I’m a female international candidate (Canadian) who is interested in going to
Yale
Stanford
Brown
Harvard
USC
UCLA
UCSD
UC Berkley
Columbia
NYU
Cornell
Our grading system is completely different than that of America, so I am not certain about my GPA, but I’m guessing it is around 3.7-3.8 since all but a couple of my final grades were 90+%.
My highest SAT score was 2200 (broken down it was math:770, crit:730, writing:700) (I received 2060 and 2100 before that)
I have taken 4 APs so far
Chemistry (4)
Physics 1 (4)
Biology (4)
Calculus AB (5)
and I am taking 5 more this year
Physics 2
Macroeconomics
Microeconomics
English Literature
Calculus BC
My ECs are mainly focused on dance, as I’ve been competitively dancing since I was about 10 at a studio. I have been a part of my school’s audition based dance team for 4 years.
I am also the vice president of 2 clubs (Physics and World Vision), the marketing director of G.A.I.N., and a senior member of my school’s Red Cross Club.
I spent my last summer volunteering as a pharmacy assistant (2-3 months) and a children’s science summer camp leader. I also volunteer in my community in senior homes and at events for the young.
I would most likely need some sort of financial aid, if that is a factor as well.
UCSD/UCLA/UCB will give little to no financial/merit aid so expect to pay around $55K/year.
You look like a good candidate for USC and Stanford will be a Reach (for everyone).
@RichardSuce well that was extremely rude.
@xoxocatz, what are your safeties? Those schools are not guarantees and are reaches. You need to add some safeties.
UC’s will not give much financial aid to OOS or international students, so take those off of your list.
@“aunt bea” are all of them considered reach schools? Do you think my chances of getting into at least one are low?
I have a couple of schools that I am applying to in Canada, so I consider those my safeties 
You’re GPA is solid, but definitely, if you want to have a greater chance into the prestigious schools that you’ve listed, your SAT Score would be more favorable if it were higher. Consider retaking it and improving to 2250+ and you’ll chances will no doubt improve.
Please reply to my thread too! Thanks!
Perhaps you can make it to UCSD and even NYU or USC but the rest would be low to high reaches.
@uclaparent9 thank you for your input! If it isn’t too much trouble, could you let me know which of the schools are high/low reaches? I just want to know so I can prep myself for rejection XD
Stanford/Harvard/Yale - high reach
Columbia - Mid reach (but not much diff than aboves!)
Cornell/UCB/UCLA - low reach
USC/NYU - high match
UCSD - match
^Agree with UCLA parent.
Make sure you can pay $55K per year for UCSD.
Remove all UC’s from your list if you need financial aid, since they don’t provide any.
Yes, all the universities on your list are reaches due to their low acceptance rates.
You need some matches - what about Skidmore, Dickinson, Macalester…?
Many kids aspire for brand name schools in cool US cities. You have not shared what you want to study or how much aid you expect.
You would be well served to have a few reaches from your list, and drop the rest and substitute in other schools in those same cities, after making sure they have solid aid for international students. For example drop Harvard and add one or several of Boston University, Boston College, Northeastern, etc…
If you cannot get into the Ivies, and your chances are extremely small, then go to McGill, Toronto or UBC.
@ClarinetDad16 whoops i forgot to mention I’m most interested in going into chemistry or pharmaceutical sciences! I hope to pay less than 20,000 a year if possible, and i find that most private schools do offer sufficient financial aid. My parents are adamant about the Ivies though, otherwise I would have dropped them a while ago. Do you have any recommendations for possible private universities that are on par or a bit less prestigious as the Ivies?
@TomSrOfBoston yup! I’m definitely applying to those schools, and i believe i have a good chance of getting into their chemistry/science departments, but my parents would prefer me to go to an american university which is why I’m setting my sights high. I recently received my results for my SAT 2 Math 2, and I received a 770. Do you think that would help my application at all?
At this level, your odds are about 3% as a qualified applicant. Yes, it means that you have the GPA, course rigor, test scores, and STILL your odds are less than 1 in twenty because the competition among internationals is THAT strong.
Your parents probably don’t understand that it’s not “like getting into UToronto but it bit tougher”. It’s completely different. The top students from the entire world apply. Once admissions have cut students whose results aren’t world-class, they look at ECs and other ways the student fills an institutional need. Institutional needs are reasons why the university wants you because you help them in some way: legacies, “developments” (ie., kids from heads of state and billionaires), athletes, kids who have overcome incredible odds, URM. An applicant can fall into several of those categories. Then you have the kids with incredible achievements: Intel winners, USAMO winners, recorded soloists, chess grand masters, the kid who won the Google international science competition, etc. Then you have the well lopsided applicant - the genius in one specific subject. That leaves very few spots for “regular” applicants, who don’t fill a special institutional need but stood out in other ways, through their essays typically, and of course have outstanding academics+ECs but not to the level above.
Colleges that are really prestigious will be as hard to get into, but there are a few groups that are considered very prestigious nationally: the “little Ivies” (essentially, NESCAC colleges like Williams, Amherst…) plus Pomona, HarveyMudd, McKenna, the Seven Sisters (only for girls, with Wellesley in the lead) + Scripps, obviously UChicago, Stanford, MIT, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Rice, UVA, W&M, Michigan, UCB, UCLA, UNC-CH. The last six don’t offer financial aid at all to internationals and would expect you to pay 55K a year so they’re off the table already.