Chances for an International?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hello, Good Morning, Good Evening, whatever is appropriate,
I'm a 20 year old guy from Germany who wants to study in the US. So, I don't really know many US Colleges and with what qualifications you have chances to get into witch tier. So let's beginn with the facts:</p>

<ul>
<li>Finished School last year, 8th best of my school with a score of 1.6 (raging from 1.0 to 4.0, 1.0 being the best possible score). </li>
<li>No ACT/SAT yet, expected ACT Score arround 32-33 (first unprepared ACT preptest was 31, last two where 33) Going to write the ACT on 26.10.</li>
<li>Currently not living abroad</li>
<li>No TOEFL yet, but expecting good scores, possible test dates 25. Oct or 9. Nov</li>
</ul>

<p>ECs
- 3 Month Exchange Student in Kent, England
- 12 Month Exchange Student in Chicago</p>

<ul>
<li>Member of the German Alpine Club (a bit like the boyscouts) for over 10 ears</li>
<li>Youth Leader for a 30 man groupe, ranging between 10 and 13 years for 3 Years</li>
<li><p>Staff Member, responsable for organising national events </p></li>
<li><p>Worked 5 years for the school newspaper</p></li>
<li><p>2 month internship at the biggest nationwide newspaper</p></li>
<li><ol>
<li>Place at a national school newspaper competition</li>
</ol></li>
<li><p>Member of a youth press organisation, facilitator for workshops </p></li>
<li><p>Staff Member for a big youth press convention</p></li>
<li><p>Volunteering for 11 Month in a poor, rual area in South Africa</p></li>
<li><p>Part of an programm, founded by the german gouvernment (International Youth Volunteery Service)</p></li>
<li><p>Working at a primary school in Limpopo, South Africa for now 6 Months</p></li>
<li><p>(Co)Founder of two charitable organisations:</p>

<ul>
<li>Computer School for young adults to improve their chances for a job. Currently we have 2 classes of 19/16 students, the first class will graduate next month. At the moment we are applying for funding by the South African Gouverment</li>
<li>Womans Right Organisation concerning the extreme high rape-rates in South Africa (highest one in the world). Organising public events to create an awarness in the area.</li>
</ul></li>
<li><p>Fundraising for the latter organisation: nearly 70.000 Rand (~ 7.000 US-Dollars) witch is a lot of money for this area</p></li>
<li><ol>
<li>Place at a state-wide free climbing competition</li>
</ol></li>
<li><ol>
<li>Place at a nationwide competition concering a paper about german history</li>
</ol></li>
</ul>

<p>Minor Things:
- Member of a political party for 2 years
- Playing guitar in a band for 3 years
- Class representative for 4 years
- Member of a football team for 4 years
- Lived in a monastery for 4 Month for a school project</p>

<p>Well, I think that is more or less it. What can I do with a profile like this? I would think ivy is't at reach yet, right? A friend told me I should try Stanford, what are my chances there? Ony other suggestions? Please bear in mind, I would need a need-based financial aid, because I don't want to raise a credit. </p>

<p>Thank you very much for your help,
Nico</p>

2

<p>Stanford: Reach (a German 1.6 is like an American 3.6-3.8 to me)</p>

<p>Maybe try for places that grant both need-based and merit-based aid… I understand your motivation to aim for the Ivies, though.</p>

3

<p>Thank you for your post. Reach means, that it is possible to get in, but not sure, right? What other schools do you suggest, it’s quite a job to find informations about financial aid at one place, especially if you have an expensive and unreliable internetconnection like here…</p>

<p>And I don’t really need to study at one of the ivies. Of course it would be great, but I can live without. I would choose a good vibe in combination with finacial aid over absolute top tier education. </p>

<p>Oh, and I forgott: I would major in engineering, if that matters.</p>

4

<p>As you describe it, “possible to get in, but not sure” is more indicative of a match. A reach is a school where your admission chances are significantly less than 50%; a match, approximately 50%; a safety, significantly greater than 50%. Your ECs sound quite impressive, and if you can make yourself stand out in your essays, you’ll have a decent chance, but do know that admission is always going to be harder for international students. I’d put you at somewhere between reach and match, though probably closer to reach.</p>

<p>Also, as for “absolute top tier education” - actually, if you’re interested in engineering, Stanford is quite a bit better than any of the Ivies. Stanford and MIT are often seen as the best schools for engineering in the world, though Caltech and UC Berkeley are quite good as well. Those are all schools you can consider applying to. You should also apply to some safeties, including German universities, since I’m not totally familiar with the chances for Europeans to get into top American universities.</p>

5

<p>Berkeley is not a place that grants much, if any, need-based aid to internationals.</p>

6

<p>With your profile you’d be a shoo-in for Grinnell and Macalester, not to mention a lot of schools for whom service and international involvement are important. Unfortunately, neither Grinnell nor Macalester have engineering, although they have computer science. You could look into Lafayette, Lehigh, Bucknell, Union… but service and international involvement aren’t as big there whereas it seems like an important part of your life. You’d need 32-34 to have a shot at Harvey Mudd, MIT, and Stanford. ECs like yours have a life of their own for some top schools so you may keep your fingers crossed and apply to these as well as Princeton and Swarthmore.
You might want to capitalize on your volunteering with a major or minor in addition to pre-engineering. (You CAN get a more “flexible” major than engineering as an undergrad, for example Physics or CS, add another major or minor, and go to grad school in Engineering with funding for your MS in Engineering. An undergraduate degree in Engineering tends to have prescribed sequences of specific courses so it’s very difficult to take classes outside your major.)
Clark might be a school for you since they have majors in International Change and Development which you can combine with a 3/2 Engineering program - but 3/2 programs might not be ideal since I’m not sure your financial aid would follow you to Columbia.
Cornell has a Development Studies major and Engineering but it’s incredibly hard to get into.</p>

7

<p>@Tony1337: Ok, not as great as i hoped it would be, but still okay. I thought of Berkeley and CalTech as well, but Berkeley really doesn’t spend much on internationals, and Caltech with its 2000 students seems to be even harder to get in.</p>

<p>@MYOS1634: Huh, many new schools I never heard before. What you are saying about the majors is a bit confusing for me. In germany, physics and engineering are two complete different fields, you even get different degrees. But as I learned, you system is quite different from ours :smiley: . But if I got it right, your major doesn’t affect your chances of getting in, right?
Talking about my ACT; I just started prepering this week, basicly doing prep-tests. Reading and Science are quite easy, mostly 35/36 points. I could improve alot in the english section with ~29 points. So, I could imagine a 34 happen. Would that improve my chances alot?</p>

<p>Thanks again for your help,
Nico</p>

8

<p>Bumpbumpbump</p>

9

<p>Nobody can help me? (Damn time shift, I’m always sleeping when something happens here…)</p>

10

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>when it comes to the ACT, expected scores are not very good predictors of success on the real test so i recommend being cautious. everything else is impressive. i recommend williams college to you.</p>

11

<p>I know that, and of course I could totaly fail my test - but it’s quite unlikely. Normaly I’m a bit better under test circumstances than practice.
What about colleges witch grant aid just to a limited number of internationals like USC, GU or Chicago? Last one would be great of cause, then I could see my host family and some friends again. How do you think are my chances to get a spot there, including aid? Catrina mentioned merit-based scholarships. I thought those would be granted for good grades at college after a few years, or do I mistake that for something else? What Colleges provide merit-based scholarships to internationals?</p>

12

<p>Bumpibumpi</p>

13

<p>I now added some more Colleges and Universities to my list. It now includes:</p>

<p>Amherst College
John Hopkins
Middlebury
Northwestern
Princeton
Stanford
Swarthmore
UChicago
USC</p>

<p>I know Princeton will be unlikely, but maybe, maybe… Also, together with Amherst, it’s Need-Blind for Internationals. Anybody has an oppinion?</p>

14

<p>Amherst College - Mid reach
John Hopkins - Low reach
Middlebury - Low reach
Northwestern - Mid reach
Princeton - High reach
Stanford - High reach
Swarthmore - Mid reach
UChicago - Mid/High reach
USC - Low reach / High match</p>

15

<p>stanford - reach</p>

16

<p>Thank you both
@Tanboyrunfast: Have you included financial aid/scholarships for JHU and USC?</p>

17

<p>Amherst College-- reach
John Hopkins-- low reach/high match
Middlebury-- high match
Northwestern-- reach
Princeton-- high reach
Stanford-- high reach
Swarthmore-- reach
UChicago-- high reach
USC-- high match</p>

18

<p>Honestly, I’m not much of a “chancer,” so I would suggest getting a U.n.i.g.o. account, which will help you search for colleges and it gives you your approx. chances of getting in (but I’m not really sure how accurate it is). I would also suggest looking at colleges through College Board Big Future, which gives a lot of information about colleges, and I’ve found it very helpful throughout my search! You could just google “Harvard College board” and the first link should take you to the “big future” thing.</p>

<p><strong>for “U.n.i.g.o.” take out all the periods when you search for it. Collegeconfidential likes to delete words that relate to its competitors.</strong></p>

19

<p>Thank you for your suggestions, but this U.n.i.g.o. service seems quite expensive. I’ll check the big future thing.
Any other ideas?</p>

20

<p>uni.go is free. You can just type the name of the college in the browser next to that word and read what students have to say.</p>

<p>There are two problems with your list:

  • it seems more predicated on reputation or rankings than on fit
  • it’s only made of highly selective colleges.</p>

<p>For these colleges, it’s realistically impossible to chance you. All we can say is that you’re within range to be considered. But so will thousands of applicants - at least half of them will be qualified, even with the super stringent criteria these colleges use. After that, they choose among all these qualified applicants based on their own institutional needs, which change year to year.
In addition, when you look at the % of admission, you need to divide it by two (or three) because legacies, staff kids, and recruited athletes skew the results. If you’re unhooked and need financial aid, your odds are likely under 5% at all these schools.
You MUST look for matches - if you need financial aid, schools where you’re at the top of the stats. If your parents can afford to pay $50,000+ the situation is slightly different for some schools (like UC Berkeley or UMichigan), but not really for the schools on your list.
There are lots of schools in the Chicago area where you’d have good odds of getting in. Apply there AND to UChicago AND Northwestern, then if you’re lucky enough to get and get financial aid, you’ll have choices: Elmhurst, Lake Forest, Shimer, Valparaiso… further away Knox, Beloit, Marquette…</p>