<p>I'm an international student planning to study in the U.S. Since the education system is really different in Europe i took a year off to take all the tests i need to provide with my college application (IELTS and SAT). I'll take the IELTS soon and after that i'm considering to prepare for the SAT that would take several months. By the time i will finish it would be too late to enroll for Fall Semester 2014, so i'd have to enroll for Spring Semester 2015. However my mom who have no idea of how the college admission process works in the US is really sick of waiting for me to go to college and i'm under a lot of pressure. My mom's american friends suggested me to enroll in a community college but i'm not sure this is a good idea. I'm a good student with high GPA and fortunately i don't have any financial problems. I feel like going in a CC is a step down from what i would have by staying in my home country, but there's no way i can attend college in here because i really need a change of enviroment. Also i'm afraid that going in a CC would lower my chances of getting into an Ivy, and i'm not sure that i'd fit in a CC enviroment. I know for sure that if i don't like the enviroment my performance would suffer. The reason why i chose the U.S. is because i have a good knowledge of english and i love this country, especially NYC. There are no decent CC in the NYC urban area, my mom's friend suggested me one in a small town in Paramus NJ but i grew up in a big city, i need efficient facilities, services, i can't even drive! I'd prefer to attend a 4 year college in NYC. At this point i'm really confused, i don't know what to do, it would be easier to letting it go but this is my DREAM! Since High School last 5 years in here I'm also old comparing to the average freshmen and if i'd wait for Spring Semester 2015 i'm going to be 21. What do i do? Any advice would be appreciated.</p>
<p>A few things for you to think about:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>There is only one Ivy in NYC - and that’s Columbia.The only other highly selective school in NYC is New York University. Like many very selective schools it doesn’t have spring admissions, only in the fall. So you’d have to postpone starting until Fall (not spring) 2015 if you want one of these schools. </p></li>
<li><p>You still have a couple of weeks to get your application into a few selective test-optional colleges. Bard, Sarah Lawrence are both in NY (but not in NYC) Smith is a very well known women’s LAC in Massachusetts. </p></li>
<li><p>I would just advise for you to really change your criteria. Don’t limit yourself to schools in NYC because you might not end up in an academic environment that’s a good fit. Don’t limit yourself to Ivies, they’re a reach for everyone. Apply to a variety of schools: as a full-pay international student you will have plenty to chose from. And accept the fact that you may not be starting until Fall 2015.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>katliamom i appreciate your suggestions. Do you agree with the fact that going to a community college would lower my chances to get into a highly competitive college later on? So it would be better to get into a 4 year college directly in my case, is this correct?</p>
<p>Some highly competitive colleges do not take transfers. It would indeed be better for you to get into a 4-year college and in any case it’s typically better for internationals, especially if they don’t have family to provide housing (handling an apartment on your own as an 18 year old is hard; in a foreign land it’s setting yourself up for failure.)
An exception is a college like Richard Bland in VA, where there’s a guaranteed agreement with William&Mary. However W&M would only fit you if you’re the type of student seriously considering Oxford or Cambridge (it’s highly intellectual). Richard Bland has on-campus housing, which would make it friendlier for international students.
Regardless of location and type of school, I’d choose a residential college as an international student. However in NYC those are non existent outside of Barnard and Columbia, plus Fordham and perhaps CCNY (with it’s new dorms).
So you should think hard before applying only to NYC colleges. What about colleges located in other big cities, like Macalester/Hamline/St Kate’s (St Paul), Mills/U San Francisco/St Mary’s of CA (San Francisco), USC/Whittier/The Claremont Consortium (LA), Agnes Scott/GeorgiaTech/Spelman (Atlanta), not to mention how many schools there are in/near Boston?
You don’t really need a car: residential campuses are designed so that students walk or bike everywhere. Students are so busy anyway that they hardly ever go outside the campus, unless it’s a commuter school. A school like Grinnell, which is literally in the middle of nowhere, provides tons of (free) entertainment for its students.
There’s still time to apply to CCNY, Baruch, Lehman, etc; the SUNY’s near New York City include Stony Brook (but like the CUNY’s it’s mostly commuter, meaning the students go home on weekends rather than stay and have a social life like on residential campuses), Purchase, and New Paltz. I second Sarah Lawrence, too.
Many colleges have Jan 1 deadlines, but others have Jan 15 or Feb 1 deadlines, so if you could take your tests in December and January you’d be fine (there are IELTS and TOEFL dates Dec 20, I believe, and you can register for the SAT now and take it Jan 25.)
Odds that you’d get into the Ivy League or similar caliber schools are 1:20 as an international. Your odds are lower than that if you’re not ranked nationally in something. So you can certainly apply but odds are against you. You need to find selective schools that admit top students but have admission rates above 25-30%, if your stats are competitive for top 10 universities/LACs those would be matches for you.</p>
<p>What are your stats (test scores, grades, etc.)? What is your financial situation? I agree with Katliamom, you are really, really limiting yourself by thinking only NYC will do for you. Most students do not have cars at college no matter where they go. But there are tons of other choices in cities that have fine public transportation. Boston and Washington DC have several colleges in the area (and some may be less selective, you can’t really just apply to Ivies and expect it to work out, so it would be good to add some of those to your list).</p>
<p>Someone else can maybe confirm this for the CC classes, but as soon as you take CC classes AFTER your graduate from high school, you may have to apply as a transfer student vs. an incoming freshman. Better to be a freshman who took a gap year for admissions purposes is the usual advice. But top colleges would expect you to have spent that gap year productively, not just taking tests – so you really will want to find something (research, internship, in-depth volunteer experience, etc.) to do this year in addition to taking the year off for testing. Also, you mentioned something about Spring Semester – I don’t think most of the Ivies or other top colleges generally admit for spring semester, only in the fall.</p>
<p>Just take the SAT as soon as possible and then start looking into schools in other metro areas. NYC is not the only large city in the US. Yes, it is late to apply for some of them but these are also the ones which are extremely selective as the previous posters have pointed out. You may find a university which is a good fit (you Have not stated what your major would be) which has a more flexible admission policy.</p>
<p>I have to agree that you’re making things unnecessarily complicated by insisting on gong to university in New York. While it’s true that nowhere else in the U.S. is like Manhattan, that doesn’t mean that New York is the only vibrant, exciting city in the U.S. </p>
<p>Despite what New Yorkers say.</p>
<p>“Do you agree with the fact that going to a community college would lower my chances to get into a highly competitive college later on?”</p>
<p>Yes. Some highly competitive schools don’t take transfer students. Others (like UCLA or Berkeley) limit their transfer students to those from California community colleges. Though if you really want a traditional university experience and very academically challenging courses, a community college won’t be a good fit. </p>
<p>Unless you’re able to apply now to selective but test-optional schools, your best bet is to take the SATs in 2014 and apply to schools for Fall 2015.Whether or not this will make your mother happy is another question! (So as a mother, I’d suggest you think of a plan to propose to her, showing how you’ll make the delay one that’s academically or personally rewarding: studying/working/volunteering, etc. Anything to make your mother understand you will use this extra year well and with the goal of helping you get into a selective university.)</p>
<p>Finally, contact schools you’re interested in to see if you being 21 changes the admissions equation at all.)</p>
<p>I think that there’s a misunderstanding. I don’t neccessarily want to attend college in NYC or Ivies, i’m considering other options. The problem is that no decent 4 year college would accept me without the SAT. I can’t just take it right now, i need to prepare for it. So by the time i’ll finish it’d be too late to apply for any college unless there are colleges that don’t require it.
I really feel like this is a big mess.</p>
<p>There are many great, highly competitive schools that don’t require the SAT or ACT.
[SAT/ACT</a> Optional 4-Year Universities | FairTest](<a href=“http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional]SAT/ACT”>ACT/SAT Optional List - Fairtest)</p>
<p>Well, if you can’t take it very soon, your only choice is to apply to universities with rolling admissions who accept students into the late spring (presuming you can take the SAT soon after the new year). There are some very good schools which have rolling admissions and they are in large cities too!</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/354075-list-colleges-early-action-early-decision-rolling-admissions.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/354075-list-colleges-early-action-early-decision-rolling-admissions.html</a></p>
<p>If that is not something you can do, then you really only have the CC or “wait one more year” option.</p>
<p>This website lists SAT optional colleges. </p>
<p>[SAT/ACT</a> Optional 4-Year Universities | FairTest](<a href=“http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional]SAT/ACT”>ACT/SAT Optional List - Fairtest)</p>
<p>Quite a few schools on this list are good colleges (footnotes at the bottom indicate that there is some variation in what SAT Optional means at a given school). Here is some of the better schools just from scanning the list quickly:</p>
<p>Bowdoin
Mount Holyoke
American
Bard
Bates
Brandeis
Bryn Mawr
Clark
Colby
Colorado College
Denison
Lawrence
Lewis & Clark
Middlebury
NYU
Sarah Lawrence</p>
<p>NYU CAS allows you to apply on the strength of your external/national examinations (no SAT required).
Bowdoin, Wake Forest, and quite a few very selective schools are test optional or test flexible (meaning you can take SAT Subjects, which correlate with what you’ve studied in class, in 3 different subjects: for example, English, Math/science, something else).</p>
<p>I agree the CC route for an international is not ideal. Transferring into a highly selective school from a CC is pretty rare. I think preference is given to instate students.</p>
<p>One well established route, though is CC to a UC 4 year in Calif. While it is not a idea for an international, it will work. You can’t be guaranteed to get into Berkeley or UCLA, but you will have a reasonable shot. </p>
<p>I think a better route is to apply fall 2014 for fall 2015 admission. I do think some of those test optional colleges are excellent, if you will apply now for fall 2014 and see where you get accepted. You would also have a better chance to transfer to one of the very selective schools from one of those well regarded colleges. Much better than the CC route.</p>