Top universities' international acceptance rates

Student Lounge International Students
1

<p>I was wondering what Caltech's, Stanford's, Harvard's, Princeton's, Columbia's (engineering) and Cornell's international acceptance rates are. I heard of around 3% for caltech but not sure.... We're really disadvantaged as foreigners there I guess.</p>

<p>Another thing... When applying, I put my Moroccan nationality on my application as well as my swiss one. Is it a help for Harvard, for instance or Columbia? how do their international quotas work?</p>

<p>I sort of lost hope in these universities donno if I have a chance</p>

<p>SAT: 750 math, 650 reading, 600 writing
SAT2: 740 italian, 700 mlevel2, 700 physics</p>

<p>Quick profile: I designed a computer game with a team, worked at doctors without borders( humanitarian), worked at serono (biotechnology), gave math and french classes, national level in tennis (trainer Guy Forget...nope nobody knows?lol), gymnastics, martial arts, went to philipps exeter academy summer school, organised trips for groups of over 20 people regularly, piano, speak 6 languages, GPA: 5 out of 6, class rank: top 10%....</p>

<p>Chances....Any?</p>

<p>ThX for your info</p>

2

<p>I don't think anyone here can predict your chances accurately.</p>

<p>Now this is only my personal and biased opinion, but your SAT IIs - while certainly great scores - seem a little bit low for Columbia engineering.</p>

<p>In 2004, Stanford's international acceptance rate was around 8% and Columbia's Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science's was 13%; I don't know about the others. In the meantime, admission has probably become even more competitive though.</p>

3

<p>Acceptance rates: Very low :P</p>

4

<p>Seriously, seriously low, think either 1% or less than that. Of course it differs widely depending on whether you come from a country like India (where rates are about .1%), or from a less represented country. In the case of Morocco/Switzerland, it should be a slight boost. But then again, it's impossible to predict really. The languages should help, though in truth, you SATs, both I and II are very low in comparison to the international pool. (which is normally massively overqualified). Again, you won't find any concrete predictions here...</p>

5

<p>Do you have any evidence to back up your 0.1% for India? I can hardly imagine that they only take 1 person out of 1000.</p>

6

<p>Ah well it is about that for MIT.</p>

<p>Maybe .1's a mild exaggeration. It's about .5 (Not that that really makes a difference)</p>

<p>The thing is, these rates really mean nothing. They're just statistics that too for the entire applicant pool, not necessarily for those who are qualified or who should have applied. Hence there's a danger in asking for them.</p>

7

<p>It's true for MIT(although it's .65% and not .1%)</p>

<p><em>Sigh</em></p>

<p>At other places[HYP] it was 1.6% a couple of years ago[4 out of 250]</p>

8

<p>Well, usually only the very top students apply for college in the US. I rarely heard of non international olympians to get into the top 10 schools in the US from my country.</p>

9

<p>Yep in deed my SATs arent perfect at all! I had to buy the books and learn everything (especially for physics for which I hadnt had the same program at all!)...and decided to go there this september lol. But I have great recommendations.</p>

<p>Can tennis help if you just say that you have a national level or do you actually have to go there and prove it?</p>

10

<p>Most internationals who have the guts to apply to top school like HYPS all have impressive resumes. Above a certain threshold (2150+ SAT, close to 4.00 GPA), numbers cease to matter. What's really important is how you present yourself as a person. If tennis is what you like, and you have achieved some sort of distinction, then write about it. If you don't, adcoms can just assume that it wasn't all that important and impressive. My recommendation is that you elaborate on your most significant activities/achievements and use your essays to present yourself as a human being. Most people fall into the trap of listing their accomplishments in their essays, the typical "I caught the ball in the last second and won the championship for my team." Feel free to brag (afterall this is a bragging contest), but make sure to give adcomes a chance to learn about who you are. </p>

<p>Just my 2 cents.</p>

11

<p>sux for international students!!!! disadvantage but o well..</p>

12

<p>Can someone give me a brief list of colleges that open chance for int students contributin' 3000$ per year, thx in advance</p>

13

<p>Basically, most of the top universities (Private) do give aid, but asking for aid puts you in an extremely, extremely competitive pool as they consider the fact that you have applied for aid (and how much you ask for) in deciding whether to grant you admission. The only colleges which do not consider financial aid applications when the consider your application are: Harvard, Princeton, Yale, MIT, Williams and Middlebury... (I'm not sure about Amherst).</p>

14

<p>Amherst is need-sensitive.</p>

<p>Oberlin is very generous with aid, but is need sensitive.</p>

15

<p>Amherst is unofficially need-blind. It would be impossible that Williams is need-blind and Amherst is not:p</p>

16

<p>If they were need-blind, they'd advertise it! They're going need-blind from next year, I think. My "Financial Aid for International Students" brochure says they're need sensitive.</p>

17

<p>What's the average contribution of an international student? 10,000? 20,000?</p>

18

<p>It depends on the student, I don't think there's an average.</p>

19

<p>is Wellesley need-blind to internationals?</p>

20

<p>Nope.
As far as I know only HYPM Williams and one other LAC (Middlebury?) are need-blind.</p>