<p>Colleges</a> scour China for top students - The Boston Globe</p>
<p>What will this mean in the future?</p>
<p>IMO, there must be a quota on Chinese applicants because their student population is simply too massive to be fair to others, especially American students.</p>
<p>But it's obvious: the applicant pool in the near future will be flooded with Chinese students.</p>
<p>I think there will definitely be more global competition for spots in US schools from international candidates in the future. In fact, in our small international school here in Ankara, Turkey, we have several US universities coming to recruit the top students. Amazing. I think it will be particularly significant if the international students can pay their tuition bills, too-- that will make them very attractive to US universities.</p>
<p>As an international applicant, I am aware of the intense competition I face. No matter what, American applicants are at an advantage. USA applicants, do not worry, because:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The number of schools which can provide full scholarships to needy students from less-developed countries is very little. Not even all the Ivy Leagues are generous with funding - Cornell's stingyness is infamous, I haven't heard of any Singaporean student who applied for FA being accepted. Only HYPMWAD can afford to dish out the money needed to recruit poor and brilliant students. Forget about the public universities. </p></li>
<li><p>The number of students that these schools admit is very few. Yes, the colleges want more students to apply, so they can choose the best students from the pool. But they can't accept all the outstanding new applicants - Harvard's international enrollment has stagnated at about 3500 (including graduate students) </p></li>
</ol>
<p>In all honesty, the protagonist of the article will probably not make it to his dream school. The numbers are too large, and without a medal in that competition, he won't stand out.</p>
<p>The competition for spots in the top universities is still rigidly defined by citizenship lines. American students compete with each other, International students compete with each other. My acquaintance who went to RSI, got perfect 2400 SATs, and is generally a genius was rejected from MIT. A girl from the nation's top school, who's trilingual, and medaled at the International Physics Olympiad, was rejected from MIT. (btw, girl physicists are in short supply) The truth is, American applicants don't need to worry about international applicants because the number of internationals getting in is so small.</p>
<p>As fiona_ said, international admissions at top US universities are often capped at around 8-10% of total undergraduate enrollment, due to financial aid and other considerations. Be glad most of you on this forum are Americans or green card holders, because it is still quite a bit easier to get in.</p>
<p>As a senior in Shanghai High School,China who is applying to US colleges, I think that the American universities are becoming more attractive to Chinese students. A few years ago, only students who have been abroad or speak excellent English are willing to apply overseas. However, nowadays, more and more students in China who used to come to Chinese top universities are going to the USA or UK. They are attracted by the resources and teaching methods there. I'm one of these students. I have abandoned the admission to top 5 domestic universities and applied to Penn and Cambridge. I hope that US and UK colleges are able to see the trend of increase in academic performance in Chinese applicants.</p>
<p>^ They will definitely be able to see the increase in applicants - but is that enough reason for them to increase their current enrollment limits for international students? I don't think so. They are just going to be more selective for international students, that's all.</p>
<p>to fiona_: I think wining a Olympiad award is not at all valuable in the eye of MIT adcom. They admitted many students who are actually poor in Math(though they got 2400 on SAT II).</p>
<p>^^
I agree. US colleges are becoming more selective and much less generous on financial matters.</p>
<p>One thing to keep in mind is state universities are funded with US tax money, even private schools enjoy non-profit tax free status (indirect funding from the government), therefore it is not surprising that US students should and will continue to have preference over international students. With the down turn of the US economy, more schools probably will admit students that could afford to pay full fare, especially smaller LACs.</p>
<p>shspyc: what is happening is more US colleges are recruiting more in the offshore. This is not to say that the top tier schools (HYPSC etc) will allow more -- but the less selective ones will actively market themselves overseas. They won't necessarily need to be more generous as they see non-US applicants as a larger pool of applicants who won't need financial aid. This is actually a financially beneficial decision for most schools.</p>
<p>Fifteen international students who pay full fare is better than fifteen US students, half of whom will need financial aid.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Originally posted by shspyc
to fiona_: I think wining a Olympiad award is not at all valuable in the eye of MIT adcom. They admitted many students who are actually poor in Math(though they got 2400 on SAT II).
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You must be kidding me. Do not discount the importance of an international medal. Only the top few students are sent to the international Olympiad.</p>
<p>Although many other non-Olympiaders are admitted, you must know that each country only sends a few students to each Olympiad, so the non-Olympiad pool is much larger than the Olympiad pool.</p>
<p>
[quote]
to fiona_: I think wining a Olympiad award is not at all valuable in the eye of MIT adcom. They admitted many students who are actually poor in Math(though they got 2400 on SAT II).
[/quote]
</p>
<p>An I<em>O medal signifies that you are basically Top 40/80/120 (depending on gold/silver/bronze and the size of the I</em>O) in that particular subject in the world. That must mean something.</p>
<p>Are applicants evaluated country-wise or region-wise (ie. SE Asia, S Asia, the Middle East, etc.)?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Are applicants evaluated country-wise or region-wise (ie. SE Asia, S Asia, the Middle East, etc.)?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I'm not sure about other regions - Latin America could be considered as a whole, since it is more homogeneous?? I don't know - but I have good reason to believe Singapore is considered separately from other SEA nations like Vietnam. That's cause the education system in Vietnam is largely different - for one, the primary language of instruction is Vietnamese.</p>
<p>Are there quotas for international applicants?</p>
<p>^ I only know of MIT's...</p>
<p>There must be a reason why the proportion of international students in a class is always around 10% for the Ivies.</p>
<p>
[Quote]
I'm not sure about other regions - Latin America could be considered as a whole, since it is more homogeneous?? I don't know - but I have good reason to believe Singapore is considered separately from other SEA nations like Vietnam. That's cause the education system in Vietnam is largely different - for one, the primary language of instruction is Vietnamese.
[/Quote]
</p>
<p>That's not true, adcoms consider all the countries in Eastern Asia as just one region (China, Indonesia, Korea, Vietnam, Singapore etc.), If I remember correctly, even India is in this category. </p>
<p>I don't think gaining admission has become that much harder for international students from other, more underrepresented, regions, maybe our changes have even increased, because adcoms desperately want to maintain diversity (since a increasingly bigger share of the <em>competitive!</em> applicants is from South-East Asia or is Asian in general)</p>
<p>MIT is a tough school to get into just domestically even, I can't imagine the international pool. Kids who win at huge national competitions are probably just barely competitive is what I heard...but I hope I'm wrong.</p>