[International Student] What would be my best fit?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello! I'm an international student studying in a Massachusetts high school. I'm going to be a senior this fall, and as my time for college decision is approaching, I'm writing out for some help from you guys ;)</p>

<p>I was born in the Republic of Korea(a.k.a. South Korea) and lived there for 15 years. I moved into the United States upon finishing the first semester(which ends in July in the Korean system) of my 3rd year in middle school. Therefore my first language is--naturally--Korean.</p>

<p>Long story short, I'm asking for some advice for college choice, so please feel free to reply! My profile should look like the following:</p>

<ul>
<li>An International Student (South Korean) w/o U.S. permanent residence</li>
<li>Spent the freshman year in a public school, and transferred to a catholic school for continuing education.</li>
</ul>

<p>== Freshman Year Transcript (a public school) ==</p>

<p>English I CP: A+ (Excellence Award)
Physics I CP: A+ (Excellence Award)
Geometry I Honors: A+ (Excellence Award)
Spanish I CP: A+ (Excellence Award)
World History I CP: A (Excellence Award)
Studio Art I CP: A+ (Excellence Award)
Computer Science I Honors: A+ (Excellence Award)</p>

<p>Participated in Anime Club, Open Mic Night, and Science Club</p>

<ul>
<li>I know I've taken a lot of CP courses during my freshman year. I was horrible at English (even worse than I am nowadays) and my guidance counselor insisted on my taking CP classes or death. Thanks to that I got awarded in every subject with decent grades. However, because of problems with ride scheduling and other stuff, I couldn't participate in many Extra Curriculum activities. </li>
</ul>

<p>== Sophomore Year Transcript (a catholic school) ==
* H means I've scored 90% or above... what a weird system!</p>

<p>English II Accelerated: H
Theology II Accelerated: H
Spanish II Honors (moved up from the Accelerated class): H
U.S. History < 1900 Accelerated: H
Advanced Algebra Honors(=Algrbra III for some schools; moved up from the Accelerated class): H
Chemistry I Honors: H
Cartooning: H
Chorus I: H
Biology I(BYU Independent Study): A+</p>

<ul>
<li>I tried harder on academics in my sophomore year and moved up onto more challenging courses in certain classes. Well, the academic principal wouldn't allow me to take challenging courses because of my horrible freshman year transcript, but I took the final exams after the first quarter to move up onto harder courses in Math and Spanish.</li>
</ul>

<p>== Junior Year Transcript ==
English III Honors: H
Theology III Honors: H
Spanish III Honors: H
U.S. History > 1900 Honors: H
Intro to Calculus Honors: H
AP Chemistry: H, 4
Chorus II: H</p>

<ul>
<li>Through some fusses I managed to move up to all honors courses, and I think I maintained decent grades throughout the year. I kind of think this remarkable compared to my freshman year transcript. I really regret on getting a 4 on the AP Chem test, but I think I did my best.</li>
</ul>

<p>== Senior Year Schedule ==
AP English Literature
Theology IV Honors
AP Micro/Macro Economics
AP Physics C
AP Calculus BC
Jazz Band
Chorus III</p>

<ul>
<li>So this is how senior year's schedule will look like. This is one of the most challenging schedules the school can provide, and my aim is to maintain the grades I received throughout the past years. My guidance told me I'm the first one to take the AP English course as an international student.</li>
</ul>

<p>== Scores ==</p>

<p>SAT Reasoning Test(Super Score): 2270
Critical Reading: 690
Mathematics: 800
Writing: 780 w/ 10 on essay</p>

<p>Planning to take once again in October, aiming for over 2300.</p>

<p>SAT II Test:
Chemistry: 730
Mathematics I: 710
Mathematics II: 750</p>

<p>Planning to take once again in November with U.S.History.</p>

<p>AP:
AP Chemistry: 4</p>

<p>== Extra Curricular Activities (in current school) ==</p>

<p>In-school:</p>

<p>Model UN:
3 years, planning the first annual conference of the school.</p>

<p>Varsity Math Team:
3 years, earned Coach's Award.</p>

<p>Varsity Swim Team:
3 years, team Manager / 50yd relay freestyle, received letter.</p>

<p>Varsity Tennis Team:
2 years on JV, 1 year on Varsity.</p>

<p>Jazz:
3 years, a flutist.</p>

<p>Fashion Show:
A 2010 school fashion show model.</p>

<p>NHS:
2 years, tutoring a couple of students on math and science.</p>

<p>Spanish NHS:
2 years, volunteered in teaching Spanish to local elementary school kids.</p>

<p>Global Awareness Committee:
2 years, a member.</p>

<p>Peer Ministry:
2 years, planning to be the leader of the international group.</p>

<p>School Religion Conversation Club:
3 years, participated every Thursday.</p>

<p>Live Performance:
Performed music individually and in group for several times.</p>

<p>Volunteer Service Trip to Boston:
One of the selected students to go to Boston.</p>

<p>Out-of-school:</p>

<p>Volunteer Teacher:
Volunteered at a local childcare center for 160+ hours. Joined its summer camp as a recreation moderator.</p>

<p>Interior Engineering Internship:
Worked at a construction scene for 50+ hours building rooms.</p>

<p>Website:
2 years, a co-administer and a developer at a web forum and its relay chat server.</p>

<p>Composition:
6 years, an amateur songwriter, preparing a music portfolio.</p>

<p>Fiction-writing Critic:
A former member of the critic board of the fiction session of the biggest writing forum on the South Korean internet.</p>

<p>Well, although this might look like a list of every petty activity I do, I don't intend to do a show-off. I just want to be evaluated in as diverse dimensions as possible, so that having strange-looking transcripts can't harm my resume :O</p>

<p>Anyhow, the above being my profile, I'm looking for colleges that might suit me the best. Of course, I want to get into top colleges for continuing challenging coursework, but I'm trying to be as realistic as I could. The current colleges I'm looking at are:
- Rice University
- UC Berkeley
- UC Los Angeles
- UT Austin
- U Miami
- U Penn
- MIT
- Stanford University
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Caltech</p>

<p>I want to ask you guys which colleges from my list and/or what other colleges would be a good fit for my resume. I would listen very carefully at every reply you guys make, so again please feel free to throw some advice at me! :)</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

2

<p>With decent sat scores (1950+) , you can get into Clark U, Boston College. You can also consider applying to BU.</p>

3

<p>So is my 2270 good enough to consider them safe to apply?</p>

4

<p>Sorry. Didn’t know you had more information, as I’m on the phone and can’t check.</p>

5

<p>Yes, the colleges that I listed are safeties.</p>

6

<p>Thanks a lot! I’ll definitely take a look at them.
Oh BTW by accident I reported your post as a problem… I’m sorry!</p>

7

<p>And one more information…
My GPA on 100 scale is around 94 unweighted and 103 weighted. I don’t know how it converts to the normal 4.0 scale, but just for a better info… :D</p>

8

<p>Generally speaking, it is tougher for International Applicants to be admitted anywhere. If you are able to pay the full cost of attendance (COA), what would be a Safety for a US applicant, would be a Match for an International, and what would be a Match for a US applicant, would be a Reach for an International. If you can’t pay the full COA, there are no Matches or Safeties for you in the US, only Reaches.</p>

<p>If you can pay the full COA, then sit down with your HS guidance counselor and get his/her advice based on his/her experience in the past few years. Your counselor is the person best qualified to evaluate your chances.</p>

<p>If you cannot pay the full COA, you need to be digging a lot deeper. Spend some time in the International Student Forum, and read up on tactics for locating financial aid.</p>

9

<p>Sorry to ask, but, if you have lived in the US for the past 15 years as you say, how come you are not a permanent resident yet ? </p>

<p>I believe permanent residents who have attended a US High School are considered domestic applicants for undergraduate admission purposes.</p>

10

<p>

</p>

<p>On a second comment, irrespective of your residency status, almost all the above-listed schools would be reaches, either academically, financially or both. I believe you should add a few safeties to your list.</p>

11

<p>happymomof1, you are full of BS. It is absolutely not true that it is THAT much harder for international students to get admitted. Please go be a downer somewhere else. He doesn’t certainly need somebody to bring him down, rather someone to explain the real situation to him… and what you described is certainly NOT the real situation.</p>

<p>Seriously guys, and you too bruno123, understand the situation before shooting ******** out of your mouths. How can international students be considered domestic applicants even after they spent three years in the US? God some people…</p>

<p>“I believe permanent residents who have attended a US High School are considered domestic applicants for undergraduate admission purposes.”</p>

<p>Have you even READ his post? </p>

<p>“I was born in the Republic of Korea(a.k.a. South Korea) and lived there for 15 years.”</p>

<p>Seriously, when dealing with international admissions, </p>

<ol>
<li>It is very tricky and the chances are slimmer than for US applicants, but let’s not exaggerate </li>
<li>Financial aid is taken into heavy consideration for admission, especially at public/“poorer” schools</li>
</ol>

<p>nkim412, don’t be afraid, your stats are very good and you will surely gain admission to at least some of the schools you listed, and much likely you will get some merit aid if you apply for it and maybe even some financial aid from the richer schools. So just apply, be yourself, and don’t listen to those people here who tell you that it is too hard for you to make it.</p>

12

<p>

</p>

<p>Are you really asking about “fit” or are you asking about “chances”? Those are two different things.</p>

<p>If you’re asking about admission chances (as so many HS student posters do), then you can look up admit rates and SAT averages for yourself. If your school has a Naviance account, that will give you scatterplots showing how many students from your high school were admitted to each tracked college for their combinations of GPA and test scores.</p>

<p>If you’re asking about “fit” then you need to say more about what you want. University or LAC? Big or small? Urban or rural? Big Greek and D1 sports scene, or more cerebral? Location (East, West, North, South)? For what major(s)? Do you want small classes with lots of discussion, or are you o.k. with large lectures? Are internship or research opportunities important to you? Do you prefer an Open Curriculum or would you like more structure? Etc.</p>

<p>Many CC posters (and their parents) think the most important thing is getting into the most highly ranked schools that will accept you. Maybe it is. That’s for you to decide. Even so, if you have a clear sense of why each school is a good fit for you, it will be that much easier for you to persuade an admission committee that you are a good candidate for them.</p>

13

<p>@Prince93: individuals who are not US citizens, but are permanent residents (i.e. “green card” holders) are considered domestic applicants by most universities. The OP claims he is not a permanent resident, therefore he would be considered “international” for application purposes.</p>

<p>After reading again the OP’s first post, I realized he mentioned he had lived 15 years in Korea and then moved to the US. Originally, when I skimmed the text, I was under the wrong impression that he said he had been in the US for 15 years, in which case he should already be a permanent resident (hence, my previous comment). I apologize for the confusion.</p>

14

<p>Thank you for advice everyone!
@tk21769, actually what I mean by asking what is my “fit” was more of asking what top-ranked colleges I should look at for applying. The list I wrote was just a few options my friends have suggested me, but I was thinking there are more suitable ones for my profile. I was expecting something like “you should look at Michigan since they have good business program and international scholarship blah blah…” ;)</p>

15

<p>^ Do you in fact want to major in business? Many of the most selective universities (especially private ones) do not offer undergraduate business majors.</p>

<p>What is your budget? Would you need financial aid to attend a school costing more than $40K/year? If so, some public universities such as UT-Austin, UCLA, or Berkeley may not work for you. Here are links to colleges, all of them private, with relatively good aid for international students:
[Top</a> 25 Financial Aid Colleges in US for International Students (Need-aware) - Desperate Guide: Undergraduate College Financial Aid, Scholarship](<a href=“http://www.desperateguide.com/us/top-25-financial-aid-colleges-in-us-for-international-students-need-aware]Top”>http://www.desperateguide.com/us/top-25-financial-aid-colleges-in-us-for-international-students-need-aware)
[Top</a> 6 Need-blind Colleges in US for International Students - Desperate Guide: Undergraduate College Financial Aid, Scholarship](<a href=“http://www.desperateguide.com/us/top-6-need-blind-colleges-in-us-for-international-students]Top”>http://www.desperateguide.com/us/top-6-need-blind-colleges-in-us-for-international-students)</p>

<p>Your original post provides many details about what you’ve done, but very little information about what you need and want in a college.</p>