<p>I'm an int'l student from India, and I got wait-listed. <em>ALL</em> my Indian friends who applied for FA got wait-listed (about 15 of them). Many of them had ABSOLUTELY stellar credentials. 2350+ SAT scores, AMAZING essays, mind-boggling ECs, and attractive personalities. On the other hand, many mediocre friends (~2000 SATs, average/not impressive ECs) who did NOT apply for FA, who got rejected from places like UCSD and Georgia Tech, were accepted. </p>
<p>Why is UChicago compromising on the quality of its student body? :(</p>
<p>I have reason to believe that no Indian applicant got in with aid. Is UChicago really that poor? Or does it just not want to spend part of its endowment toward the funding of non-US citizens' higher education? :'(</p>
<p>I feel like a sample of 15 Indian prospective students isn’t really a representative sample of every Indian student who applied to UChicago.</p>
<p>I got waitlisted. Being waitlisted means that you fit their academic qualifications and could exist happily without problem at the University. But they have like 1300 slots to fill and a historic amount of applications sent to them. From what I’ve heard, a lot of the differences between acceptances and waitlistings were the quirky personalities of the applicants. They look, apparently more than any school, for unique and interesting people. Perhaps you or your 15 friends didn’t distinguish their personalities enough? I don’t really know, just suggesting.</p>
<p>I understand why you are disappointed, but I don’t think that this is unique to Chicago - luckily, for U.S. applications, top schools like Chicago and the ivy league offer very generous financial aid and do so in a need-blind manner. But a finite amount of money exists…and every dollar they spend on international students is a dollar less that they can spend on domestic students. The bottom line is, Chicago is an American school, so I don’t think you can blame them for wanting to spend their resources on American students.</p>
<p>Out of the need blind schools here in the US that give substantial financial aid, very few are need blind for international students. U Chicago is not need blind. There are very few scholarships available and so if you can’t pay, you can’t go there. Yes, U Chicago and many such schools are that poor.</p>
<p>^ Fair point. But if a few CC users (int’l, preferably Indians) who got in with aid, would care to post on this thread, my hypotheses/reservations would be annulled.</p>
<p>^ The point is, very few int’l students get in when they request aid. It’s their policy. It really sucks, but it also sucks that I have no good in-state universities, and I can’t get aid at any of the good ones that charge ridiculous out-of-state tuition. 'Tis life. You’ll do fine in life, anyway.</p>
<p>This breaks my heart. I am an international student who did not apply for FA, was waitlisted here, had a 34 ACT, and even got into Georgia Tech (<em>gasp</em>, not Indian though). The only thing I can say is cheer up, and UChicago in reality probably isn’t exactly the dream school you wanted to go so bad. After all, they didn’t reject you, and they’re trying to see how many international students admitted with FA will eventually choose to attend Chicago. Since they are mostly amazing students, chances are a good number of them might get into other good schools and end up not going to Chicago. Also, you will probably have more acceptances rolling in for the next few weeks, even from a school that will give you financial aid. Chin up, and PM me if you want to rant over this. I can totally sympathize.</p>
<p>There is no reason for American universities to educate non-Americans who will then return to their prospective countries and compete against the United States. Unless you can pay full price, it is illogical for these universities to admit international applicants.</p>
<p>I would disagree with your first statement. Far more common is the case that non-American nations lose competitive, educated people (brain drain) to the United States, beginning in college/undergrad and intensifying through graduate and post-doc’s.</p>
<p>UChicago has very little money for internationals. I thought everyone knew that. When I was still deciding where to apply, my counselor told me there was no point in applying here because I’d have to compete with 20+ people for a spot.</p>
<p>There seems to be a lot of misinformation floating around among counselors and these admissions forums themselves about the difficulty of Chicago admissions. Chicago’s acceptance rate will probably be around 15% this year. For internationals requesting financial aid, the admissions rate is probably around 2-3%. Simply put, unless you have some kind of extraordinary achievement (2300+ SATs are commonplace and don’t qualify as extraordinary), you won’t get in as an international applying for financial aid. </p>
<p>It is disappointing that counselors are not appropriately disseminating this information. These boards are as much to blame, though. I’ve seen many 2100 SAT students with no extraordinary achievements who were internationals applying for financial aid who were deemed ‘matches’ or ‘low reaches.’ Even as domestic students, these students would not be particularly competitive (for as we have seen, many 2300+ domestic students were waitlisted/rejected as well), yet they get their hopes up because some uninformed people tell them that they’ll probably get in.</p>
<p>Both my parents were international applicants (for grad school), both received full financial aid, and both ended up staying (and working) in the US because they liked it better here.</p>
<p>Amen. The reason I’m in this beautiful country right now is because my father came over for graduate school and liked it so much he decided to bring his family across.</p>
<p>^^ Majority of financial aid is available at Graduate level for internationals than at Undergraduate level. Therefore, lots of people from my country choose to continue their education in US at Graduate level.</p>