<p>I'd like to know what my chances of getting into Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Amherst and Dartmouth are. I cannot afford to have any safeties because I'm an international student and need full financial aid and these are the only ones that seem to offer full aid to int'l students. A basic overview of my stats is below:</p>
<ol>
<li>SAT Reasoning- 2320</li>
<li><p>SAT Subject tests:
World History- 730
Biology(Molecular)- 790
AP Psych- 5
(AP exams in India are too expensive, almost $150 each. No waivers available either. I could only take AP Psych)</p></li>
<li><p>I have taken many courses on Udacity, Coursera and edX. I will also be appearing for exams from the National Institute of Open Schooling(NIOS), a government-organisation in India for homeschoolers. My GPA has always been a constant 4.0(No mommy evaluated courses. All external examination bodies)</p></li>
<li><p>The most important factor is that I am a homeschooler. I have homeschooled myself in the last two years of high school to focus on research in psychology. I have created for myself, a very unique curriculum that incorporates learning, research, standardised testing, work and community service. Will being an international homeschooler have an adverse impact on my application?</p></li>
<li><p>My extracurriculars include:
*Winner, Intel IRIS(The Indian science fair that selects students who will represent the country at Intel ISEF). My research project was the best in the country in the 'behavioral sciences category. I narrowly missed out on going to ISEF(Out of the 9 National winners from different categories, 6 made the final cut. I didn't. But I still ended up best in my category).
*Founder editor of my high school newspaper(This was during the first two years of high school. I am a homeschooler now)
*Won lots of quizzes, debates and other related stuff. I've also competed independently at several university-level debates and quizzes and won many.
*I am ranked 681 in the world in Scrabble(Rated by WESPA, the body that governs competitive scrabble across the world)
*I am a freelance journalist and have published articles in some of the most popular mainstream publications of India including The Bangalore Mirror, The Hindu and others.</p></li>
<li><p>I need 100% financial aid as my total family income is <$5000. I'm a first generation college student</p></li>
<li><p>I hope to major in Psychology/Neurobiology and minor in Molecular Biology.</p></li>
<li><p>What do I do about teacher and counselor recommendations and the international supplement? I can get teachers who taught me before I opted for homeschooling to write recommendations for me. I can also get a LOR from the professor who is mentoring my research in psychology. Since I attended regular high school for 2 years, I will also be sending transcripts from my time there. </p></li>
<li><p>As I've mentioned earlier, I have no safeties. I will perhaps find it difficult to attend any university in India other than the highly mediocre one in my city thanks to the high costs of food, living, tuition and the non-availability of fin aid/scholarships. The ivies are quite possibly the best shot I have at going to college.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Your stats are great, but you’re chances are next to zero. Far too many students apply from India, and thus the acceptance rate is very, very low for the country. I’m not trying to dissuade you from applying, but that’s the reality. </p>
<p>I know of applicants getting rejected from India even though they had their own corporations, micro-crediting organizations, etc. </p>
<p>I would suggest that while you do apply to college in the U.S., focus on your Indian applications.</p>
<p>@MeIsHM - Thanks for chancing me. I am certainly aware of the growing number of Indian applicants and how increasingly difficult it is getting to stand out. My chances are next to zero, I’m sure, but not zero. I will go ahead and apply given the fact that this is the only chance I have of a college education. Thanks again for the honest feedback! :)</p>
<p>You’re competitive for HYP, sure: I’ll pay you a compliment and say that even though you’re international, your chances probably break 10%. The pool is just extremely intense, I’m afraid. But about the no safety thing: I don’t know how good your hometown university is, but although you are international, with your HYP-competitive stats and multiple kinds of international recognition, there ARE colleges within the top 100 American schools that will offer you merit aid. I’m a US citizen and had a great and affordable in-state college available, so I have never researched them in particular depth, but they exist. These colleges, which won’t be HYP caliber but which may still be better than your local university, would cover your tuition for a chance to get your stats on campus raising their average scores. I would advise you start hunting.</p>
<p>Every year, Harvard admits about 10% international students. Based upon an average enrollment of 1660 students, that means that Harvard will accept about 166 international students next year – and thousands of students from Japan, Korea, China, Spain, Germany France, Australia, Canada, Mexico and India (let alone smaller countries) apply for the chance to have one of those 166 beds. There are many more qualified students than there are available beds at Harvard. Great grades, test scores, extracurriculars, demonstration of leadership qualities are pretty much prerequisites for admission. Thought provoking essays and fabulous teacher recommendations will also play a role in the admissions process. Even if you’re good, you’ll also need some luck to get into Harvard. As the odds of being accepted as an international student are greater than being accepted as a domestic student, you really need to look at a broader range of US colleges: [10</a> Colleges That Give the Most International Student Financial Aid - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2012/10/16/10-colleges-that-give-the-most-international-student-financial-aid]10”>http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2012/10/16/10-colleges-that-give-the-most-international-student-financial-aid)</p>
<p>gibb: are you sure about that ~10% admit rate? That would mean they are admitting internationals at a higher rate than the domestics, implying the applicant pool is smaller than the combined domestic applicants. I would think the international pool at H (with its almost peerless FinAid policy and world-renown namesake) would be one of the proportionally larger pools. Didja get that ~10% admit rate from published data?</p>
<p>Please read the entire post. Harvard IS NOT admitting 10% of international students; each year’s class is made up of approximately 10% international students. </p>
<p>agree with gibby: Harvard and its peer schools are MADE UP of approximately 10% international students in each of its class…the only question that most internationals have is what is their ACTUAL acceptance rate versus US students applying…every year we are given the TOTAL number of students applying in early and regular rounds to get the acceptance rates…but, it seems a mystery to those looking for any real statistics about how many who consider themselves internationals actually “do apply” to each institution and what their true admission rate is…is it higher or lower than US students…</p>
<p>…is there a lower acceptance rate for those applying from certain countries who are over-represented…compared to one or two students applying from very under-represented countries…these are all questions many internationals have…justifiably so…</p>