How does being an international student affect admissions?

<p>But I have been studying in the US since 8th grade, I went to a not-so-good middle school, and after one year, I transferred to one of the top 5 private high schools in the US ranked by Forbes.
How does this combination of being an international student and studying in a top notch high school affect my chance of getting into the ivies? Is being international an advantage or disadvantage? I DO NOT NEED FINANCIAL AID.
Also, even though I am from China, I am not a stereotypical chinese international student for that I am not math/science oriented at all. My focus is more on history and english and I do extracurriculars related to those topics. does that increase my chance? </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>Being an international student does not give you any advantage nor disadvantage. Student admissions criteria remain the same, your grades, SAT, recommendations , ECs and essays.</p>

<p>@jamesbond1</p>

<p>I think there is a thread on this forum ( may have been deleted very controversial) about how some ivies have a quota for Asian students. I’ll stop there in case I get suspended from the site ;)</p>

<p>Being an international student means you have to compete with applicants being in the same nationality with you. To be honest, Chinese students are almost most competitive among all the races, meaning that you must get a much higher SAT scores than other locals so as to get ahead of other Chinese and get admitted …</p>

<ul>
<li>If you don’t want it to effect your chances of getting in, do NOT apply for financial aid. Most schools are need-sensitive to international students.</li>
</ul>

<p>I would say overall the poll is a lot more competitive than the non-international ones, and most schools can’t admit that much asian students because they need to keep a balance. Make sure your essays are great. Good luck!</p>

<p>ivies do have a quota on asian students. they just don’t admit it.</p>

<p>Being an international student hurts your chance significantly. It is true that top schools post a quota not only towards Asian, but on top of that also towards the International students. Top schools aren’t short of money, so money-wise you don’t hold any advantage. However, if you are not aiming for top schools, I think the good news is that since you want to pay for a full ride (which will cost much more significantly compare to those students in the US), regular schools will certainly accept you, that might even be your advantage (regular schools are schools like Delaware, Oregon, Ohio etc)</p>

<p>Regards to top private high school, I think it doesn’t really matter. What matter the most is who YOU are. Private school, even the top ones, sends majority of students to non-top schools.</p>

<p>As for stereotype, I’d like to tell you that most top Asians applying for good schools are of course NOT only math oriented. They are generally excelling at everything, but in terms of math, they are better than their classmates by 2-3 schools years. When you say you are not math oriented at all, it might be bad because good schools aren’t looking for someone who’s only good at English, they are really looking for well-rounded kids.</p>

<p>^ agree with henryvli. Being from China sucks big time.</p>

<p>It will hurt you negatively. MIT posted admission rates for internationals and then US citizens, and for internationals, it hovers around 3%. They really accept only the best out of the best, and many of those applying are the cream of the crop.</p>

<p>Separate pools.</p>

<p>All schools have their diversity objectives, if called “quota”, based on ethnicity, gender, domestic/international.</p>

<p>Therefore, U.S. domestic and international candidates are competing in different pools.</p>

<p>My understanding is an international candidates are competing against other international candidates. And, a candidate from China is competing against other candidates from China).</p>

<p>Therefore, while you should aim your SAT score really high to be able to get accepted by Ivies, your SAT scores will not be compared with the scores of domestic candidates.</p>

<p>I know coming from a good feeder school helps a lot. I know it definitely helped me.</p>

<p>It also depends where your applying. If you look at the ivy league schools and other top schools’ websites they say that they view admissions based on the applicants current location rather than country of citizenship. For example, I’m Canadian but I’ve been living here since the 6th grade and my application will be placed in the same pool as US citizens.</p>

<p>Hello, my dear fellows. This is technically my first appearance in CC. I have been looking around for some useful info and want to say something.</p>

<p>So, literally I am a Chinese student born in China, raised in China and studied in China. Now I am 17 and I will apply during winter or spring. Now I kind of confused from the info listed here since I actually got a different picture of the situation. So I would like to ask for some references of my chances of getting into great universities in US. </p>

<p>Just to list some of my stuff:

  1. TOEFL: not so good, 105 in November last year, I will do it again and shooting for 110+
  2. SAT: 2170 in May. average level maybe, I will do it again as well and shooting for 2300+.
    3 SAT2: 800maths 2+710US history+690World history, probably will do it again
  3. Head of MUN club at school and major organizer of several big MUN activities
  4. quite a lot of volunteer work…all kinds of
  5. read a lot…
    …</p>

<p>Just very brief stuff. I would simply like to know how I am doing. I would be very grateful if you guys can give me a picture. Thank you!</p>