Hello. I’m hoping to hear some international students comment here.
A friend of mine is looking to go to college in Texas. She’s an international student who is a junior and currently ranked 8th of 4438, is full IB Diploma, with 2380 on the SAT (1st time) and intends on taking the new one.
She’s a full IB diploma canidate and so far has 7’s on all her exams (3 sl (Psychology, Computer Science, Biology) / 3 hl(Chemistry, Physics, environmental science)). She’s taken most AP exam except for the languages and made a 4(Biology, Physics 1,2, C Mechanics, Chemistry, Chinese and Macroecon) or 5( English Lit, English Lang, US gov, US History, Compartive gov, European history, French language and culture german language and culture, Studio Art: Drawing and 2D) .
Shes involved in school, has 500+ hours her high school career, captain of math team, science team, hosa team, and track and vice president of student body, academic decathlon, and is a gymnast since she was 8. If she new I was writing this she’d likely list more. Handicapped with dyslexia but has a gpa of 4.0/4.0 uw and 6.0/6.0 w(Should drop this year) . She’s also half Pilipino and half Japanese from a high income but uneducated family. Lowest grade ever was a 97.
3 problems:
since she’s international she needs a school that provides a student visa. Does Texas A&M have that?
What is a student visa? (I don’t know and can’t understand what I’m reading online)
If she got accepted, would Texas A&M provide merit aid? Since she can’t quality for national merit finalist.
Student visas can be obtained with admission to any US college. Proof of financial support to cover all costs of attendance is the main issue. She scholarships count as proof of support also.
It looks like she easily qualifies for automatic academic admission with those stats. Why is she taking the SAT again? There is nothing to be gained with an additional 20 points.
Student visas are not guaranteed. When you are admitted to a US college they will send you paperwok endorsed by the college that shows the coa and scholarship amounts. The student and sponsor/parent need to show proof that the student can cover all remaining cost. The visa will be issued if US immigration is satisfied that the student intends to study and has financial support while studying.
Texas public universities have this great program where if an out of state student(including international) wins a scholarship valued at 1000 dollars or more, he/she is automatically entitled to pay in state tuition, which is so much cheaper, relatively speaking.
Though its worth mentioning that I believe the deadline to TAMU has already passed? I could be mistaken, you should check that out. Good luck to you and your friend!
Admission gives you a right to applying for a visa. Getting a visa means establishing the student has the financial means to pay for the college s/he got admitted to. If the student has a scholarship that covers the difference between what the parents can offer and what the university costs, she’ll get a visa.
Getting a visa comes AFTER getting admitted, getting a scholarship, and getting financial aid.
She needs to look into UT-Dallas McDermott. She’d be competitive there and the scholarship encompasses more than what TAMU or UT would offer.
She should of course apply (by Dec 1/Nov 15 to be safe) to both TAMU and UT, but most importantly to the big scholarships (Alabama Presidential Elite, UVA Jefferson, W&L Johnson, UNC CH Robertson…)
I don’t think you’re describing but rather projecting, since HOSA, vice president of student body, and academic decathlon don’t exist in UK schools. (Academic decathlon does have a sort of equivalent but not the others.) Also, I doubt her class has 4,438 students. Even if she’s in a Sixth Form college, that’d be a FE College with over 8,000 students - even if she counts those preparing vocational certificates, it’s highly unlikely since the average sixth form class is about 200.
Her 6 subjects don’t respect the 6 areas of IB Diplomas so I’m guessing she’s in pre IB or you’re pulling our leg.
Finally 6 projected 7’s would make her top 0.3% WORLDWIDE.
Thank you! i didn’t event think about international tuition becoming instate tuition. She’s a Junior this year. She’s a senior next year(or at least her final year of secondary education) So we should be fine.
@MYOS1634
I should probably mention she is looking for a school that has undergraduate research (not for a specific field, but just for the practice) We did think about UT Dallas (being IB friendly and all) But I don’t recognize any of those other schools (UVA Jefferson, W&L Johnson, UNC CH Robertson…) and their research. Do they have undergraduate research in their schools of science?
I also get what you mean by projecting. She describes herself as a secondary officer of her class, and she competes in a compition similar to hosa. (don’t recall acronym) as As far as her acadmic history goes, she started off at a college vocotional school to prep her for college at 15-16 until her parents couldn’t afford it. For academic decathlon she competes with Southbank International School as a Lone star student (and occasional on their team in nationals.) their are the only European team to compete at Americas nationals. The class size is so big since it goes from 3-18 year olds and the rank is taken out of a 14-18 range. And she takes the 6 subjects and 1-2 extra sciences each year and self studies for 1 each year since freshman year. Hope that helps out abit. (probably should have said it at the start)