Hello. I hope you all are well. I’m not a U.S citizen but willing to study in U.S soon. I wanted to ask if it is possible to go to top colleges without a high school diploma.
So, I was schooled until the Grade 8 from where I received A*s. But later, it turned out to be hard to continue my studies at school due to financial problems. Thus, I taught myself at home as much as I could. At the moment I’m doing mathematics, physics and chemistry at higher level and literature at standard level. I’m willing to study engineering at MIT, Yale, or Stanford. I’m not sure yet but those universities are my aims for now.
But I feel like my future is filled with darkness and its blank as I’m always told “You will never be able to go into those universities ever”, “People who study day and night, can’t even get into those and you study by yourself will? Nice joke”. Hearing words like these breaks my heart every time but I cannot do anything as well. I have no power, strength and simply nothing but knowledge. Even though I have knowledge, I’m not sure how to use it to get into the universities I want to go to. Its a huge dream of mine, I can’t express in words.
Hence, please do help me out its a request. I’m in a trap where I don’t know how to get out, I need some help and guidance. If you may know anyone who goes to ivy league universities then please ask them what I could do? And if possible ask them if they could talk with their professor or anyone who is in charge with admission, if I could contact them directly? Please simply anything that you may think could help me. (You can also message me directly to let me know anything)
You need a diploma, a GED, or some kind of documentation that you have completed some kind of high school equivalent. In America there are a lot of families who homeschool, but even for them there is a documentation process of some kind to show that the student completed high school/college prerequisites. You can go on any college website and search the entrance requirements.
There are thousands of colleges and universities in the United States. The United States is a huge country. You may want to expand your search beyond the tippy top schools that are extremely hard for anyone to get admitted to. But first you will need to learn how to get your high school equivalency and prerequisites sorted out.
Go to the local high school in your town, and find out how students in your situation can get some kind of diploma for completing high school level work. Is there an education authority (committee) in your town? Ask there. What about a religious authority, such as a priest or rabbi, who can advocate for you and help you get a diploma? You will probably have to take some tests to show you have completed studies to certain standards in your country. If you try to apply to college in the US, as a foreigner, you will need SAT test scores and TOEFL scores, too. There will be fees for those tests. Without those three basics things, I am sorry to say your dream isn’t going to happen.
I really don’t want to ruin all your hopes, but please be realistic. If you have no money to complete school in your own country, there is almost no chance you will be able to come to college in America. There are not many colleges here who will give financial aid to foreign students, and if they do, they will only accept students that have great grades and tests scores.
You need to find a way to get your high school certificate in your country and attend college in your country. The people who have said that there are incredible students who study day and night, and still do not get into Ivy colleges, are correct. There are students who win international, national, and state competitions who don’t get in to those colleges. Harvard denies 95% of its applicants. A significant proportion of those kids denied will have incredible grades, test scores, and accomplishments. So please stop letting your heart be broken by this reality and focus on what is achievable by you. There must be some way to get a high school diploma or the equivalent. Without one, you are really going to be stuck, so make that your goal. Think about college after you have your diploma from high school. Best of luck to you.
YOU know you have studied difficult subjects…but colleges need to know that you have studied them and have some sort of mastery of them. So you need some kind of certificate that says you know the HS level of study.
In the USA, we have the General Education Development (GED) test, which is intended for people who dropped out of high school and have studied on their own.
“The GED® test is designed to measure the skills and knowledge equivalent to a high school course of study. The five content areas that comprise the GED® test are mathematics; language arts, reading; language arts, writing (including essay); science; and social studies.”
The other thing you need is standardized test scores from either the SAT or ACT. https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat These tests can also be taken internationally.
It is a way to have a standard measure of all students regardless of High school.
To find out about how the US Higher Education process works, you can check out: https://educationusa.state.gov/
There will be specific information for people to talk to you in your country.
As others mention, you have to be able to show that you can fund your college education before you come to the US…either by paying your self, having someone in your country pay, or by getting scholarships that cover the entire cost. You can imagine that these are very competitive!
Also, the colleges that you mention are the top Universitities and the most difficult to get into…find other colleges that you can get into/afford…there are 3000 colleges and you are only talking about the top 3. Sure you can try for those, but like we tell every single person on this site, have other collegess that you can definitely get into and can afford.
Study very hard for the SAT/ACT…that will determine the level of school you can get into.