i was reading a different thread and it got me thinking; are all applicants international or otherwise evaluated together or are applicants from different countries evaluated separately? would admissions officers be willing to overlook some faults for the sake of diversity?
It depends from college to college. Readers will look at certain regions of the world, unless there is a single person reading all international applications. During voting period, however, they would probably look at internationals altogether to have global representation.
However, because the competition is so intense, having bad reports from high school is going to be a huge, huge deterrent for getting into competitive schools, especially since there are so many who have great records. You could make up for poor ninth grade reports with better reports from 10th and 11th grades, and high SAT scores. Now I have no clue where you are applying to, but if you are seeking financial aid and applying to colleges, then you will be in a tough spot unless you have some exceptional factors to redeem yourself.
Actually, the evaluation (as much as any of us really know, since we are not actually in the room during decision time) is not that different for international applicants. Most colleges divide up their admissions teams by regions, and depending on the college ‘international’ may be one or several regions. The people on those teams are meant to be broadly familiar with the schools in their region (and at competitive colleges, they would certainly be expected to know who the strongest schools are). The regional reps read the application and identify any particular strengths (including regional diversity) and weaknesses, and make a recommendation. Many (though not all!) universities have 2 people read each app. If they both agree that the person is not a good fit, that’s the end of it. If the two people disagree there is usually a committee review process. If they both agree (depending on the college and how many ‘yeses’ they have compared to how many places) they may take all the yeses and do a final cut.
thank you