<p>Thx a lot for your advice,@Mandalorian.
Still, I’m kinda puzzled by your definition of ‘work and play’. Does EC stress count? </p>
<p>Didn’t you already ask about this on another thread? You aren’t supposed to be doing multiple threads of the same. If you follow directions like this on your apps and other things, you aren’t going to do so well. Do let the moderators know you’ve done this-perhaps I should drop a note.</p>
<p>The answer is pretty clear. You can see where you stand with the response you already got. Amherst is need blind to internationals and you applied ED and were not accepted. So your chances are poor at any other school where the odds are much worse than that. If you need money community college is not likely to give it to you as an international student. Your best bet is with a school where your stats are way at the top. You’ve been accepted already to Baylor with merit. You are a very top student there, so if anyone is going to get the money from them, you will, if you have financial need. Your need will be reduced by the scholarship they give you, but is likely to be met by them. </p>
<p>As to the other school, some of the less selective LACs you’ve listed may accept you and if they do, they do tend to meet full need. What is your need as estimated on NPCs of schools like Amherst? That’s a generous estimate as to what you can expect your need to be calculated. </p>
<p>But it’s pretty danged easy to estimate your odds, now that you have the ED outcomes. Neither Chicago nor Amherst feel you make the first cut, so you can look at those numbers and apply them to like schools. Your odds are not good at all for schools that are even more selective when it comes their RD rounds. </p>
<p>What are the odds of getting into schools in your own country and elsewhere and getting funded as needed? Those are other options than a US community college or gap year. You still have to pay to get here, room/board, commuting costs, books as well as tuition to go to community college and you aren’t eligible for federal money that is usually used to fund that. It would have been cheaper for my son to commute to a private school nearby that gave him free tuition, than to go to community college. Schools like that, unknown schools, not even as highly rated as Baylor by USNews, in the regional sections would be good choices for you, and many of them would give you money before a community college would. And once you are done with a CC, you would have to transfer to get a 4 year degree, and your chances of getting any money from any school for those finals years is about zilch. Transfers go after first year students when it comes to the money pot, and you would be an international transfer, even lower on the list. I don’t see a single school that would truly love to have you and might fund you fully. You are going just for the ones where your chances are very low, as you have found out since UC and Amherst have just deferred you But then to ask about Comm College when it’s even a lower possibility in terms of snagging 4 years worth of aid, is really ridiculous, and I think you’ve already been told that on the other thread.</p>
<p>So take the gap year if you are determined to come here, but when you make up your list next time around, put in some other schools. And unless you do something that makes the colleges interest perk up during that gap year, be aware that your resume does not get fresher over time. </p>
<p>If it stresses you out, don’t do it. </p>
<p>Hi again, everyone. Thanks a lot for all your pertinent advice during my entire application process. As a freshman in college looking back right now, I guess I should now post some of my results as an international applicant:</p>
<p>Admitted: HKU(with a huge scholarship, currently attending); ChineseU of HK; Mcgill(with partial award), Baylor(with partial award), National U of Sg(with binding FA after acceptance);</p>
<p>Waitlisted: Cornell, Vassar, Colby, Kenyon, Wash & Lee(all said no eventually)</p>
<p>Rejected: All the rest(I’m not that distressed with the outcome, since I’m well-aware of the need-aware policies for international students.)</p>
<p>Perhaps my actual result may come as a great surprise to you all, but keep in mind that I’m an international student from China pursuing FA. In such a scenario, regardless of one’s talent or the prestige of the institutions, all the schools become reaches or extreme reaches, so chances are pretty high that an int’l candidate can be rejected everywhere. Granted, there are people(or legends on paper) who manage to receive admission offers from reputed schools such as the Ivies with sufficient financial assistance, yet these guys belong to one of the very few - not just because of the quality of resume, but because of many other factors, or even luck.</p>
<p>Though having lived in a city where educational agents do the utmost to advertise ‘personal packaging’ and the successful cases to Ivies with such assistance, I chose to handle everything in my own style, not so much for any sort of thriftiness(the commission involved could be $30- 50k sometimes) as for my integrity that I ought to endeavor for entry to top universities by devising my own extracurriculars and embracing my own ideas. And thus I worked by myself only throughout the process, without ANY HELP FROM THE EXTERNAL AGENTS - from my band at school to my experiences in one of the top Chinese National Youth Scientist Conferences, I overcame many barriers and eventually won many awards. Even if I had reapt nothing in the process, I still would have cherished these precious memories, for just as we all applaud to those who can’t win the champion in a marathon, so we should all cheer for the process rather than the glittering offer letters.</p>
<p>And then I waited for offers, feeling a sense in limbo occasionally yet often have no time to stew over trifling worries as I looked forward to the Intel ISEF as a part of Chinese delegation. Days, weeks, and months had gradually passed when, at the end of March this year, all the decision letters from US flew into my email and mail box. Waitlists. Rejections. The harsh reality loomed in front of me - with 90% of Chinese applicants willing to pay full-ride(even by selling their family flats) to go to virtually EVERY more or less famed school, FA candidates like me stand nearly no chance to win.</p>
<p>But I have my concerns. I should not rely on resources on family too much, because I’m the person who is going to shape my future. Those who see the Chinese kids riding on fancy Falarris or spending money like a genuine ‘tuhao’ do not understand many aspiring independent Chinese candidates, who strive for the best because we know our responsibilities in our family, who would stay true to ourselves when lured by agents devising all the nice-looking activities that make up a ‘shiny’ resume,who always remain original even when external agents produce batches and batches of students to good schools. Those wanting an easy ride by paying huge sums from family assets of $$ to agents and schools, we all fondly believe, will bear the responsibility that they should shoulder in the future.</p>
<p>Would my post seem kind of cliched? It definitely would, as so many high-achieving international guys had aired their views from a wide array of outstanding schools. However, I still would like to share with you my ideas and thought, because I think whatever is real demands no embellishment, whether at Harvard, Yale or anywhere else. Wish all the studious candidates good luck, and hope that my comments can serve as motivation for you guys(esp. Chinese DIY candidates) to some degrees.</p>