<p>International applicant..</p>
<p>ACT will give in OCT (hoping to get at least a 33)</p>
<p>SAT subject Chemistry 800, Biology M 770, Physics 720 (will send this to Duke but not to UPenn coz UPenn doesnt allow applicants to use score choice. I gave the SAT reasoning test 2 years ago and didnt do well)</p>
<p>Grades O levels 7 A<em>s (A</em> being the highest possible grade in each subject)
AS levels 4 As (A being the highest possible grade in each subject)
A levels 1 A* and 3 As (maths, bio, chem, physics) (A* being the highest possible grade in each subject)</p>
<p>ECs have plenty
. Held the office of student welfare (4 years), head of environmental club (4 years), editor in chief and creative director of school mag (2 years, in fact I revamped it and re-launched it ), organized charity events that raised +5000$..won several essay writing and quiz competitions
tutored maths chem and bio...
Am on my second gap year
...worked as a copywriter, co-launched a successful lit&art mag (one of the first in this country)
. helped launch an environmental initiative by Robert F. Kennedy (he is the nephew of the late president and was named by time magazines heroes of the planet
I dunno if thts significant or not)..even worked for a luxury vintage eyewear boutique as a PR writer
</p>
<p>Essay still writing but will be good and quite different I guess
(different as in topic wise)</p>
<p>Recs all good
</p>
<p>Financial aid. Yes need close to full. But duke is apparently very generous with aid for internationals. If they accept u that is..dunno about UPenn but both r need aware..</p>
<p>My first choice is the Jerome fisher program at UPenn... Which is why I have emphasized my ECs especially the work experience because my love for science can be seen by my school career but I think my interest in integrating business with science is clearly visible in my resume
.. Aiming for environmental engineering at duke</p>
<p>But I think that I have more chances of getting into Duke rather than UPenn which is why im confused to whether I should try UPenn or not.. I dont want to drag this out till april which is why I want to apply to the uni that I have the best shot at! Ultimately I can see myself going to either!!!!</p>
<p>The Jerome Fisher program is a competitive program within Penn, meaning it’s acceptance rate is going to be lower than the overall ED or RD acceptance rate. Now Duke has the higher ED rate, so I think you might have a better shot there. Of course, it’s also which school you personally like.</p>
<p>Hey, as far as I know, admission statistics do not really concern us international kids. If you can, try to find out the international student statistics (INCLUDING the subset of internationals on financial aid) at UPenn and Duke, which are not available on their websites. So whether you apply to Duke or Penn, it should not really matter because both are very competitive and need-sensitive when it comes it intl students. So yeah, don’t think about those stats when deciding where to apply - they won’t be of much help. Think about where you’d be a better fit (small things can help you make this decision - social atmosphere (Penn is probably more liberal and the city is nicer); number of undergrads (about 10k at Penn and 6k at Duke and even if you factor in grad students the gap is still the same); food (which school is reputed to have better food? lol okay this is just me lol)).</p>
<p>Also I hope you know that Penn is also very generous with financial aid for internationals, and probably more so than Duke, and of course if you get into the Jerome Fisher program you should have no problem getting a full ride :)</p>
<p>However, I hope you realize that what you may get on ACT practice tests is not going to be a sure-shot predictor for what you will get on the real thing so it doesn’t help to say “I will hopefully get thisthisthis”.</p>
<p>@international95 - Obviously i know that i cant guarantee a 33 on the ACT but i needed to provide a realistic/approx score here to get chanced. i do know that if i get a significantly lower score than that (33), then my chances will exponentially decrease, but that being said, the thread is supposed to be hypothetical (like all other chance threads)</p>
<p>as for where i’ll be a better fit.i can see myself going to either one of them!</p>
<p>Duke is actually very well known for its generous financial aid to international students. i think usnews ranked it in a “top 10 colleges that give most financial aid to international students” list… UPenn sadly wasn’t there.
anyhoo thx for the reply!</p>
<p>@smarty99… what ya think about my chances to UPenn engineering in general for ED?? since they give us a choice to choose a second major to be considered for if not M&T…</p>
<p>Oh, yes, I’ve seen that list and it is misleading. Firstly, the number of internationals awarded that amount of “average aid” at Duke is 134. This is THROUGHOUT the college. So about 33-34 internationals in each year (frosh, soph etc) are funded (it’d be good to find out how many students are competing for that aid – over 900 is a likely estimate and Duke’s selectivity would draw students mostly of high caliber). You will also notice that Princeton isn’t on that list either – and we all are well aware of Princeton’s policy for students (both domestic and intl) who come from families that make less than $60k: full ride. So does this mean Princeton isn’t as generous as Duke when giving aid? (note that Duke’s policies, on the other hand, won’t allow it to give out aid that generously to internationals). </p>
<p>Also I hope you realize that UPenn draws a lot of intls who need only partial aid (or none at all) due the Wharton School’s prestige and the Ivy League tag so that brings down its average aid awarded to intls. I know some kids at UPenn and they either got full aid or had their need met (there are some who didn’t need aid) so I do not think it is really something to consider when choosing your ED school.</p>
<p>Additionally, please note that even international student financial aid statistics can be misleading. You must have heard of the UWC schools, right? Skidmore, for instance, has an extensive relationship with those schools and the Davis funds (which are directly provided to the colleges) provide full rides to a lot of UWC-grads enrolling at schools like Duke and Skidmore (not much of a surprise that Skidmore is so well-represented on that list, right?) and yes, they do in fact factor in the aid they provide to those students, the aid which does NOT come from institutional funds but is directly given to the institution to allot to students (which is then school-administered aid), skewing the statistics. (Go here: <a href=“http://www.davisuwcscholars.org/scholars/2016;[/url]”>http://www.davisuwcscholars.org/scholars/2016;</a> search for “Duke”. The number of students enrolling at Duke from there are those who got aid from the Davis funds allotted to Duke for the Class of 2016.)</p>
<p>Anyway, all Ivy League schools, except for Cornell, are very well known for their generous financial aid to international students. In the end, it will all boil down to luck, so good luck! :)</p>