International student who needs tips or advice on narrowing down college list

College Search & Selection
1

Hi all!
I’m a senior who is studying in Canada, in Saskatoon. I have a list of schools I am planning on applying to, but I’d like to narrow it down. Since both my parents never went to school in the states it would be great to get some perspective. I’m also applying for financial aid and plan on swimming NCAA (division doesn’t really matter). I’m interested in majoring in either biology or biomedical engineering (or kinesiology of the school has a kin program), but would also like a minor in computer science. I’m not too worried about the size of the school but it would be a bonus if the social life and party scene is booming. I’d also really appreciate it if you guys could give me a ‘chance’ at the schools and tell me which schools are the most worth it to apply to.

Schools:
Stanford
Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Columbia
UPenn
Dartmouth
Cornell
John Hopkins
Caltech
MIT
UMichigan
USC
UCLA
UC Berkeley
Northwestern
UChicago
Duke
UTexas
McGill
UBC
UofT

Stats:
1500/1600 SAT (one sitting) definitely retaking
780 Math1/2 (one sitting) probably will do a science and retake one math
Unweighted GPA (4.0 while taking most challenging courses available)
Weighted GPA: n/a (schools does not offer AP or Honors)
High School does not report rank but I am in the top 10% (out of ~350)
Took two college classes (CMPT140 and CALC110 at the University of Saskatchewan, ended with A+ for both)

Other info:
Income: 54k USD (is this even considered low income?)
Ethnicity: Chinese

EC:
Swam competitively for 11 years
3 time provincial relay team member
3 time Manitoba Saskatchewan championships medallist
Provincial champion
Western Canadian Championships Qualifier
Mel Zajac Jr. International Qualifier

Cross Country:
Made varsity team in grade 9
3 time city championships finalist
3 time provincial championships qualifier
Co-captain (Gr. 12)
Our varsity team is probably the best in the city. We have won cities 11 times in the past 12 years and we won silver at provincial championships

School Band:
1st Tenor Saxophone
2nd place at city wide music festival (2016)

Academic Awards:
AMC 12 top 5%
AIME Qualifier
CEMC Cayley contest 8th place in all of Canada
9 CEMC certificates of distinction
COMC Provincial medallist
Sanofi BioGENEius provincial literature review winner
School High Honor Roll (2015,2016,2017)

Other:
Volunteered at the PAAL camp, a summer camp for disabled children promoting physical activity (2016,2017)
Volunteered for the Canadian Cancer Society
Volunteered with the Saskatoon Goldfins Swim Club
Vice President of the Youth Action Club (student led organization that promotes and organizes volunteer opportunities for high school students) (2017)
Parents both have severe disabilities, most housework is done by me

I’m not sure how much being an international student impacts me, and I feel like I have too many selective schools in my list, so any advice is appreciated

2

The California UC’s will cost you $60K/year with no financial aid and very little merit aid so unless you want to spend $240K for 4 years, remove them from your list.

3

Thanks for the reply! That’s good to know

4

Congratulations on your hard work and success! I suggest you goggle colleges that meet full financial need. These schools at least strive to meet the full need for all students. So if a student can pay $10,000 school will cover the balance. If they can pay $20,000 school will cover balance. These include the most competitive schools, including some on your list. These schools are often the most prestigious and wealthiest, for example Harvard.

I would also suggest you pick a few that have acceptance rates higher than 30% in RD. Your are obviously a strong candidate. However, many of the schools on your list accept only a single digit % of applicants in RD. I like to cite this example. We visited a top, top LAC a few years ago. Admissions said 70% of applicants were fully qualified to attend, and the school felt like they would succeed if accepted. It accepted 14% of applicants (lower now). So 1 in 5 qualified applicants were accepted. Imagine if 70% of applicants to Duke are fully qualified (probably the case), and it accepts 6% in RD–less than 1 in 10 fully qualified students accepted. If a school has an acceptance rate under, say, 15%, it is a reach for everyone.

Besides, things like interest can factor in. So, for example, Wake Forest (very strong in bio/health sciences) accepted 25% in RD this past year. You’d be a very strong candidate by the numbers (especially grade-wise, which it emphasizes over test scores). But the school places a lot of emphasis on visits and interviews (which can be done by Skype). It wants to know students want to attend and that they would contribute to the community. So it would probably be a “match” school, even with your terrific record, without an interview/visit. Info on Wake’s new biotech center Wake Downtown:

http://wakedowntown.wfu.edu

The good news is that there are outstanding schools that meet full financial need and have higher acceptance rates. Hopefully you can find one or two of those that seem like a good fit for YOU. Then you will be all set, and maybe you will also have success with one or more of the extremely competitive schools, like Harvard.

The comment above about UCs being expensive, especially OOS, and not providing much financial aid also applies to other publics like Texas and Michigan. You don’t want to get accepted to a few top-ranked schools and then figure out that they are not affordable. Good luck!

5

Thank you for the reply! I am looking into some higher % schools and will definitely take a look at Wake Forest.

6

I wish you good luck!

7

There are very highly ranked affordable schools in Canada which are likely to be better deals than those in the US. Very few US schools promise to meet full need for international students. You won’t be swimming in division 1, (most of the schools you listed)and should already be able to tell if you have any chance at swimming in division 3 schools just by comparing your times in the different events. The recruiting standards are available on the internet.

8

“There are very highly ranked affordable schools in Canada”

Absolutely true. The three Canadian schools that OP included at the end of his list are for most subjects the top ranked schools in Canada, and among the most expensive in Canada for international students (perhaps nearly the twice the price of some other very good schools). OP has the stats to get into any university in Canada. Whether these three will be affordable with a 54k income I can’t tell. I don’t know his citizenship or permanent resident status, nor do I have any experience with need based financial aid – we are getting some merit aid from a Canadian school with stats not much different from OP’s.

9

Thanks for the reply roycroftmom & DTG! I’ve already gotten walk on tryouts to 3 different div 1 schools but thats only if I get accepted normally :stuck_out_tongue: (Stanford, Princeton, Columbia) so I am pretty confident I’ll be able to make the team (not on any relays tho lol). I’m also a Canadian citizen so maybe that’ll help for financial aid.

10

“I’m also a Canadian citizen”

Never mind what I said about costs for international students. As a Canadian citizen you pay the Canadian price which for McGill, Toronto, and UBC is somewhere around about half the international price (unless financial aid pushes the price down even further).

One thing to think about: Canadian companies hire from Canadian schools rather than US schools. In my experience it can be very difficult for a Canadian graduating from a US school, even a very top US school, to get a job in Canada.

11

Thanks for the advice! Always good to know that the cost wont be as high if i attend a Canadian school. Im personally looking to live in the states after college. Theres just so much more to do (imo) and the winters arent nearly as bad lmao

12

“Im personally looking to live in the states after college.”

Do you have a plan regarding how to get a work visa for the US?

13

I plan on applying for a green card and applying for citizenship. I don’t have specifics planned out but that is the general idea.