Hello everyone. I have previously created a thread here, but received no response, so I post it again. I am an 18-year-old Iranian student interested in studying in the US. I do not have American citizenship/Green Card. I will graduate from high school this year, and go to an Iranian university. Because I couldn’t take ACT this year, I didn’t apply to Ivy League colleges except Harvard REA, and was deferred to Regular Decision pool. Because I was afraid of being rejected, I withdrew my application. Now I want to take ACT and apply this year, but there is a big issue. If I get into an Iranian university, I MUST apply as transfer applicant for most colleges, except Yale and Columbia, which require me to apply as a first-year applicant. As you might know, funding opportunities are MUCH MORE limited for international student. But Yale is need blind for everyone. My question is that, since extracurricular activities are not paid any attention in Iran, do I have any chance of getting into Yale or even Columbia, with an above 34 ACT score, a top rank below 1000 in our Konkoor(our National University Entrance Exam), out of about 500,000 participants, and summer work experience, for example in a translation office?
I will really appreciate your help.
Yale has single digit acceptance rates and is very unlikely for all students. Unless you are the very best student in your country, I’d move forward with going to university in your home country and looking to the US for grad school.
Thank you so much. What about WashU, Cornell, University of Miami and Case Western Reserve University? CWRU and U Miami have better acceptance rates, but all of these colleges are need-aware. Also Cornell have about 18% transfer acceptance rate, but I do not know this year’s statistic, since they didn’t release it. I don’t know if they release their transfer acceptance rate of this year or not.
No they don’t. And for both universities, if you have a year’s worth of college credit by the time you enroll, not apply, you are ineligible for first year’s admission.
International acceptance at Yale for first year is about 2%; transfer acceptance rate is less than 1%. Unless you are the best applicant Iran has ever produced, it’s unlikely that your application will be successful.
This doesn’t make sense. What possible benefit is there to withdrawing your application before decisions have been released? Why did you apply? Expect to be rejected to EVERY school you listed here. If you do get accepted, it is a wonderful achievement.
You listed colleges that do not provide 100% financial aid to international students. How will you pay if you get in?
You have a lot of misunderstanding of how the admission process works in the US. To have a chance of being accepted at a college like Yale or Harvard as an international student, you must be one of the very best students in the whole country, as in #1 or #2. You must have the very best grades and you must have done something notable outside of school to be considered. Or, you must have a compelling story about what you have done in your life despite hardships, etc… (think of Malala Youfsazai and Greta Thunberg.) Otherwise, do not waste expensive application fees when there is no chance.
And understand that an ACT score of 34 will not be the factor that gets you admitted. Test scores are not as important now as they used to be. If you want to get out of Iran, try some of the British or Canadian universities, which will be more affordable.
Welcome to CC. I have family members who are Iranian and have studied in the US, but they all were graduate students, not undergrad. I am sure you are a very impressive applicant, and will succeed wherever you study. Very best of luck.
2 pct for regular decision this year to be precise.
Yes. The Early Action acceptance rate was 10.9%. Yale claims they evaluate both US citizens and international applicants in a same manner. And also I have talked to Yale on phone two days ago. The admissions officer told me I still can apply for first-year admissions. For Columbia, I MUST apply for first-year admissions if I spend a year in a non US/Canadian university. This is their response to my email: “If you have not already spent a full academic year or more in a college/university in the US or Canada, then you must apply to Columbia Engineering as a first-year student.”
As I told you, about 500,000 students participate in Iranian national university entrance exam. A rank below 1000 is very well. Below 500 is fantastic. I am working hard and am determined to get a good rate in that exam. If I get a rank below 500, may it be a proof of being one of Iran’s best applicant for that cycle?
You are not listening.
Sure, below #500 is very good. But it’s not #1 or #2, and that’s where you need to be.
I don’t have Yale statistics, but I do have MIT’s. They take, on average, one student from Iran every other year.
Which is identical to Harvard, FWIW. So my guess is Yale is similar.
Doing well on one more exam will not make
up for your lack of extracurriculars in holistic admissions.
Plus you don’t know where the students actually went to high school. They may have gone to a school in Switzerland, Singapore, or the US.
“If you have NOT already spent a full academic year or more”, then you apply as a first year student."
You wrote: I MUST apply for first-year admissions if I spend a year in a non US/Canadian university.
You are misinterpreting what the university indicated. Please reread it.
It means that if you take any academic courses, for one year, anywhere, you would be considered a transfer student.
If you DONT take any courses, anywhere, then you apply as a first year student.
Agree with @MITPhysicAlum that you are not listening.
You have to be the number one student in the whole country. The absolute best student in the entire country.
Understand that Yale is not telling you that you are already being considered.
Yale admissions has to tell every student, who asks, when admissions are open. You have to understand that you are not the only student calling Yale or any other ivy. They get thousands of calls.
Yale is need-blind which means that they look at every applicant’s information in the same manner, without regard for ability to pay. This is what need-blind means. It doesn’t mean that you should be ready to move there.
Also, taking an ACT test, that is meant to be taken, while in high school, isn’t going to do you ANY good at this point.
Do you know anything about this exam? It’s not the ACT or SAT or anything like it.
OP, what about some less selective universities?
I do. So @happy1 could have subbed in French bac or korean CSAT or A-levels or any of the Indian exams and the answer would have been the same; it will not make up for lackluster ECs
No specific knowledge other than it is a rigorous academic exam (per Wikipedia)
However, it is not an exam that US colleges look for nor in my opinion would it (or any other academic exam) make up for having no meaningful ECs for admissions to elite US universities.
Of course the OP is free to (and should) apply to any college he/she sees fit.
Thanks for clarification. As you know, Iranian educational system has a 180 degree difference with American educational system, and is full of errors. For example, we do not have anything called “transferring to another university” here. Anyone who wants to change his/her major should leave his/her original major and begin the new field from beginning. Therefore, I misunderstood some facts about US.
Sorry, are my odds for Case Western Reserve University, WashU and University of Miami almost zero, too? If yes, I will get into an Iranian university for my undergrads and apply for a US graduate school after 4 years.
I picked WashU at random. Their web page has a nice clickable map that shows they have 2 Iranian undergrads. So again, they accept one every other year, on average. My question is why you didn’t look yourself, but made me do it? This lack of gumption is going to stand in the way of your getting into a US university.
If you are one of the top 500 students in Iran - and I understand this is an aspiration, not an achievement - and universities here typically take zero or one per year, you need to cast a wider net than just four schools. But most of these schools will not meet full need - if you need the US to pay for your education too, that’s another barrier.
“I’ll just go to graduate school” may not be realistic either. Iranian universities are, not to put too fine a point on it, not very good. Using the QS rankings, the absolute best university in Iran is on par, not with Yale or “even Columbia”, but the University of Kansas.
Dear madam/sir,
Thank you for your reply. Actually, I have contacted CWRU and UMiami and they told me they meet every admitted students. They’ve also indicated that on their website. I do not have a wide range of options because I have to apply for transfer admissions if I get into an Iranian university.
Universities of Tehran, Shiraz and Isfahan have rankings below 1000 as I remember. But, do you recommend me to get my BS’s in a European country or even Canada and then apply as a graduate student for US?
Again, you’re not listening. More than anything else, this will cause you problems in life - no matter where you go to college.
Yes, Case meets full need. But their admissions process considers how much aid they have to give you. The more aid you need, the harder it is to get in. Furthermore, “full aid” still means you are expected to pay something - typically around 750,000,000 IRR or $18,000 USD. (That’s what a US citizen with $0 income would pay - again, something findable with a web search) This is somethingbyou need to be researching, rsther than leave it to us.
Ranked better than #1000 is an awfully low bar. Iran has three schools there? The US has 150+. Isn’t that why you want to go to The Great Satan to study? Graduate school is far, far from guaranteed, especially at a place like Yale.