<p>No S2Stan, I meant diversity of countries. Living in Africa is a huge, huge plus, far moreso than being black.</p>
<p>@NWIStudent You are very very mistaken.</p>
<p>@AnnieBeats Isn’t living in Africa an advantage compared to living in Asia or Europe? There are way less applicants from Africa…</p>
<p>Competition for international students is more intense than for domestic students. Intl students are competing against themselves for X # of seats. Within that X number, admissions is not looking to favor a student from Africa vs. a student from Europe. They are picking the best class for them from all the applicants.</p>
<p>@skieurope Thank you, I was not aware of that. I’ve always assumed that the applicants were compared regionally (i.e. Africans with Africans, Europeans with Europeans, etc) in order to ensure that they had a varied class
Thank you for the clarification.</p>
<p>I can’t really say anything about the UK schools, but the American schools are all reaches to high reaches, even with your impressive stats, EC’s, and potential campus diversity. You’re going to have to have AMAZING essays in order to up your competitiveness. Best of luck! :)</p>
<p>Chance me back, please: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1662008-2-8-gpa-2000-first-time-sat-urm-umass-amherst-others-ea.html#latest”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1662008-2-8-gpa-2000-first-time-sat-urm-umass-amherst-others-ea.html#latest</a></p>
<p>@lbad96 Thank you, I chanced you back! :)</p>
<p>Anyone? :(</p>
<p>Colleges do like to point to number of countries they covered each year. The main limiting factor for Stanford with respect to International admissions will be the FA available and Stanford is need aware for internationals. So a highly qualified candidate may be denied if there is no money left in the pool designated for internationals.</p>
<p>Have you considered applying to some liberal arts colleges (LACs)?</p>
<p>They might find you to be an attractive applicant as they are also interested in diversity.</p>
<p>Some LACs you.might consider:</p>
<p>Reaches/low reaches:
Williams
Amherst
Middlebury
Haverford
Carleton
Grinnell
Reed</p>
<p>High Matches/Matches:
Macalester
Holy Cross
St. Olaf
U Richmond</p>
<p>Low matches/Safeties:
Lawrence
Beloit
Gustavus Adolphus</p>
<p>These are all quality schools that put all, or virtually all, of their effort into educating undergraduates. They tend to feature small, pretty campuses; small student bodies; small class sizes (most classes with fewer than, oh, 30 students); and good opportunity for individual contact with professors.</p>
<p>Ah – and if you got into Haverford, you could take some classes at Penn.</p>
<p>Haverford is part of the Quaker Consortium:</p>
<p>Penn
Swarthmore
Haverford
Bryn Mawr</p>
<p>@texaspg How can money be a limiting factor?! Their endowment is freaking 18.7 BILLION USD!</p>
<p>@prezbucky I’ve considered LACs (Olin is, in fact, on my list). From the others I would really consider Williams, since they offer a materials science course. However, it is in the middle of nowhere! Middlebury BA+ BS from Columbia is good too. I really like the school’s language department!</p>
<p>BUMPPPPP</p>
<p>Endowment and how they plan to use the 5% of endowment on a yearly basis are two different things. </p>
<p>Undergrad international students are allocated a limited pool of money for FA which is why the label need aware is applied. So it is a limiting factor that 200 students may be qualified for FA and they may have money only for 100 and so the other 100 won’t be admitted despite their qualiifications. This does not mean every student in need will be denied, only that the pool of money can dictate their decision making on who to admit after they have decided on a bunch of candidates as admittable.</p>
<p>@texaspg Ok thanks. A representative from Columbia came to our school and he said that, while they are need aware, need is hardly one of their criteria for admission, therefore I assumed that it was the same for Stanford.</p>
<p>@S2Stan Hey thanks for the comment again! Now for yours</p>
<p>I definitely think that based on just grades and scores alone you are eligible for the top schools. There is a 25 and 75 percentile, and I think you fit into the 75th percentile of most schools. Just please make sure that you don’t run out of money and that the investment is worth it. And another thing to note is that admission processes can be quite arbitrary; you never know what’s going to happen! Something unique about you is that you’re an international student and you know 4 languages, so definitely you should play those things to your advantages. Colleges aren’t only looking at your grades but also your personality!</p>
<p>@S2Stan hell you’re good! Idk why you consider me as competition haha! I think you have a better chance than I do, honestly!
With the internships, you’ll have a really great shot. I think your EC’s are pretty fantastic (especially the internships), and your grades are good. You should really talk about how you managed to get 6 for English SL even though you only started learning English in freshman year! It’s an amazing achievement. I get 6 for English (Lit) SL although I’ve studied English since 1st grade haha. </p>
<p>Cambridge University (UK) Natural Sciences (Probably Trinity College or St John’s) - your IB score so far is really good, so I think what matters is the interview. You should try to show your knowledge and love for the subject you’re studying. The admit rate from my school is very high so I reckon Cambridge is not too hard to get in for IB students.
Stanford - reach
Cornell - low reach
Penn - low reach
Northwestern - high match
can’t predict the rest, because I don’t really know the schools</p>
<p>It’s so interesting how we have quite a lot of similarities 
I’m taking the IB in Nov this year, what about you?</p>
<p>Btw, as mentioned by other people, Stanford is need aware for international students so I do think your chances will improve if you can pay.</p>
<p>Good luck with your application and essays! :)</p>
<p>Okay-I need some help too. I got 8A*s and 1A in my IGCSEs, and am waiting for my AS scores. SAT 1 scores for June this year are 2010-but am working to make that improve by atleast 300 marks for my second try in November. I am going for at least 2300 on SAT 2, which is this october. I have an internship done, a lot of community service, ECAs include 4-5 sports, debate, piano (including formal exams, one concert), and a Royal Commonwealth Essay Competition Silver Medal. I am fluent in four languages-french, Bengali, Hindi and of course English. Oh-and I’m a Canadian citizen. Now could anyone PLEEZ chance my on my uni wish list? It includes : Stanford, Cornell, Yale, Princeton, UChicago, Uni of California (berkeley), Johns Hopkins, UCLA, duke, and Uni of Toronto. My safeties are purdue, smith, UBC, umichigan. Again, PLEEZ HELP.</p>
<p>@econsftw My EC’s might be good by your scores blow me away! haha :D</p>
<p>I’m also lucky that my school send transcripts the “british way” instead of the “american way” since I perform much better in exams instead of term grades. And English was simply because i was so lucky to have the 2 greatest teachers ever in sophomore and junior year! I really owe them. Also, 6 in English Lit is AMAZING, especially considering that apparently it is a much harder course than Language and Literature! What other IB subjects do you study?</p>
<p>For Cambridge, the interview scares me like crazy. I have a friend that got into 1 from HYPSM EA and was rejected from Cambridge after the interview. And he is one of the smartest people I know! Do you have any tips?</p>
<p>I’m taking the exams in june 2015. Thank you and good luck to you too! 
</p>
<p>@Ilma321 You should start your own thread :)</p>
<p>Bump, come on guys!</p>