International Students Questies

Hi everyone! I’m an international high school student studying in the US and (really really) like Questbridge (like most of y’all do). But I’ve been scrolling through here and don’t see (at all) any representation of international students in the US. Anyone applying or applied to QB and are internationals? If you applied how was your journey? (I know QB internationals have extra stuff to submit and all)

Or if you know someone who’s an international applied or applying to QB, what’s the statistics on internationals as Finalists and those who are Matched? Links leading to those statistics would be really helpful.

Also if you can stick around to see my stats and rate my app overall that would be very helpful. Essays are the main thing I need to work on right now (a ton in 2 months) so can you tell how strong my essays need to be to complement my stats?

Rank (plan to rank): Rice, UChicago, Yale, MIT, Brown, Dartmouth (in that order) (I could rank more)

Objective:

  • SAT I (New): 1500 (790M,710R); (6,5,6)
  • SAT II: Planning to take them last minute before deadline, Math II and Physics and hope the scores are good
  • Weighted GPA: 4.25 out of who knows, I took the 2 “Honors” courses, which were mandatory anyways for graduation
  • Unweighted GPA: 4.0 out of 4.0
  • Rank: I don’t know, probably the few people at the top but class size is only 40-50
  • AP/IB: None, small private Christian school doesn’t offer any (although I self studied Calc BC but too scared to take the test)
  • Senior Course Load: Anatomy, (probably) Calc, Yearbook, English Composition (2 Dual Credit courses), Econ. and Gov. (Dual Credit as well)
  • Awards: Best Delegate, Best Position Paper Awards at model UN conferences (been @ a lot but only 2 awards, pretty much the top tier awards of the Model UN world), (that’s pretty much it besides other small local event awards that probably wouldnt be considered “Awards”)

Subjective:

  • Extra-Curricular (not as much as those elites on this forum but still proud): Piano (lessons since 3rd grade; self-learn since 9th); Violin (since like 4 months when the app), Model United Nations club (9th, 10th as member of ex-school’s club, 11th, 12th as Founder and Captain of new school’s club), BETA Club (Historian 11th, hopefully President 12th), NHS (11th, 12th), Graphic Design Team Manager+Video Director of a home country student-run non-profit (9th-12th), been to 6-7 model un conferences (like tournaments but main purpose there is just to gain experience not awards) and won 2 awards, Yearbook lead staff (11th, 12th), Varsity Swim team (10th), Varsity Track (11th)
  • Job/Work Experience: 11th summer working at a family’s tea shop (pretty much Cashier+Bartender) (also graphic designer for tea shop’s graphic contents)
  • Volunteer: if you count BETA field trips to Food Banks, taking care of elders and picking up trash @ the beach, also Graphic Design Manager at a student-run non-profit (mentioned above)
  • Summer Activities: 9th and 10th volunteer graphic designer, 11th bartender work
  • Essays: haven’t look into those (but I KNOW there are a lot) but I will write something simple but have profound connections to my life (like juxtaposing debating human rights issues to greeting customers at a cafe). I plan on the essays to be the application’s life savers so they might be (idk) 9/10 or 8.5/10 at least
  • Teacher Rec: two of my favs, a Math/Track/fatherly figure and another fatherly figure/Physics teacher so I would say 8 or 9/10 but they don’t really write good reviews so maybe 8/10
  • Counselor: probably 7/10 lol i have a love/hate relationship with her

Others:

  • School type: small private Christian school
  • Ethnicity: Asian (international)
  • Gender: Male

So if these combined with (potential awesome essays), would you say I have a shot? Esp I really hope for either Rice or UChicago (my two favs)

I think you have a good chance of getting the scholarship.

You have a shot.
However in terms of fit Dartmouth is an outlier (especially compared to Brown!) and Questbridge applicants are always better inspired to rank LACs too. You should also know that Yale generally matches EFC zero QB applicants so if your EFC is now but not zero your odds are lower.

@MYOS1634 Thanks for your answer! Speaking of EFC, do you know any resources for international students to calculate their EFC? It seems to be only for US citizens, or the EFC process for internationals is similar to those of US citizens too?

And speaking of LACs, do you know any good LACs in Questbridge for international students? I looked into some but LACs are the ones I’m not familiar of. Thanks beforehand.

Pomona is good because if you graduate from an American high school you’re considered the same and offered the same aid as American citizens.
Do you have a Fiske guide? Go to your library and borrow one if you don’t. Start reading about them, then list your top 15. :slight_smile:
EFC: do it as if you were an American citizen if your parents paid US taxes.