Chance me? For Colleges in the US.

Student Lounge International Students
1

<p>Hi, </p>

<p>One of my students recently took her ACT test and she's interested to go to the US to do college. She's a greencard holder so I do believe she'll be considered a resident, but since she is studying here (Indonesia) I guess the chance me would include her foreign highschool work load.</p>

<p>Her Stats are as follows,</p>

<p>Composite Score 33
English 34
Maths 32
Reading 32
Science 35
Writing 10</p>

<p>She completed her GCSE O levels, 6 subjects are as follows</p>

<p>English A
Math A
Science A
Geography B
English Lit B
Foreign Language (Malay) A</p>

<p>School does not rank their students.</p>

<p>Has done CCA work with girl guides for 4 years and student leader in her guides.</p>

<p>She's interested to apply into UCLA, UCB, Brown and Boston College.</p>

<p>Does anyone know how the Unis will judge someone who is a US resident but with international qualifications ?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>UCs are easier to get in for full paying OOS student. As a full freight paying student, she will have a chance for all the schools listed but Brown is a lottery school for any students. If she need Aids, the list must be reformatted to include more lower ranking schools.</p>

3

<p>OP, the big question is finances. If she needs financial aid, she needs to take UCLA and UCB off her list - they provide little or no FA for international students. She should focus on privates of those few publics (University of Alabama is an example) that give aid to internationals.</p>

<p>As to how she will be judged - she will be competing against other international students, not domestic applicants. Much of the admission criteria will be based on who else from her country is applying and how she compares to other top students from her country. For international students, test scores are crucial; grades slightly less. </p>

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<p>@katliamom hello ! thanks for the reply. I’ll have to inform her of that. I never knew a greencard holder would be considered as an international student. When you mention test scores are crucial - you mean the ACT scores ? I was doing some research on the ACT, seems like a 33 is pretty decent. I hope she has a fighting chance of entering a good University. </p>

<p>I do believe she will need aid. (I also had the impression that since she’s a greencard holder, she can get some sort of financial aid)</p>

<p>thanks again!</p>

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<p>@nyvrem‌
My apologies. I did not notice she has a green card. In that case, she will be considered a domestic applicant, however, she will have to pay out-of-state tuition (in the $50,000/year range) at the UCs until she establishes Calif. residency.She should check how/if that’s possible if her parents won’t be living with her in Calif. </p>

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<p>As a green card holder (a permanent resident), she has access to the same financial aid as all Americans. However, her background will be evaluated with internationals. Therefore she gets the best of both worlds, bringing diversity but not being penalized financially the way internationals are.
However, she needs to look into private colleges - I would strongly recommend women’s colleges such as Bryn Mawr, Barnard, Mount Holyoke, or Scripps, as well as Agnes Scott and Simmons. In addition, she should look into colleges that have a strong international tradition, such as Macalester, Kalamazoo, or Dickinson (all excellent schools).
If she’s Catholic, beside Boston College, she can look into Notre Dame (more seriously/conservative Catholic), Georgetown (more liberal interpretation of doctrine), both elite and highly selective therefore reaches for everyone, as well as College of the Holy Cross, but also universities such as Fordham, Loyola-Marymount, USeattle, UPortland, UDayton, UScranton, St Edward’s, St Mary’s of CA, St Michael’s, Xavier of Cincinnati…
What general field does she want to major in?
You need to check that O’Levels are sufficient Indonesian credentials for university entrance at each of these universities, though (you may have to email admissions).</p>

7

<p>Hi MYOS ! </p>

<p>We just spend the whole of Friday looking through all her email replies from a list of schools she sent out too. She basically asked them if her ACT score and O level results were sufficient to be considered for admissions. Some schools (UCLA/UCB) have told her that she needs A levels for admissions purposes. Boston University, IUB, Purdue and UT Austin were willing to consider her with just O levels and a high ACT score. She’s thinking of just doing up her common app. and apply into a list of top schools, hoping they would see her case as something different. If she does not gain entry, she’s considering taking A levels next year before reapplying again. </p>

<p>She’s looking to major in Math. with a minor in CS. The price tag of a private school does pose some challenges. We’ve been doing some research on colleges that meet 100% aid. She’ll most likely have to apply into those schools.</p>

8

<p>Run the Net Price Calculators for each school.
She has three choices:

  • 100% need schools (unless her family is very wealthy by Indonesian standards, she’d likely need a lot of financial aid and those schools will cover her financial need.) There are only about 60-80 of them and almost all are very to highly selective. The easiest to get into from that difficult list would be Gettysburg (strong for history and humanities, big “Greek”/Fraternity life) and St Olaf (strong in math, science, and music, as well as study abroad, “dry” to “damp” campus.) Both would be matches, considering the combination of ACT and O’Level results (without ALevels). Macalester is another such school, however it is highly selective, big focus on international life - Kofi Annan is an alumnus - and meets 100% need. Rare for a LAC, it’s located in a big, thriving city. Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, Barnard, Mount Holyoke would also meet need. Mount Holyoke has 26% students raised abroad so she wouldn’t feel alone, and it’s part of a consortium in Massachusetts. If she’s really, really strong at math, there’s Harvey Mudd (but her 33 will be pretty average there), UChicago, Williams, Northwestern, MIT, CalTech, each with their own campus culture, some tech-y, some theoretical, etc.
  • schools where her 33 will place her in the top 10-20% applicants, especially schools that value international diversity, where she’ll get preferential packaging with merit and need-based aid. That would be schools like Kalamazoo, New College Florida, Wooster, Goucher…
  • schools with automatic scholarships for her stats: Truman State, Howard, UAlabama Honors (the latter is the highest-ranked and offers great opportunities).</p>

<p>Most public universities DO NOT have financial aid beside the basics ($5,500 in loans and, if her family makes less than 30,000, a Pell Grantthat could be 1,000 to 6,000). She’ll be considered OOS everywhere - ie., UT Austin will be 50K and will only offer her this basic aid, unless she qualifies for merit aid, which is very rare for OOS students. Boston University doesn’t meet need (Boston College, the Catholic university, does - her interest in that school made me list a variety of Catholic universities). </p>

<p>What’s the highest level of math she’s reached? Precalculus, Differential Equations 1, Multivariable Calculus…?</p>

<p>Her list CANNOT just include schools with an admission rate below 30%, it’s a recipe for disaster. As long as the colleges are in the Top 100-150 (I’d say Top 40 University and Top 60 LAC + a couple top regional universities - remember that’s out of 3,700 colleges), she’ll be able to get a good education. Try to find Princeton Review’s Best Colleges or the Fiske Guide or Insider’s Guide to the Colleges. Have her read about colleges she has NOT heard about (it’s easy to apply to colleges everyone’s heard of :stuck_out_tongue: but it doesn’t reveal much research or thought about fit, ambitions, etc.)</p>

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<p>UCB and UCLA wont really give her in-state status, so she will be paying a lot of money. Read what the other posters have suggested since the privates have more money.</p>

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<p>

Ouch. Have her double-check that her green card is still valid and would still be valid when she starts college.</p>

<p>The green card is only valid while the beneficiary maintains a permanent residence in the US. Permanent resident status is automatically lost when someone leaves the US for more than a year without a re-entry permit. The green card may also get invalidated at the port of entry if the immigration officer believes the beneficiary has abondoned their permanent residence in the US. That commonly happens when someone spends most of their time abroad and only visits the US once or twice per year. </p>

<p>Just to emphasize, the date printed on the card doesn’t matter. What matters is whether she has been out of the US for more than 365 days without applying for a re-entry permit before she left. Or if she plans to be outside if the US for more than a year before she starts college. </p>

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<p>@MYOS1634 So my kid spent the last week researching on a college to attend. Right now, she’s going by ‘reviews’ of colleges she can read online. She does not have the advantage of visiting them since she’s here and not in the US. She’s looking into schools with good Math and Computer Science programs. I’ve asked her about student life, college life (rural or urban), weather conditions. She doesn’t seem to care/bother much about all the ‘little’ things. She’s just very focused on her studies and end goal, which is to enter a good college. Her plans after that is to move back to Asia to work.</p>

<p>I asked her about her family’s commitment towards college, her parents are divorced, she lives with her mum. Makes about $40k/year. I would like to clarify, when a school claims to meet ‘100% need’, would that mean, after the EFC is factored in, the remaining cost of attending the college would be covered by student loans + grants ?</p>

<p>She’s called some top colleges and LACs, most need/want A levels to be competitive for admissions, now she’s thinking if she should take her A levels next year and then apply, or just submit an application this year using her ACT scores and O levels. I’m not sure I can find anyone who can advice on this situation since each school’s admissions is different. I’m not sure how to define what’s her highest Math level when converted to a US equivalent. I do know she’s done GCE O levels Advance Math. </p>

<p>Here’s a scenario she’s thinking off, apply into some reach schools using her current scores, and if she gets rejected, take her A levels next year and perhaps re-take her ACT to aim for a 34 or 35, and then apply into colleges again next year. I personally don’t see any harm in that. Do/Would you foresee any difficulties she might face if she does it this way ?</p>

<p>Oh, and another thing is, should she get new LoRs ? The ones she has are end of year testimonial from teachers (from last year)</p>

<p>@b@r!um she’s still got her greencard. I’ve checked with her mum on that. In fact, they fly back to the US 4x a year to stay/visit her grandparents. And she’s got some permission slip from the US immigration office that indicates she’s asked for and been granted permission to study here. I don’t think that would be an issue about her GC, especially since her mum’s a US citizen.</p>

<p>Thank you for all the replies.</p>