<p>i'm an aid seeking international totally in love with Penn... </p>
<p>i havent given my SAT yet but i gave a practice test with absolutely no prior study and got 1990... in real life i'll try my best to get over 2200... </p>
<p>my SAT II are mathsI 780, mathsII 800, physics 800</p>
<p>I'm my class valedictorian, GPA is a stable 4.0 for the past two years</p>
<p>i dont have many ECs but lots of social work (i worked two years in Interact club, and was a board member in one and volunteered in handful of organizations)</p>
<p>My essays are okay, i really like my personal essay and i think my recommendations are good too (one from my GP teacher who is absolutely in love with me and other from my mathematics teacher)</p>
<p>i'm just worried because i have not yet taken my SAT yet and am planning to apply for '16.</p>
<p>Unless you’re from Mexico or Canada, you should first make sure you can afford Penn. </p>
<p>Penn does not meet 100% financial need for internationals. </p>
<p>Your stats are good. Even if you don’t decide to ED to Penn definitely take the SAT as soon as possible (October, I think) (study through the summer). You’ll need it if you want to EA anywhere.</p>
<p>affording Penn is really going to be a problem for me… but i saw it in their website that they meet 100% need for everyone… i really really reallly wanna get into Penn!!! :(</p>
<p>Yup. The website says: “The University does guarantee that the full financial need for all admitted international students applying for aid will be met.”</p>
<p>So long as you’re in, you should be good :)</p>
<p>I hear Canadian colleges are cheaper btw, and there are some good ones too. Check them out as well just in case.</p>
<p>Penn doesn’t have to meet aid for any international students, no matter if it is ED or not. Applications are not need-blind for international students unfortunately, so if you need money for college then you are in extremely tough competition.</p>
<p>Though the best college for you depends on what you plan on studying, what kind of place you want to live in, what clubs you’re looking for, etc. </p>
<p>@EsotericalApp: so suppose it accepts me in ED(super duper long shot…) without sufficient aid, i can decline the admissions on financial grounds right? so even if it likes an intl applicant it might defer them rather than accept? that’s mean T.T… correct me if i am wrong though</p>
<p>@blueee… thnx a loads… and i did talk to my gc but he’s as confused as me… :/</p>
<p>If you are an aid seeking international and apply ED, they WILL give you aid if you are accepted, but the question is, will you get accepted. The answer: probably not unless you are from a very impoverished nation/region with an exceptionally heartbreaking story. You can get deferred, but you will most likely get outright accepted or outright rejected since they get a general idea for the international pool through previous experience and the quality of applicants through ED. I am not saying to give up applying, you might get lucky or your essay might stir interest in the adcoms. </p>
<p>Long story short, you will get full aid IF you get accepted.</p>
<p>That’s completely false. I know of at least four internationals off the top of my head receiving aid and they are all normal people, they just aren’t incredibly wealthy like many international students and can’t fly home all the time during breaks. But that doesn’t mean they are impoverished, going to college is expensive for everyone. 3 of these people are actually from Europe.
I think if you apply for aid as an international it is harder to get accepted since they want to make sure they have enough money to meet everyones needs. However it does not mean you won’t be accepted. There are internationals who they give aid. I do know of a circumstance where someone applied ED who asked for aid and was deferred. However they were admitted in the regular pool I suppose when finances were determined. Applying ED probably did help though because it showed interest.</p>
<p>Ok, I was merely telling him that he was in exclusive and competitive company, and the odds are against him to get accepted. I answered his questions and all of my remarks can be proved online, none were false or imaginary.</p>
<p>EsotericalApp, do you go to Penn? Because what you are saying is completely exaggerated. From my experience at penn and the admissions process, it’s cleat that you can get in as an international applying for aid. The same for other ivy league schools, you just need to stand out, not by being “impoverished” necessarily but by who you are and what you can offer to Penn.</p>
<p>you should look at williams and middlebury- both are need blind for internationals. i think you could definitely get in to midd- they dont require the SAT reasoning test- you can send three sat 2’s instead and your scores are, as you know, excellent</p>
<p>No I do not go to Penn, however I have a sibling going there. I never said it was impossible for an international student to get in, but he is going against tough competition. It is better to lower someone’s hopes and see them attain then than to raise their expectations to get the dashed.</p>
<p>You’re right esotericalapp, based on the competition, it is unlikely (not even knowing anything about them) that User95 will get into Penn. That’s how it is for everyone. Great students are regularly rejected from all these schools. It doesn’t mean they aren’t great students, it’s just very competitive.
But at the same time, I do not want to pretend to know if User95 will get into Penn. The truth is that I, and most other people on this board, have no clue whether they will get in. “Stats” mean nothing without context. We don’t know about this person’s school or Penn’s relationship with their school, we don’t know about their personal experiences, how others perceive them, and most importantly how Penn will perceive their application.
I just wanted to let this person know that you can’t get in if you don’t apply. It’s true that international admissions are much different from that in the U.S. and people are very disadvantaged applying for aid. But it’s hard for anyone to get into Penn. For each person who was accepted there are seven more rejected, and many of these people are really just as, or MORE qualified than those accepted. It’s a complete crapshoot. I want to emphasize this. But even though this is a very stressful process, at the end of the day I would tell anyone who has excelled and has the desire to go to Penn to apply. It’s not my place even as a student to lower someone’s hope, I just want to tell it how it is.</p>