What are my chances for US universities? International Student

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics

  • International Student (Egyptian)
  • State/Location of residency: Cairo
  • Type of high school (current college for transfers): Public High school
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional): Middle-Eastern
  • Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.):

Intended Major(s)
Preffered: Engineering (Electrical & Mechanical)
Seconary: Engineering (AeroSpace)
CS
Physics
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: The Egyptian GPA system is a bit different, in 9th grade I got a 96.5% in G10 I got an overall Very good (Slacked off that year) Currently on track to getting an overall excellent in G11
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): Donā€™t know how to calculate it
  • College GPA (for transfers): not a transfer
  • Class Rank: Ranking is per year, not over the course of highschool, I believe I am on track to getting at least a top 10 out of my class of 200+ people this year
  • ACT/SAT Scores: testing in June, aiming for 33+ in the ACT
    IELTS: 7.5 overall (6.5 Writing, 7.5 Speaking, 8 Listening, 8.5 Reading)

Coursework
(AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores for high school; also include level of math and foreign language reached and any unusual academic electives; for transfers, describe your college courses and preparation for your intended major(s))

my school doesnā€™t offer any of that, my school doesnā€™t have a counselor actually so applying will be tough but Iā€™m preparing paper work from now

Math level is the same for all Egyptian High school students (no additional courses)
same with foreign language (Deutsch)
Awards
Won a ā€˜ā€˜talent competitionā€™ā€™ in the computer section (State-level)

Finalist in the International youth math challenge

Full scholarship to Quantum Computing Course(QubitxQubit)

in a robotics competition currently (RoboCupJr)

also in the IOIT and will participate in the Egyptian Olympiad of Informatics this year (qualifiers go to IOI)
Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)
1.Robotics (Team captain and practice alone) for about 6 months, definitely not my most impressive activity yet due to the duration but itā€™s my passion which is why itā€™s #1, Built an autonomous car for the RoboCupJr competition, building a drone with a built-in GPS at the moment (Python/C++)

2.3D Art/Job 3 years of experience, worked as a freelancer with many game studios, art studios, earning over 10000$ in a few months in G10 summer until I figured itā€™s not my passion, only work when in desperate need for money

3.Competitive Programming (C++) practice Competitive programming in my free time, a year since I started learning CP

  1. Chess (1600 rated) play in free-time.

  2. Game Development, Self taught, 1 year (G8) (C#) in Unity, Unreal engine

  3. Quantum Computing

Essays/LORs/Other
(Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)
Iā€™d say theyā€™re quite personal, a lot of personal stories that have impacted my life, including failed projects, everyone I showed it to said they really liked it so I guess theyā€™re decent

Cost Constraints / Budget
(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)

Less than 30,000$ Family annual Income
but budget is around 2000$ would prefer fully funded of course, I realize that makes my chances much harder

Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below)

I have no clue whether I even have a chance with US universities but Iā€™ll write down my initial thoughts

all of them would have to fall below 2000$ tuition fee annualy

  • Safety (certain admission and affordability) UT Dallas, Michigan Tech
  • Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable) Buffalo University
  • Match Rochester
  • Reach MIT, Yale, Stanford, CalTech, WaterLoo
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UC Berkeley will be a Reach school with an overall admit rate for International applicants of 5.5%. UC Berkeley offers no financial aid for International students so your costs will be around $67K/year. I would cross this school off your list since you need schools that will offer a full ride.

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Oh, thatā€™s unfortunate, I didnā€™t know that thanks! do you have any suggestions for what I can do to improve my application though? itā€™s extremely difficult to apply where Iā€™m from as we have no school related ECs or AP courses, applying internationally is a foreign concept here

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@Dolaring of this screen name is your real name, I would urge you to change it.

@CC_Sorin @CC_Jon

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Your ECs donā€™t have to be related to your high school. Reach out to a university professor and see if they need a research assistant, contact some of the many NGOs in Cairo and see if they could use a volunteer (even the foreign NGOs might need a volunteer translator?), create your own ECs in your community - maybe a free computer programming club for young children whom you could teach basic coding? Get creative and create your own opportunities - doing so will also show initiative and leadership, both of which are valued at US universities.

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Your overall profile looks competitive but needing full funding to attend college in the US will be the major obstacle.

Check out this website: https://educationusa.state.gov/

Best of luck

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As a suggestion based on your profile and interests, look into Union College. Among its aspects that might be of interest to you, its new science and engineering complex is quite impressive.

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[quote=ā€œDolaring, post:1, topic:3627081ā€]
Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable) Buffalo University

[/quote 2022-2023 International Student Estimated Budget

One Academic Year (9 months / 2 semesters)

Degree Program Tuition Fees Food and housing TOTAL
Undergraduate $24,990 $6,430 $17,000 $48420*
  • Management students add $1000

Assuming you do not receive a scholarship, how is $48K affordable for you from Buffalo?
Plus, you need to include the following:

[quote] * Books and personal schools supplies are not included. Students should budget $1,000ā€“$1,500 per semester. Some programs, such as architecture, art programs, and health-related programs may have significantly higher costs for supplies.

Michigan Tech is $55K per year.

Did you check prices on any of these schools? You need to also pay for medical insurance coverage since it is not covered by the universities and may run about $2K to $4K per year.

Your chances are limited based on your needing financial aid. Apply and see how it goes but it will be expensive.

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Youā€™ve done well, so congratulation.

However

Since you are an international student who needs a full ride, you have no safeties, no likelies, and no matches.

Very few public universities (like UT Dallas amd Michigan Tech) offer full rides to international students. Many wonā€™t even offer this type of financial aid to kids who arenā€™t residents of that state.

None of your safeties, likelies, or your match, are guaranteed full-need-met for international students, and, in general, their need-based financial aid will generally not cover international students. What they do have are merit scholarships.

However, those colleges which do have full-ride merit scholarships for international students generally only have a few, so you should not be looking at their acceptance rates for somebody with your GPA and SAT scores, you should look at how many full ride merit scholarships the college provides. The applicants who get those scholarships have the among highest grades and test scores among the students accepted to the school.

So all of those should be moved into the "reach category. You should also check whether they have full-ride scholarships for international students.

Neither Stanford nor Caltech are need-blind for international students. That means that they consider the amount of money that you can pay when they decide whether to accept you. Considering their acceptance rates, which should be halved for international students, you would need to be in the top 1% of applicants from your area, which would mean that your profile would, at very least, need to be in the top 1% of your country. Not of your class, but of your country.

Then consider how many students who are just as good as you have income high enough to pay a lot more than your family can pay. These colleges will prefer them over you. So you not only have to be in the top 1% of the applicants, you also have to be much better than the wealthier students who are applying.

In all honesty, I do not believe that it is worth your time and effort to apply to any college with an acceptance rate of under 10% which is not need-blind for internationals. So apply to MIT if you want, and add replace Yale with Princeton, since Yale is not known for its engineering program, while Princeton has far better engineering programs than Yale. Of course they are all very very high reaches.

Rochester is worthwhile, since it is a full-need-met college. So while you chances are lower than those of a full pay applicant, they still are high enough to be worth your time and effort.

Now go back and do very well in the rest of your 11th grade, so that your GPA will be high enough for the scholarships that you need!

Good luck!

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Thank you so much! This is very helpful, Iā€™ll definitely follow your advice, would you also know a few good colleges that I can apply to that might offer decent chances? Itā€™s truly a dream of mine to study in the US but I get the chances are slim for a student with my circumstances, anything I could do to increase my chances Iā€™ll definitely do

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Yeah, my chances are definitely much lower considering my financial needs, 2000$ is for tuition not including personal needs which I assume Iā€™ll be capable of covering on my own with an on-campus job, if not first year then second year, but everything I had written down is assuming Iā€™ll get Financial aid, which is probably not as likely as Iā€™d originaly thought

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Studying in the US is just that. After you graduate, you are expected to return to your home country. Have you thought about what you will do with a degree when you return to your home country?

Apply but know that the odds will be extremely difficult for your situation.

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Thanks for the harsh, yet realstic feedback, the main reason I want study in the US for is opportunities and better education, not for residential reasons, knowing my chances are slight, is it possible to increase them? And if so, how?

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Iā€™ll try getting in contact with a professor, thanks so much!

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Done, thanks!

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Thanks!

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Iā€™ll add it after looking into it, it offers a few scholarships so Iā€™ll try my luck with it, thanks!

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The problem is that you need full financial aid. The very few international students who are accepted by schools offering full fin aid are usually the very top students in their nation, let alone their school.

If you didnā€™t need fin aid, I think that you could get into a less competitive engineering school, but as things stand, I believe that you really need to look at options in your home country. I donā€™t think that itā€™s realistic to think that you will be accepted by a US college and given the full financial aid that you need.

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Regarding Union College and finances, the aspect that would be important to you is that it ā€œmeets 100% of the demonstrated financial need for admitted international students.ā€ Additionally, its overall acceptance rate (~47%) suggests a realistic, even if not especially high, chance of acceptance for fully qualified international applicants. In your favor in particular, Egyptian students may be underrepresented there in relation to students from more populous nations.

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Thank you so much for bringing it to my knowledge! Iā€™ll definitely be applying to it

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