How likely am I to get into Stanford, Harvard, MIT, and the Ivies as an international student wanting to major in Computer Science?

Demo: Asian, Female
Here are my stats and ECs:

  • SAT: 1550
  • ACT: 35
  • 4.0 GPA UW (our school doesn’t do weighted GPA or ranking)
  • Took 16 APs throughout high school: Physics 1, Physics 2, Chemistry, Biology, Computer Science Principles, Computer Science A, Language and Composition, Literature and Composition, Seminar & Research (got AP Capstone Diploma), Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Statistics, World History, US History, Gov. & Politics
  • 2 time winner of the Congressional App Challenge
  • AIME qualifier
  • Reached a ranking of #1 in Python through Hacker Rank
  • Participated in Hackathons, won a couple notable prizes
  • In the process of submitting a project to Intel Science Fair
  • Have a published research paper through a university
  • Went to Nationals for debate (Lincoln Douglas)
  • Started a fundraiser for under served and under represented students and raised $1,000
  • Varsity Cross Country for 2 years
  • National Honor Society (all 4 yrs)
  • President of Computer Science Honor Society
  • Vice-President of a club I founded called Career and Academic Success Advisors where I help provide a more structured and individual-based support for every student

2.3% chance

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Unfortunately the international applicants to these top US universities tend to be very strong. Your stats and accomplishments are superb, but you are competing for admissions with many other students whose stats are also superb.

Admissions is very hard to predict at the top universities in the US.

There are several good universities for CS that are not Ivies. Of course apply to the T20s you think would be a good fit for you. However, also look at some of the T30 or T35 for CS schools which you may have a much better chance at.

Is financial aid a concern or would you be full pay?

You’ve done well so far but as others have said, CS is very competitive here in the US and few international applicants get in.

Financial aid isn’t a concern. Will that help along with the fact that I live and have gone through my education in the US?

I guess it depends on which country you are applying from. If you’re from China/India/Taiwan then it will be incredibly difficult.

But say if you were from Mongolia, Myanmar or Laos. Then your chances would be a lot better.

The acceptance rates for international students is in the single digits. In the vast majority of rejected applicants, there are many well qualified applicants.

Apply and see, but you need to cast a much broader net than just these highly competitive colleges.

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I think you have a decent shot but for anyone the chances are hard and especially in computer science

This is a small nit. However, MIT, Stanford, and Harvard do not admit by major for undergraduate students.

Except for Cornell, none of the Ivies is really a top school for CS. You should look at UIUC, CMU, Purdue, Michigan, Berkeley, or UCLA. All are better than Harvard at CS, and all have higher acceptance rates for international students than any Ivy.

For CS Brown, Dartmouth, UPenn, Yale, or Harvard are not top schools. Princeton has a good reputation in CS theory, Columbia is good, but only Cornell would rank up with MIT, Stanford, Caltech, UIUC, GTech, UW, Michigan, UCLA, or Berkeley. I would also put Duke, USC, UMD, UNC, and UT Austin as equal or better for CS than any Ivy except Cornell. if small colleges interest you, you could not do better, IMO, than Harvey Mudd College.

If I were you, I would forget about any Ivy but Cornell, and consider MIT or Stanford to be lottery tickets. Focus on the top large state schools, especially ones like UIUC or the UCs, which have similar admission rates for international students as for domestic students.

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In addition to the very good schools suggested by @MWolf and others, you might want to consider universities such as U.Mass Amherst, Rutgers, or UNC, or perhaps some of the “not top two universities of California”. We hire tons of CS graduates from U.Mass Amherst and some of the UC’s and the best of them are really, really good.

Given your excellent stats, your chances will start to get very good when you are looking at very good universities in the U.Mass Amherst range, and you will still get a very strong education in computer science.

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MWolf’s list just about nailed the list my D (1580, 4.0, 2x AIME, blah, blah) has developed. None of the Ivies, other than Cornell, are on it.

only Cornell would rank up with MIT, Stanford, Caltech, UIUC, GTech, UW, Michigan,

We passed on the CA schools, added Purdue as a safer match and local Penn State/Ohio State as safeties.

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