<p>Hey guys. Please excuse my ignorance and sorry if this question has been asked over and over again.</p>
<p>Are all internationals treated equally in admissions? In the States, URMs get a boost, so do people of underrepresented nations get a slight advantage over ones from over-represented nations? Very simple question.</p>
<p>One more thing, I have a multi-racial background. I'm 1/2 Asian (Japan), and 1/4 White (Italian), and 1/4 Black (Carribean) + I have UK citizenship. Will I be considered Asian since it comprises the "largest amount" of my ethnicity? Because if so, I'm afraid that the already competitive environment will aggravate :eek:... Will it be considered positively because of the so-called uniqueness?</p>
<p>I suppose being from an "underrepresented" nation could give you a slight boost, as in, maybe you'll get supplemental attention in the admission's committee. I think this could matter as a tipping factor, but so can many other things.
About you being considered Asian or not, I am not that sure - though you could market yourself as the multikultiest person on campus. It seems hilarious, though, for the adcoms to start looking up your genealogy and adding: 25% asian grandmother<em>25%+ 60%asian mother</em>50% = ...%asian-ness. And your cultural uniqueness could, IMHO, be a positive thing, if you spin it right - it's a possible essay topic, for sure.</p>
<p>Where you are from is determined not by your ethnic background but by what country you apply from (more specifically the country from which you graduated high school) - so I am 'from' Singapore, though I am 100% Vietnamese with Swiss citizenship, because I went to high school there (and an international expatriate one at that). This might not make much sense, but it does stand to reason that you have more in common with, say, the English, if you were educated there for a significant period of time instead of in your 'home' country. Also, very few students, even amongst internationals, apply from countries that are not their own.</p>
<p>Internationals tend to be pooled into the international pool and treated separately - kind of the way students from the States are pooled by region. So, similar to the way that students from North Dakota get a boost in admissions, so do students from, say, the Central African Republic or Tajikistan - but the boost is nowhere near the same in magnitude (though this will vary from school to school). </p>
<p>Some schools have specific country quotas - for example, MIT limits the total number of Singaporean undergraduate students at any time to about 6, so on average 1.5 students get in a year. Again, this specifically favours countries which are under represented, while is extremely harsh on a certain number of countries (esp. China, India, Singapore and Malaysia).</p>
<p>thanks for your reponse people! You guys cleared some bluriness up but that makes my situation even more complex ironincally lol!</p>
<p>See I live in Japan, but I'm <em>homeschooled</em> through a distant education program offered from the States. So I guess I'm classied as "American" according to your definition cenovia! I have UK citizenship because my dad was born there... Fortunately no affiliations with that region that can potentially mix up my situation even more! hehe.</p>
<p>bogororo- thanks, I hope everything turns out well and my multiracial characteristics help me positively... but I have a worry that all of these complexities willl hurt me... :(</p>
<p>Any more insight on which region I will be "classified" in, and if it can possibly turn out pretty well and give me a exotic edge?!</p>
<p>Some schools only count you as American if you are either a citizen or a permanent resident (green card holder), even if you were educated in the States. You are then considered as an applicant from your country of citizenship. (I didn't include this before; I didn't think it was relevant). </p>
<p>I suspect that you will be considered 'Japanese' (or at least, 'International') by most, if not all, schools you apply to. However, being home schooled through a distance education programme isn't something I've ever heard of before, so I have no idea how colleges will see it. Since your situtation is slightly complicated, your best bet is to call up the colleges and ask. There really isn't a standard policy for this type of thing.</p>
<p>General rule of thumbs are:
If you are an American citizen or a green card holder, you are American, regardless of where you were educated.
If you are not (i.e. you are 'international') you are an applicant from the country you graduated high school from.
If you are an international but were educated in the States, you may or may not be considered as American depending on the school. Some will consider you American only for admissions purposes but not financial aid. Asking is the safest bet (or checking websites). If you are not, you are from your country of citizenship. </p>
<p>Exceptions: Some colleges consider Canada or Mexico (or both, though Mexico is much rarer) as the 51st and 52nd states - i.e. your region will be Canada or Mexico, so you will be pooled with fellow Canadians or Mexicans for admissions purposes, but for financial aid purposes you are considered American.</p>
<p>my understanding is that the ivy league schools have a common policy- if your schooling was outside the united states you are considered "international" regardless of your citizenship status.i could be wrong tho..</p>
<p>to the OP: thats an amazing background. market it properly and it'll be a HUGE boost.</p>
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if your schooling was outside the united states you are considered "international" regardless of your citizenship status.i could be wrong tho..
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</p>
<p>Sorry, I stand corrected. The Ivies do read your application solely based on where you went to high school.</p>
<p>Why would certain universities be critically harsh on admitting students from China, India, Singapore and Malaysia? What's the rationale behind this discrimination.</p>
<p>Country quotas. It's just that the demand from these countries far outstips the quotas. There is certainly more than 1 applicant from Singapore (good at math and English-speaking) to MIT every year. I'm not privy to the applicant numbers, but if its over 10, that makes the admit rate less than 10% - lower than Harvard.</p>
<p>I think it's because MIT realises students can get a decent undergraduate education in their home countries, and so while they don't mind taking the very best and promoting diversity on campus, they still prefer to keep the majority of slots for American students. At the graduate level, the numbers are completely different - internationals make up a very large percentage of MIT's graduate population. I think that's when MIT really wants them, and I doubt they have quotas then. All of this, of course, is just pure speculation on my part, unsubstantiated by any evidence of any sort (except for the numbers - 348 undergrad international students to 2,376 graduate students). </p>
<p>I think Caltech is even stricter, admitting less than 20 international undergrad students a year.</p>
<p>thanks for all the reponses guys. ok so Im going to be considered "Japanese" because Im applying from Japan. But I hear Japan is relatively under-represented, compared to China, Singapore, Korea, etc.</p>
<p>I understand that for universities where quotas are put on each country/area. In that case I will be competing for spots only with the Japanese. However, for schools that don't have quotas on each nation but rather on regions, am I going to be labeled East Asian, and be required to compete with the strong applicants of the nations mentioned above?</p>
<p>btw, congrats on your Princeton acceptance cevonia. That is my dream school <em>drools</em>.</p>
<p>I agree....it depends on where u study during high school....I hold China citizenship and study in Canada..so I will be considered in Candian pool</p>
<p>Coming from an underrepresented country will not gve you a boost at all.. ok maybe a very very vvery very slight one.</p>
<p>Of course people from China, Korea, Singapore are at a big disadvantage due to the vast number of applicants from each country.. But under representative countries get grouped together also.</p>
<p>For example, the small new zealand pool will be grouped with the small X pool. But the X country must have a similar education environment of NZ. So this combined pool becomes a 'normal sized' pool.
But with this being said, each applicant will be looked as a "new zealander' or a "x er" or a "y er" -- So, the only reason they have these pools are for QUOTAS.</p>
<p>This sounds really complicated but that's what the Yale, U chicago, Wellesley, Duke, northwestern adimission officers described it to us. So don't start attacking me if you disagree.</p>
<p>Rexar, yeah Japan is an underrepresetative country COMPARED to those other countries: china, korea, etc..
You have to always keep in mind that many fantabulous people from Ghsdneis country, Jasjntjf country, are applying. <-- those people are your compitition.. not the chinese, koreans, etc</p>
<p>
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How can you know it for sure, is there a some sort of diagram that show it??
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Sometimes, universities give out this information and publications like Princeton review publish these stats.
Or somtimes, they are on the websites.</p>
<p>thanks. you explained the stuff really well NoFX, but I still have a grudge against you for gnabbing the 5000th post from me :mad: j/k lol.</p>
<p>So the admission officers of the prestigious institutions that you mentioned above have quotes on each nation. Hmmm.... That would mean that I have to perform a cut-throat competition with the people from School X, B, ZZ in Japan, "killing" each other to grasp the ticket of acceptance? Sounds like great fun ;).</p>
<p>I'm also Italian + Carribean (half put togther). So it looks like this won't be helping/hurting me at all in terms in diversity right?</p>
<p>I want to virtually 'kill' our head girl who is applying to nearly all the schools on my list. She's a snr but she's going to apply a year after - the same year as me!! She's this perfect A student with like a gazillion awards :( She's so NICE but I..want..to..get..rid..of..her!</p>
<p>The Italian/carribean could help you.. It could be used as an interesting essay topic but if you do, you have to be careful wit it because many intels write about this topic. Atleast you're not asian.. I'm pretty sure that hurts at prestigous colleges.</p>
<p>Sometimes I wish my daddy would pay $10000000000000000 for me to attend any school i wanted to attend.. But that's wrong! Yes. it's bad</p>
<p>how many international applicants are truly international, as in they live and have been educated in another nation, as compared to those who are in US but are not citizens/PR?
I'm kind of interested in this because everyone says if you are a chinese it's ORM and your chances drop even more. but i'm not sure that a phenomenal number of chinese applicants who apply are actually in china because afterall it isn't that easy to be very proficient in a language that you only learn in school. My relative in china (she's in a very good sch) says a lot of her classmates are dying to go US for grad but don't even consider doing undergrad there because it's just not possible and the application process is very foreign to them. This is just one person's view though.
Do adcoms actually treat all applicants with a chinese citizenship as the same or does the country where you are educated matter more? If we're talking about the diversity factor, where you stay and have been educated affect you so much more than where you were born. I have a chinese citizenship but i'm probably a lot more similar to singaporeans since i'm been here for ages.
Another thing, does anyone actually know what the admission rate is like for internationals? I know it's probably much lower than the average rate given by a school, but how low? 1%? that's quite horrendous T_T</p>
<p>It varies from school, but for countries without specific quotas, like Harvard, Yale and Princeton, I think the percentage of international applicants is within one percentage point of the percentage of the freshman class that is international. I think the pool is more self selecting, though, so competition is probably tougher. </p>
<p>I think that citizenship does not matter anywhere near as much as place of education. And Chinese (and Asians in general) is over-represented, both for Chinese-Americans and Chinese-Chinese.</p>
<p>oh man... Is HYP admittance of internationals very arbitrary? Somehow it doesn't seem to be the case in my sch. a lot of my seniors were rejected from all the ivies/top unis they applied to while a few were accepted by all because they won international awards. I don't know a single person who was accepted into HYP from my school who didn't win an international award or at least some prestigious national ones. Right now it appears that if you don't win any international/national competitions, your chances are terribly slim but if you do win sth, you have a very high chance of being admitted. which seems to say that all the top US unis prefer the same type of internationals: those who win competitions. Not that they shouldn't get in, but these people are often quite well-lopsided while others who have decent grades and ECs but no special credentials are not favoured.</p>