<p>I'm a domestic applicant who has been browsing this web site for a few months and I finally decided to join today. Nice site! Anyway, I guess I have been relatively successful in the admissions process having already been accepted to Georgetown and watiting for others. However, basically the rest of my extended family lives overseas and I know a couple of them wanted to continue their education in America. I was hoping to perhaps help them out this summer, but I'm not really sure where to start! They're sort of in a completely different situation from what I was in:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>The rest of my family lives in a part of Africa where there are no SAT's available</p></li>
<li><p>There are no real extra curriculars since they live in the middle of nowhere, </p></li>
<li><p>They can barely speak english since the educational system there is not that great, so I'm not sure how they would write any essays</p></li>
<li><p>The majority of teachers don't speak english for recomendations thus making it needed for the recs to be translated. Also, no guidance counselars or any of those high school reports that are sent. </p></li>
<li><p>Oh, and their is not really any sort of mailing system!</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Now that basically rules out everything that I needed for my application other than GPA at their school, which I know for a couple of them is very high. One of them is ranked 3rd out of 300 students at their school. So, I guess from this I have a few questions:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>How would their application be viewed since the only thing they would have available to them is a high GPA? I have seen other international applicants on this site with all the other things I had, and I know that international admissions is a lot harder than domestic admissions. </p></li>
<li><p>I've heard of international applicants not really getting that much financial aid. Considering the average income in the country is under $10,000, would this still stand true?</p></li>
<li><p>And finally, I know that admissions officers always say that if you don't have something available to you it is not held against you (AP classes not available, etc.) Is this the same for the missing things I have stated since it seems not having any SAT scores is a whole lot bigger then the stuff the admisssions officers always said at information sessions?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Whew, that was quite a long first post, sorry about that. If anybody has a chance to respond though it would be great! I've also seen admissions officers on this site sometimes, so if you are it would be awesome if you could just let me know. It's always better to get the answer straight from the source, but if anyone who has any information about this topic it would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>I'll start by saying that I'm no expert on intl admissions. Having said that, you have two immediate and related problems: Finan Aid and Visas. Another problem is the TOEFL.</p>
<p>The US government does not provide finan aid to international students. Because of this, most intl's get outside finan aid and it can come from their own countries. Several highly prestigious and well endowed US universities have begun to go need-blind for international students and finance the money themselves. Your extended family may not have much chance at being admitted to the prestigious US universities that are need-blind. There may be other colleges that would offer some aid.</p>
<p>The related issue is the availability for US Visas. A foreign student can be granted a US Visa for study in the US, but in order to do so, they have to be able to prove that they have the financial resources available to complete the program. This can involve having a bank officer signing that the money is in the bank in the home country.</p>
<p>The third issue actually seems minor compared to the first two, but they would have to be able to pass the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) in order to qualify for admission.</p>
<p>Any admission material must be translated into English before being submitted to the colleges. Colleges are used to dealing with intl applicants and know something about educational systems and grading systems in foreign countries.</p>
<p>Thanks for the respnse! After I made my post I realized money is a moot point since the government will cover everything and that getting everything translated is just a minor issue that can be taken care of pretty quickly. The bigger question was rather how would admissions work for someone who does not have all the things mentioned previously but are at the top of their class. There is really no one else that the college could comapre them to from the country, so how would they therefore stack up against internationals with all these oppurtunities?</p>
<p>The money would be something to check on. They would have to pass the TOEFL at the required level. I would check with the colleges to see how they handle the SAT's in this type of situation. </p>
<p>As to your basic question, adcoms don't expect people to take AP courses when they aren't available or to do anything else that is impossible. They would be judged as to how well they did with what they had to work with. </p>
<p>It would be really, really difficult to estimate their chances at any school. They should have very safe safeties. It would certainly be important to learn English. If their government is really paying for it, then they could apply to any US college. It isn't important to go to HYPSM even for US citizens. I don't know what your thoughts were on this, but there are plenty of US colleges that would accept almost anybody who can pay. If you get accepted somewhere, then you can get a US Visa.</p>