes a sampling, “Great Schools for Mathematics Majors.”
How old are you now? If I were on that admissions committee, I would want to know WHY you dropped out, and of course, how long you have been out of school. The pandemic threw a monkey wrench into everything for everyone, but dropping out of high school is a HUGE red flag for schools. And yet, you sound as if you are very high-achieving. But applying as an international student is a handicap, and as an int’l student who also dropped out of high school (in English, just the term “high-school dropout” is extremely derogatory), I would think that the deck would really be stacked against you.
If you don’t get into a school you want to go to, and you won’t turn 18 until next summer, I honestly think that a year at a highly respected US high school/prep school would do your application a lot of good. I would choose one that ends its semester before the Christmas vacation, not one that has midterms in mid to late January. This way, you could take all highest level AP classes (Calc BC, an AP science with lab, AP English comp or lit, AP US History, plus some other academic AP class), and apply RD from a US high school (although of course you’d still be applying as an international student), with a proven record of achievement at a high-level US high school. You’d hopefully have straight A’s in that one semester, and have a year to culturally and linguistically acclimate to the US. You might even get a letter of recommendation from the US high school, too. There are excellent private parochial schools that are not very expensive (the tuition at the best Catholic girls’ high school near me is about 16K), and there are just so many of these schools across the US. There are also excellent public high schools (and a whole lot of terrible ones), but attending one of these, you may run into visa issues.
Anyway, of course if you would be older than 18 when you enter, it would be inappropriate, just in terms of your age. There are many kids who were held back a year, especially if they were born in the fall, but even some summer birthdays, so if you don’t turn 18 until summer, you would still fit in. I think that this would be the best way, and if you didn’t drop out until the pandemic, you can just blame it on the pandemic.
If you want to add a few more schools, one smart approach would be to look at schools that accept particularly high numbers of international students. Look at both the National Universities list and the Liberal Arts Colleges list, here: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/most-international These are schools where you know you won’t be at a disadvantage as an international applicant; in fact, you may be at an advantage, if fewer international students apply because of the pandemic. Also, probably the more “holistic” the application process, the better.
URochester could be a good target - very holistic applications process, excellent for math and STEM in general, large international population… and right in range with the other schools you are targeting, reputation-wise. BU, Carnegie Mellon, Brandeis, UC San Diego, could all be great options. LAC-wise, Mt. Holoyke is in the 5-college consortium with UMass and could be a nice addition if you’re open to a women’s college. Bryn Mawr, Grinnell, and so on - there are a lot of good possibilities on that list for a math major.
I’m not saying you need to add many more applications, but if you do decide to add a few, choosing a few of these high-international-enrollment schools would be smart.