Hello,
I am an international student from Turkey. I am planning to apply to some colleges for regular decision. I’m going to study political science. I got a 2120 on my SAT (CR:740, M:720, W:660). I got US history and Math II for subject tests, both 770. I haven’t taken any APs. My GPA is 93.92 out of 100. My graduation class is about 80-90. My extracurricular activities are music and volunteer work. I played guitar at an arts cooperative and opened some concerts for proffesional musicians. I did volunteer work at an international relief organization. I’m going to do a research paper with the rector of a college in Turkey. I’m planning on taking toefl next saturday, I will probably get a score above 100. So, my question is what do you think are my chances of getting accepted to a top 10 college? And what would be my best course of action?
“My graduation class is about 80-90.”
It’s not clear what this reveals about you.
“what do you think my chances are of getting accepted to a top 10 college?”
There is no universal definition for “top 10 college.” You would have to be more specific for this to have meaning.
A score of 2120 will not get you into the top 10 universities.
Go to the links on the left to find a match school.
The US has over 3000 colleges and universities. A number of them have political science majors.
You hope to study American political science? Then return to your country with that degree? Don’t assume that you will stay in the US after you graduate.
With respect to political science, this and majors such as Government, World Politics and Public Policy are overlapping in nature, and should be sought out in accordance with your goals.
How much can you pay per year?
Your odds for the super-elites are not good, but there are other options.
Your profile is excellent but the odds are against you. Not because of you, but because literally the entire world applies to US colleges. Most of these students are superbly qualified.
Your parents’ budget will play a role, in that the more the university has to subsidize you, the more difficult it is to gain entrance.
Do you have a number for that budget?
You should apply to Temple and UAlabama right now, for the automatic full tuition scholarships. UA’s Honors College is Top 10 in the country and Temple’s is quite good too. The deadlines are 3 weeks from now.
I assume you mean Top 10 National Universities and Top 10 LACs. In that case, your odds range from about 2% to about 10%. It’s THAT competitive. There’d be slight variation depending on how much your parents can afford.
If you mean top 10% universities (such as those to which the Fiske Guide is dedicated, or Insider’s Guide to the Colleges, or Princeton Review’s Best Colleges), then your odds are better depending on where you apply.
By top 10 I meant ivy league colleges. I can’t afford much i definitely need financial aid. My family’s income is less than 20,000 dollars a year.
Ivy league colleges aren’t all in the top ten - they’re all in top 20 though. And “Little ivies” also are incredible.
But your odds at any of them are low, simply because international.competition is so incredibly rough. Those recruit, literally, the handful best from.each country.
There are only 5 schools that claim to meet full need for internationals: Amherst College, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Yale. Look for application fee waivers. If you feel you have exceptional musical talent, then check if you can submit an audio recording as supplementary material (I know Yale allows it). Your essays have to be excellent to set yourself apart from the many well-qualified internationals. Basically, you want to emphasize your uniqueness. Your odds are not good for admission, but stranger things have happened.
“There are only five schools that claim to meet full need for internationals” (8)
Those are the schools that both meet full need and are not need-sensitive in admissions. Colleges other than these will meet the full demonstrated need for all accepted applicants.
I used one of the college search utilities in this site. It matched me with Uchicago, Vanderbilt, Rice, John Hopkins and Cornell. What would be my chances of getting accepted by these colleges?
Are you one of the top students in Turkey? Those colleges are not matches for anyone much less internationals.
I was the 210th in the Turkish College Test. It is the only test taken by Turkish high school seniors to attend college. More than 1.5 million people take it every year.
If you are interested in schools that are both “top 10 colleges” (original post) by, to use one objective criterion, average SAT/ACT scores AND “Ivy League colleges” (6), then this would limit you to Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Columbia. Are these the colleges you are asking about, or do you want to include others (other than those you listed in post 10)?
I am thinking of applying toYale, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Uchicago, Amherst, cornell, dartmouth and rice. Would I be accepted by these colleges? I probably need some safety colleges too. Do you have any suggestions?
It’s both good and bad news that you were ranked 201 out of 1.5 million: it means you’re in the top 0.1% of your country so of course you’ll make the “first cut”. The bad news is that there are 200 other students with higher ranks than yours and half of them will be applying to the exact same universities you are applying to. Depending on class size, the university may take one or two students from Turkey. So the odds are 1-2%.
It’s worth trying but it’s impossible to know whether you’ll be the chosen one. That decision will then be made on your essays, your extracurricular activities, what you bring the university.
All the universities you list above are called “reach for everyone”. They are so selective that no one can consider them a “match”, regardless of stats, profile, etc.
Remember that there are 3,700 universities in the US, so that a university ranked 20 will be an elite university with very, very high expectations.
Safeties, for internationals, are universities that offer automatic scholarships that are sufficient for them to afford the university. (Winning one of these scholarships typically means they get into the Honors College, so it’s important to look at what the Honors College offers.) The better universities will have full tuition scholarships, the lesser ones will have full rides. They include the University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, Temple, Miami Ohio, Howard, for instance.
Good matches for you would likely be national LACs in the top 25 and universities where you could combine Turkish with IR/poli sci.
Have you looked into Georgetown? Middlebury? Tufts?
About the other 200 hundred students. They usually study in Turkey. The test is taken to study in Turkish universities. Few people choose to study in the United States. I’m planning to apply to Georgetown and Tufts too. Do you think i have a good chance of getting accepted by them?
You may be accepted to Georgetown and Tufts but not receive enough financial aid to attend. You need to expand your list of schools, applying to lesser-known universities where there’s less competition for international student financial aid. Sorry: that’s just the reality.
And actually, Turkey traditionally has sent a surprisingly large number of students to America: 10,000 - 12,000 per year! Here’s an article from 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/world/europe/08iht-educlede08.html