<p>Hi, Im an international student. My dream is to immigrate to America and work in the tech industry / start my own tech business there. I will definitely get at least a Master's degree before I hop into work. </p>
<p>So, I'm given 2 choices to do my undergrad:</p>
<p>[a] Give a crapshoot and apply to the most prestigious American universities for undergrad
** Stay in my country (East Asia) or go to Canada, which I won't have to take the SAT, TOEFL, etc</p>
<p>Now of course, who doesn't want to go to MIT or Stanford for undergrad, but I wonder if such an extra effort is worth it at all. Say if I want to pursue my Masters and PhD degree at a prestigious American uni (say UC Berkeley), does it even matter where I did my undergrad? </p>
<p>If I produced excellent research work, will the reputation factor still ruin my chances of getting into top grad schools?</p>
<p>“which I won’t have to take the SAT, TOEFL”</p>
<p>I can’t see why you don’t want to take SAT and TOEFL.
Facts:
SAT subject tests are easy.
SAT 1 is easy if your English is great(and if it’s not, you anyway have to learn English to go to graduate school). If you’re an int’l, above 2100 is considered okay for most top schools(possible exceptions: Caltech, Harvey Mudd)
You’ll have to take TOEFL anyway to apply for graduate school</p>
<p>“does it even matter where I did my undergrad?”
I believe you already know the answer.</p>
<p>“will the reputation factor still ruin my chances”
Well, it’s not exactly “reputation”. These top schools have a few things which do more help than pure “reputation”.
Much more challenging courses.
A larger number of competitive students.
Accomplished experts in their fields(who can give you great recs, btw).</p>
<p>And if I can attain 2200 above on the SAT, which of the following schools would mostly GUARANTEE acceptance being an international student:</p>
<p>(1) UCLA
(2) UChicago
(3) UMaryland College Park
(4) UC Berkeley
(5) Stanford
(6) MIT</p>
<p>Because for example, I know that MIT, Stanford, Caltech, I mean these school have rejected a few SAT 2400s, and have accepted 1900s, so they’re pretty unpredictable. Now, which of the above schools would normally “Safely” guarantee acceptance with a SAT 2200 above, without requiring extra innovations?</p>
<p>No one cares about your undergrad degree once you get the graduate degree. Acceptance into grad school has very little to do with where you got your undergrad. More about how you did on the entrance exam and undergrad GPA and resume (research and other relevant items). </p>
<p>As for the above items…</p>
<p>1) Mostly a myth. There are exceptions but that is where the reputation comes from. Once upon a time this may have been true…
2) True…not really a selling point. That means you have more competition for the research opportunities.
3) That applies to many good universities and is not always proportional to reputation.</p>
<p>Moreover, item 2 is the reason why you will see people quote stats saying that going to ‘great’ undergrad schools will get you into a great grad school. It is more about the fact that the average student at a great undergrad school is more qualified than the average student at a lesser school I will have to assume here that if you are shooting this high, you are not an average student. In that case, a good, not elite undergrad school may actually be an advantage to you.</p>
<p>There are rumored to be some elite grad schools that hold aside a certain number of slots for their own undergrads to get into their grad school programs. This helps them sell undergrad tuition as they can point to it as a path. The reality is that highly qualified students from all sorts of undergrad schools get into elite grad schools every year.</p>
<p>Torveaux, thank you for your comment! By the way, what do you think about my 2nd post, are there universities that almost guarantee entrance with a SAT >2200 (I can push it to Just 2300 if I put more time on vocabs)</p>
<p>Do you need money? If you are an international student with financial need, it can well be a lottery ticket to get into any school because many simply will not accept you if they can’t meet your need and few school guarantee need to International students.</p>
<p>There is no GUARANTEE per se, in terms of admissions. Thought it’s a pretty good chance at most state schools that go primarily by formula for accepting students. If you get your application in early, have high grades, it is virtually certain that a 2200 would get you accepted to a number of such schools. However, even schools with 80-90%+ accept rates may have programs within the school that are much more selective, so blanket statements cannot be made and be 100% correct. </p>
<p>I would not say that there is absolutely NO panache to having an HPYSM degree as an UG. There is a name recognition, prestige thing that is not honest to ignore, but yes, when you go to a graduate school and are competing for positions that such an advanced degree confers, the ug part does become less important than the programs and content studied and mastered in the graduate level.</p>
<p>2200 + full pay = guaranteed at UMD as well as other top flagships outside Umich, UNC-CH, UVA, UCB, UCLA. no other guarantee elsewhere since elite admissions are holistic and don’t depend on your SAT score but more on other factors.
Canada will require TOEFL scores BTW.</p>
<p>Actually I’m from Hong Kong (Asia), and there’s this school called HKUST. So, given that a student produces quality research work, would it be possible to do grad at schools like UC Berkeley, or even MIT?</p>
<p>I mean HKUST is ranked about #12 in QS World Computer Science ranking but people keep telling me QS is useless,HKUST is WAY WAY behind MIT and it would be impossible to go from undergrad HKUST to grad MIT.</p>
<p>American universities are generally far, far ahead of the international competition. Most other countries only have one good university / system in the entire country. If you go there for your undergrad, it’s very easy to put attention on yourself. Among these universities would include: Tsinghua University, Peking University, Australian National University, Sciences Po, ETH Zurich, Indian Institute of Technology, etc. Other specialty schools might also be considered, like Waterloo for computer science or LSE for economics. But if you go to one of those schools that have a great reputation nationally and in their own country, it helps your chances of being admitted into a top U.S. program.</p>
<p>None of the universities you mentioned have guaranteed admissions for SAT scores. SAT score is just one part of the qualifications for admission. So there is no level of score where you can be reasonably assured of admissions.</p>