<p>@AnnieBeats No offense, but are you an anti-International students? lol</p>
<p>@Phongtheha No, I am not against international students. I also don’t find the to be funny in anyway. Priority in admissions is given to American students in America. That is fact. It is much harder for international students to get into any American college and even more so at the Ivies because those are the schools that everyone would leave their country for. The OP is a great student, but unlike American students, he is competing against the entire world for admissions. It would be ignorant to assume an American student has a great chance at these schools and it would be even more ignorant to think that an international student would have a great chance, let alone a good chance. </p>
<p>These are already the most selective schools in the world. Not to mention that at state schools like Berkeley, priority is given to state residents, then American residents, and THEN international students. It would be even harder to get in there.</p>
<p>Those are the facts of life. OP has to deal with it where it seems mean or not. And the OP should really question the validity of information that they are getting from anyone who says that they have a great chance.</p>
<p>Yeah I agree that It is significantly harder for us internationals than Americans, especially for the ivies and state flagship schools. Especially for us unhooked Asians and Non - URMs :-S </p>
<p>The numbers at UC schools are interesting. The typical expectation (ok, my expectation) is that student acceptance at state universities is in-state>U.S. OOS>international. </p>
<p>As expected, international students applying to Berkeley have a lower acceptance rate than the other groups. But check out UCLA; international applicants actually had a <em>higher</em> acceptance rate than in-state applicants! </p>
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<p>The data are from this page: <a href=“http://www.admissionsadvice.com/admit2014”>http://www.admissionsadvice.com/admit2014</a></p>
<p>The results are similar to UCLA (in terms of relative rates of acceptance) at Irvine, Davis, Santa Cruz, and San Diego. So it’s not always true that international applicants are totally hosed at the state universities. At least not in California in 2014. </p>
<p>Although if you really want to go to a UC, your best bet is to be a U.S. student applying from outside California- that holds true for every school except Merced.</p>
<p>@mobius911 there are less international applicants than there are in-state applicants which is probably why there is a higher acceptance rate for international students. Also, you should use stats from the actual school’s website since they are probably more accurate. And UCLA actually admits more in-state applicants than OOS and internationals combined. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_fr/Frosh_Prof14.htm”>http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_fr/Frosh_Prof14.htm</a></p>
<p>^All true, and thank you for pointing that out since it has such a dramatic impact on my fundamental argument…</p>
<p>@mobius911 no need for an attitude. All I was saying is to get the information from the college website itself. </p>
<p>Why not UChicago? Their Economics is one of the best in the world!</p>
<p>@AnnieBeats I do realize that OP has it much harder bc of his/her international status. With that in mind, I feel that OP has an average chance similar to the acceptance rates at each school. That is because the OP is clearly a cut above the average US applicant to these schools (3 time IMO for gods sake!), which balances out the international status. Do you really believe that the OP has less than a 7% chance at some of those schools?</p>
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<p>Yes, you do realize that some of these schools have sub-7% acceptance rates right??</p>
<p>@tooty44 High test scores doesn’t balance anything out at all. Yes, the OP has a less than 7% chance at these schools. The acceptance rate at </p>
<p>Dartmouth for intl students was 7% compared to 12% for American students.</p>
<p>At UPenn, intl acceptance rate was 7% compared to 12% for Americans.</p>
<p>NYU accepted 37% of American applicants and 28% of international students. Stern is world renowned, so I imagine the acceptance rate for both domestic and foreign students being much lower. And those stats are from 6 years ago, so it will definitely be much lower.</p>
<p>Last year, Princeton accepted 8% of American students and accepted 4% of international applicants. </p>
<p>It’s not personal in anyway. The OP could have a perfect SAT score and get rejected by all of these schools. The cards are stacked against international students in all American schools.</p>
<p>@tola2015 Yes, a lot of them are hitting 5%, but I chose 7% because that has been (at least to me) the divider between the most selective schools and selective schools in general.</p>
<p>@AnnieBeats I do agree that even perfect test scores make very little difference for the OP. The main backing I have for my chances is that the OP has (assumingly) won 3 national math Olympiads and thus participated in IMO 3 times. That achievement is diminished by the fact that OP is from Sri Lanka, but nevertheless, I feel it separates the OP from the rest of the crowd. Additionally, the OP is from Sri Lanka and not some super competitive country (China and Korea come to mind). I don’t mean to start an argument, but I do feel that the OP has a slightly above average chance compared to other internationals.</p>
<p>@tooty44 The OP isn’t competing with applicants from Sri Lanka. They would be competing with all of Asia, if not actually competing will every international student out there.</p>
<p>@AnnieBeats Yes, the OP is competing against other internationals, but just like how some less competitive states in the US have a slight advantage over others in admissions. I feel that coming from Sri Lanka, the OP should have a slight advantage. </p>
<p>@tooty44 No. It doesn’t work like that.</p>
<p>@AnnieBeats Then may you enlighten me to how it works? Last I checked, which granted isn’t very often, admission officers at those top schools haven’t disclosed how they look at each applicant. All we can do is speculate. However, the point of my chances isn’t the fact that the OP is from Sri Lanka, but rather his/her impressive mathematical achievements.</p>
<p>@tooty44 Being an international student, is not a hook. It is a disadvantage in every way, shape, or form. I’m not arguing with you about this. It is fact. Google it if you must. Look at the statistics I just posted and research your own. My point is that despite their academic achievement, there are literally hundreds, maybe thousands of other international applicants with those same stats. And a ton of them get rejected too because colleges generally keep a quote for international students. Could the OP make it? Sure. Is it likely? No.</p>
<p>@AnnieBeats It seems that you misunderstand what I mean. I totally agree that it is not likely for the OP to get into most of those schools (since when was 7% ever labeled as “likely”?). However, I disagree that thousands have similar stats as the OP. If the OP has gone to IMO 3 times, which I assume he/she has, then it separates the OP into only a handful of applicants with similar achievements.</p>
<p>@tooty44 Do you realize who you are comparing the OP to? I don’t think you realize the scale at which the OP is being compared to. The OP is being compared to hundreds of thousands of college bound students around the entire world. The OP isn’t in any handful of achievements in the international pool. I’m sure there are thousands of kids like him. I’m not arguing with you about this. Google it yourself. Read a book. And then you will realize the harsh realty about admissions for international students.</p>
<p>@AnnieBeats Frankly, I have better things to do than read books on college admissions. I am not saying the OP is at the top of the international pool, but rather in a position where he/she still has a realistic chance and thus should not give up on applying. IMO is an exceptional achievement (do you even know what it is?) and if the OP has qualified for it 3 times, that is going to stand out.</p>