<p>As a foreigner, I'd suggest another route. Save the money, finish well at UBC and you will be in good position to get into top graduate schools here. When I was at Stanford, two of my classmates were from Canada and I believe they both went to U of Toronto. One of my former roomates went to UBC and did his master at Cornell (in civil engineering). Many Americans don't seem to know UBC is a great school and so they don't understand why you aim so high. I was interested in Canadian schools before and I think the Canadian curriculum at the undergrad level has a lot of depth. For example, the actuarial science program at Waterloo is probably more advanced than any undergrad program offered in the States.</p>
<p>Brand...
I know the feeling. I applied to about 5 schools and it was kinda hard to do the above for all. That is why I said you should choose 2-3 of your best schools. Any more than that and you may not be able to pay as much attention to each.
About the admissions counselors, I am sure that when you have questions, there is probably one person you speak to who sounds really friendly and willing to take extra time with you. Start asking for that person when you call. If you go to visit the school, make sure you drop in to see the person- that way they have a face to go with the voice. Don't worry about sounding desperate. I am sure your gut feeling will tell you when you are going to far- at least that's the way I felt.
It's funny but I was only able to do this with 2 of my favourite schools.
I am not going to Chicago. It is a little too intense for me- I wanted a place where I am academically challenged but academics is not all I do. That is the way I felt when I visited Chicago. I go to a small women's liberal arts college in MA- Smith College.</p>
<p>In response to the threads saying that transferring to Ivies from Canada is near-impossible, I would say just give it a shot. Being valedictorian, in my eyes, is not important. It won't hinder your application... as in, it's good to have, but in the late transfer stage it is really the accomplishments that you have achieved DURING university that mean the most, especially for soph applicants. I don't think Ivies necessarily want people who won huge international awards... just people who show something special about themselves through their application. I believe Harvard particularly looks for personality and character on top of excellent stats, while I honestly think that Columbia is more numbers-based. That's just from my very limited perspective though... I only know a few people, including myself, who successfully applied to Ivies from Canada. It's certainly not a broad group of people to take statistics from. </p>
<p>...In the end, I've decided not to transfer. This is why I would stress the importance of MAKING SURE you want to transfer and invest all that time and resources into applying. Thankfully, I got fee waivers but spending a weekend on an application seems a bit of a waste in hindsight, especially since, outside of penn and stanford, a lot of my canadian credits were not eligible to transfer to most of the U.S. schools I was admitted to. I would have had to do summer school, etc. to make up for it... not what I was looking for. I should have done research about my credits and called the offices to inquire. If I were you, I'd do that asap.</p>
<p>Since so many people are on the topic . can anyone tell the names of colleges which do offer financial aid to International students or scholarships however little it may be as long as it exists. I am in my search for a college to transfer and right now have 3 in my mind which are Stanford,USC and MIT..I might add 1 or 2 ivy too but i really like to add a good state univ where i can go with some scholarship.</p>
<p>umm well apart from the ivies does no university offer even merit scholarships to Internationals...oh and btw i am on a presidential scholarship to WPI,MA...which is like 25k an year so i am looking for something which will exceed that..</p>
<p>adrianna, thank you for that advice. yes I have a friend who transferred from dartmouth to harvard and he has to spend an extra year as not all his courses will transfer. </p>
<p>adrianna, was the reason you did not go just becaues your creidts would not transfer? what kin dof courses did you take that would not transfer?</p>
<p>hey i have another question....since for international students we get a F-1 visa on which the name of the college is also mentioned so when we transfer do we have to go through the process of getting a new visa all over again..or is this visa like automatically granted and sort of just changed from the current one.</p>
<p>Although it seems the thread has calmed down now, I (trying to be objective) would like to say that I think everyone is a little too quick to point fingers. Although realistically chances at any one top school are slim to nill, mliu, I agree with what you've said earlier: what have you got to lose? I would say throw together a few applications and really taylor them to each school specifically, and who knows? Brand, you have a lot of good information. Just a bit of friendly advice, though: even if you CAN use cold statistics to prove your point, don't be so quick to tell someone that their dreams won't come true. </p>
<p>One last thing, mliu, and this is coming from a guy who also goes to a top state school (UNC, in my case) and doesn't really like it -- maybe you just haven't looked hard enough for things that you like at UBC. Rather than focusing so much on building your resume, try for a change to make a good group of friends or join an activity you really enjoy that isn't centered on individual study. I don't mean to assume that you haven't been doing that, but if your freshman year was anything like mine, maybe it's because you expected things to fall into place rather meeting them halfway. I hope these words are helpful and not too harrowing. Good luck!</p>
<p>Vampiro, if you already hold an F-1 visa, you would have to transfer it to the new institution which you'll be attending. You must do this yourself and you'll use the same application as those who are applying the first time.</p>
<p>^^ This means that i will have to return to my country or will it be done in the US itself....Also a general wondering, as it is not easy to get a Visa for the US and as it is somewhat a part of luck...then is there a possibility they might reject my visa and even take away what i have...coz i mean if they have already given me a 5 year visa then it shouldnt matter whether i apply for transferring it...or does it indeed matter?</p>
<p>"Brand, you have a lot of good information. Just a bit of friendly advice, though: even if you CAN use cold statistics to prove your point, don't be so quick to tell someone that their dreams won't come true."</p>
<p>Once again, I wasn't trying to say his dreams wouldn't come true. I was saying that the odds are incredibly small if he asks for financial aid as well, so I suggested that he might try and find a way to pay for college and not ask for financial aid. This thread is somewhat personal to me since I am trying to go to Columbia, but like I've said, even as a domestic transfer student I know it'd be easier for me to be accepted if I try and take out private loans. At least half of those schools are not eager to give money to transfer students, much less international transfers. Sometimes the cold hard statistics suck, but we can't ignore them. I only gave suggestions to better his chances, and got shot down for it.</p>
<p>Brand was being honest not mean. Lay off him. It sounds like maybe the OP wanted to hear something along the lines of "of course you will get in to every school... who in their right mind would not accept you" LOL</p>
<p>to me, the people that are REALLY trying to help you out are the ones that don't say "you're awesome I'd say you'll get in"</p>
<p>without putting much thought into their response...then the rejection letters come. The people that actually give suggestions to help you get the acceptance letter are the ones that are helping...when I get reviews on my stats and chances, I always appreciate those that tell me what could be better, not those that praise what's good and tell me nothing new.</p>
<p>Sweetny, I'm not "laying" on anyone. Brand did have good advice. He himself, however, acknowledged that there was another poster who put things "a little bit nicer." I'm just saying there's a fine line between giving constructive criticism and just giving criticism. Maybe the OP is caught up with the prestige, maybe not. I agree with the OP in that it is a grave oversight to assume that a kid who applies to only Ivy League schools is merely doing so for the prestige *though I do think that researching more schools and asking WHAT one is looking for rather than WHERE is important.</p>
<p>in regards to your question, one of the main reasons why an unacceptably low amount of my credits were accepted as eligible to transfer was the specialized, self-designed nature of my degree module. also, obviously international-perspective courses like canadian politics and business administration case study were less likely to transfer. keep that in mind if you are serious about transferring, when picking your courses.</p>